dave33

I would check your setup, I can load WST all day long and not spill a flake. Mine will run AA#2, which is even finer powder without leaking also. Where are you seeing the grains of powder? Its not powder that has splashed out of a case as you run the press, or possibly some flakes you might of splashed out while checking a powder charge on your scale is it?

Always empty powder completely, which is very fast and easy with my lee auto drum. I generally run all brass and leave whatever primers in there.

+1Don't all chronos do the same job? So why not pay less and get a super easy to use free app. Hell, after using the app, I dot think if be happy using a chrony that didn't offer one. +2 I also like the ability to store a picture of the target I shoot for accuracy after I'm done with the chrono work. Then days or weeks later I can reference all my load and chrono data and see which loads were most accurate as well without having to store a bunch of targets. It really just doesn't get any easier or better.

I do not know the answer to your question. However this is one of the most popular (if not the most) online forums for competitive shooters and in the Steyr section of the forum the last post before yours looks like it was in 2014. Im going to guess no. Ive never shot a Steyr but have held one a couple times, felt pretty good but didnt interest me enough to buy one. They may be great pistols but I dont ever hear anyone talking about them.

Yes, that's correct. Been so long since I looked at mine I forgot if there were letters or numbers in there, I just remembered it was labeled.

Punch the retaining pin out and slide the current backstrap off, it will have a S, M, or L stamped on the inside. Or if he got the case with the other backstraps use them to determine which one it is.

No lube groove bullets are easier to coat. Far fewer angles to worry about, and they run through bullet feeding dies better. You may see a few FPS increase with the grooved bullets as there is a little less drag, and you may see a tiny improvement in accuracy with the groove less since it has a longer bearing surface, but neither is going to impact your results enough to really matter. I guess you could say grooved or not grooved will fall within the margin of error of each other. The reason you still see coated bullets with lube grooves is the casters are running older molds designed for traditional lube.

Have not heard anything about any of the VV powders being discontinued. n320 is one of the best, definitely would be my choice of the three you mention, though titegroup is very good too, just a little dirtier maybe. It works fine with coated lead and I would probably choose it over clays also.

What powders do you have available to load with? Bianchi cup only has a 120PF floor so you can run your loads a bit slower than the typical gun game loads, but unlike the other games Bianchi requires better accuracy. You will need to check a few different loadings to find what works best in your specific gun. My XDM 5.25 gives pretty good accuracy with 147 coated lead bullets with 3.1gr titegroup, 3.3gr N320, 2.9gr Clays, 3.4gr WST, 3.0gr e3, 3.8gr SR7625, or 3.5gr Zip. However none of these loads are as good as 124gr Precision Delta or 125gr Hornady HAP loads I have.

I have shot some of their coated stuff in 9mm and 45acp. They load and shoot just fine, they are not the most cosmetically beautiful coated bullets I have used, but I dont really care about that part. If they have a weight or profile or price you like give them a try.

I believe that scrapping is coming from the bullet being slightly tilted as it goes into the seating die. Sometimes a little less flair works better as the bullet cant lean as much. The second picture above shows the bullet being a little low on the right side, I bet if that goes into the seating die it will scrape on that side. I dont load on Dillon equipment but I believe the seating die has an insert that is flat on one side and conical on the other, you may want to try flipping that. There is also an insert you can buy for your powder measure that works like a Lyman M die that creates a little pocket for lead bullets to sit in that helps them load straight.

That is right. Also why I bought as much as I could when it was still on shelves.

7625 is a great 9mm powder but I have seen some pretty big variation in velocity in different lots. I have about 8lbs left made up of 3 different lots and 1 of the 3 is pretty slow. I would suggest running over a chrono so you know where your powder is. Out of the faster lot of powder I get an average of 1100 FPS with 4.55gr of 7625 under a 124 precision delta JHP at 1.095 OAL. This is out of an XDM 5.25.

Dave, What OAL were you loading the 105's to? I'm limited to 1.040" max in my CZ My initial reason for picking some up was... I load the .355" Bayou 105's for my 380 Auto, and it's a pretty nice bullet. But, I think an extra thousandth in the diameter would help. Since the 9mm 105's are .356" (and I assumed the 380's should be the same?), I figured I'd try some of those in both the 380 and the 9mm. If I remember correctly I have loaded this bullet as short as 1.025 and as long as 1.065 and didnt see much difference. The bulk of my rounds would of been in the 1.035-1.045 range though. I have used it sized to .356 and .358 and didnt see any difference in accuracy. In fact the Bayou's were sized to .356, the SNS version were sized to .358, and the Bayou's shot a bit more accurately, which is exactly opposite of what I was expecting. It is a fun load to shoot fast, recoils about like a .22. You do need to keep a pretty firm grip on the gun though, not to handle the recoil but to give the gun a solid base to work against so it will function.

You probably want to mention what bullet, weight, and gun you will be wanting to use.

When it comes to the 105's you will be mostly on your own. I like shooting light bullets over fast powders for steel challenge and have been shooting 100gr Ibejihead SWC's for a while now. I got some 105gr Bayou and SNS bullets to try a while back and found them to be pretty accurate if you hit their sweet spots. Out of my XDM 5.25 this window is 1050 to 1150 FPS, using fast burning powders. Out of what you have listed I have loaded 3 of those 4 powders. The best results I saw accuracy wise was 3.7gr of titegroup running 1141 FPS average and 3.4gr E3 at 1137 FPS average. 3.5gr WST ran 1054 FPS average, not quite as accurate as the TG or E3. The very best load I have ever found was 3.8gr AA#2 at 1135 FPS. Other good loads for this bullet for me has been 3.4gr Clays at 1085 FPS and 4.2 of SR7625 at 1060 FPS. Keep in mind at these load ranges you will very likely need a reduced power recoil spring for the gun to function, I run a 14lb spring in my XDM. Running this bullet much faster or slower generally opens up the groups noticeably. I have run this bullet up to 1335 FPS over 4.95gr of N320 and had good accuracy so if you want to spend the time and energy, another window of accuracy may open up at higher speeds with some other powders, I just have not been inclined to do so. Good luck with yours, post up some results so the base of information on the 105's can grow.

I get an average 844 FPS/135 PF with 2.7gr titegroup under the 160gr SNS but the accuracy is not real good. Very soft though if you just want some hoser ammo. This is out of an XDM 5.25. 3.1 Titegroup under about any coated 147gr pill gets me about the same PF, but with much better accuracy.

I have seen the caldwell chrono as cheap as $69 over the past few weeks. Hard to beat all it offers for that kind of price, the free app is great, and mine works very well.

Hmmm, getting bad service from a government agency? Ive never heard of such... :ph34r:

Alliant makes e3 and it's not the same powder as red dot. Promo is said to be the same powder less the red flakes.

I saw the question about the chain setup and assumed it was for the Pro 1000 or Loadmaster as they set up the same way just on different sides of the press. The turret press definately should be using the return spring system. Or the new auto drum...

No problem. After buying a few feet of backup chain from the local hardware store cause I kept snapping mine regularly while reloading I finally took the time to learn the right way, and when I did, I'm still on the same chain tens of thousands of rounds later. No more broken chains, never a squib or a double charge. (knocking on wood now...) HOWEVER, now that I have been using my Lee auto drum I won't be worrying about the disks or return chains again. I cant recommend the auto drum enough. Perfect with small charges, flake powder, no leaks, screws right in and ready to go and cheap to buy.

Any advice for making sure the spring is configured correctly? I just took it out of the box and started using it. With the ram at the bottom of the stroke pull the chain through the back hole as snugly as you can, while keeping slight tension on the chain raise the ram just enough to get one more ball of the chain through the opening, then lower the ram and thread the remainder of the chain through the other hole to keep it snug. If done correctly the spring at the bottom of the ram should be just slightly compressed with the ram at the bottom of the stroke.

After I turn the hopper off and empty the remaining powder I simply unscrew the lower drum part out of the die, dump it, hit it with a shot of compressed air to blow out any remaining flakes, then screw it back in the die body. Takes all of 1 minute if I go slowly.

If it comes down to trying a different powder measure try the new Lee auto drum. I get very consistent throws with clays and other larger flake powders like e3. Usually the weight of a 10 throw average is less than .1 or .2gr once everything is all settled in. Besides its only about $35 plus the cost of a Lee powder through expanding die if you dont already have one.