whistlepig

I vote Redding. The RCBS isnt bad, but IMHO the Redding has it beat. The Redding stand works well. If you don't have a good funnel, thats all you need. If buying the Redding is hard to swallow, go online and look at a Harrell or any of the other hand built measures the bench rest crowd favors. U will feel better about the cost of the Redding.

+1 on tumble it. never had a problem. Ref it sticking while being belled, make sure you have the correct size pwder funnel. I haven't seen one yet that was the right size that could overcome the mechanical advantage of the press pulling the case down.

Crimp as much as needed..... what I mean is in a revolver you crimp to the point of keeping the bullets from moving. In a revolver they will actually creep forward under recoil and prevent the cylinder from turning. Some trial and error may be involved. Good Luck

If you use an ultrasonic cleaner, no tumbling is required. The drawback is capacity and time. No way an USC could hang with most pistol shooters. I do use an USC with small lots of rifle brass and some gun parts

+1 on the above info about split necks and setback. I do my serious inspection of rounds after everything is done. I find it lots easier to see brass damage that way. Small splits are sometimes hard to find in empty cases, but loading will stretch it out. The tip about inspection while loading mags is a good one.

ref tools, the most important is tha action block to hold the rifle in a vise. the correct size open end wrench works fine.

JP and Geissele both rock. I have a Geissele in a presicion AR and it is flawless.

Iron sight ...... go traditional FSB gas block.... NO to the idea of mounting to a rail.

I haven't priced anything recently, but I have two ACOGs and they are tough tough tough. If you do decide to go that route, the tritium is replaceable at the factory. Beware foreign copies!!

Ref your intended use, I say go JP on the brake. The surefire is very well made, but remember it's intended use isn't as an awesome brake... as far as the trigger goes, I will give you $25 for the Geissele SSA They are SWEET..... I put one in a precision AR.

I have never had a 9x21, but I could only imagine that ignition would be undependable. In straight wall pistol cases, the case "headspaces" by the case mouth. The rear of the case rests against the breechface and the cartridge rim rests against the end of the chamber. You would be missing 2 mm..... The dies for one can work for the other with adjustment, just as most brands of dies in .40 are marked ".40/10mm." The actual OAL length of the two loaded rds is the same. The same bullet in a 9x21 is seated deeper. The mags and such work the same. I believe that the 9x21 came from a country that banned civilian use of military cartridges.

If you are new to them, shoot one first and more importantly, stand beside one..... Muzzle blast is a bit more than what you may be used to. You may need the brake for what your intended use is, but if you haven't experienced it yet, the side blast can be a treat

Carbide dies rock.... all I use for pistol calibers and no lube needed.

The above post about the S&W MP15 was good advice based on your description of what you are looking for. They are avail (at least in my area) at very reasonable prices. To fit what you describe, just add your favorite BUIS rear and there you go. Rock River builds good stuff at only slightly higher prices, the only downside is trying to find what you want in stock. While they are not race guns, both shoot into minute of target all day long, and have good customer support in the event of a problem. I have a 10.5 inch SBR Rock River that runs anytime, all the time.

+1 on the grip of a 21 being large. Look at the Glock 21 SF ..... sf (short frame) has a different grip to address the size issue. Same mags, same holsters. It makes a big difference. I don't know the status of the G21SF as far as competition rules go.

Lots of what looks like a brake on a .22 is actually a tuner. They can be adjusted fore and aft to "tune" the barrel vibrations to seek smallest group under different conditions and for different loads. I don't mess with them, but know a few people who do. They are capable of amazing things, but also require a working knowledge of other dark arts............. them people is different

Stop while there is still time....................... I now have a 650 dedicated to large primer and a 650 dedicated to small primer. I change tool heads and don't need to re-adjust anything. The large to small primer swap on a 650 is not awful but finding a 2nd machine at a good deal made it a moot point. I still have my first progressive, a Dillon 550B, that is now dedicated to .223 AR stuff. I don't bash the LNL... Cant comment as I have never loaded on one.

I take it from your post you refer to a primer being struck in the tumbler in such a way to set off a round.... I am not aware of any detonations in a tumbler. The old adage of not tumbling loaded rounds actually has merit (maybe?) for a different reason. If you were to tumble loaded rounds for a short period of time to clean them up, you will probably never see a problem. The issue is, does powder suffer damage (a change of shape, or a frature of the individual piece of powder) to an extent to adversly affect pressure? If powder is changed in shape and/or size, the burning rate is affected, ergo pressure is affected. The change could be less pressure and velocity (what you talkin bout i no makee major???) or more pressure... (anybody see where the slide went?? I can't hear anything.....) Some loaders advocate this doesn't happen and a link from another post http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=6&f=42&t=303242&page=1 has some fascinating observations on this. It is worth looking at. I actually have seen damaged powder and while I don't know tumbling caused it, I do believe it is a contributing factor... 3 years or so ago, I was one of several shooters who shot a quantity of military surplus .308 rifle ammo in M1As. The total amount of rounds expended from this ammo was between 1000 and 2000 rounds over multiple shooting sessions. The intent was to do high volume practice with a more cost effective round. Ammo was noted to have poor ballistic perfomance, grouped like a drunk throwing rocks. A few keyholes were observed. Other shooters and I saw low pressure signs, like brass barely ejecting and 2 FTE with the empty never making it to the point of being ejected and then being re-chambered. Classic High pressure signs were also noted at times. Rounds were chrono'd and results were all over the place. Some research was in order. 10 rounds were pulled and the projectiles, brass and powder inspected. Bullets were classic 147 and 150 grain FMJ. They looked fine, but with some powder noted to be stuck to the bases, sometimes in clumps. The brass looked good with consistent necks and they case gauged fine. The powder was another story... It appeared to have started life as a stick powder but what was left in a complete charge from every case was every size chunk you could imagine from the original stick size to almost a dust. Several examples showed color changes as well. 50 more rounds were randomly selected from the remaing inventory and all showed damaged/degraded powder. We investigated the background with our supplier and actually spoke to the importer. We found the importer to be helpful and curious as well. The rounds were originally British in origin, believed to be from the Radway Green Arsenal (hope thats right, can't remember spelling) and had been supplied to various miitary and governement agencies in other countries that were members of the British Empire. Upon importation for resale here, the rounds were found to have an extreme dingy appearance. The importer tumbled the rounds to clean up the appearance. The staff did not state the time spent in the tumbler, but did acknowledge that it was a lot of time. The importer declined comment on the size of tumbler and the media. The importer pulled some that they had on hand, both tumbled and not yet tumbled. The staff stated that the non-tumbled rounds showed a color change and some clumping, the powder was uniform in size and structure. The staff did see the same damage to powder in tumbled rounds that we did. The importer did ask to have the damaged rounds back and provided us with a credit. I think that age played a huge role in the above conditions and who knows what the storage conditions were, but I still have have decided that no good can come from tumbling loaded rounds. In high volume pistol I just tumble dirty brass to a clean condition (not shiny) and then go straight to the Dillon. In precision rifle I do so much case prep I dont want them banging around together after they are loaded. Not Disparaging Radway Green surplus. We have some that dates from the late 60's that had been stored in good conditions in the original ammo cans. Looks great, shoots great. We even pulled a few after the above problem and found the powder to look new and perfect.

The med velocity stamp on the Blitz bullets means more about what the bullet is going to do when it hits it's intended target... its intended for hunting. The expansion qualities of any expanding projectile frequently hinge on the speed the projectile is moving when it enters the medium. If you were loading the Med velocity Blitzs in a different cartridge that was pushing them smooooookin like over 4000 fps, (and twist rate palys a huge part) you might be looking at projectile failure in flight, but not a problem at your listed fps. Your listed load of 25.5 gr of W748 looks fine in a manual I just looked in, but I'm really curious as to what load wasn't working the action. As a side note, have you ever tried Varget with 55's? As for choosing 400 (normal small rifle) or 450 (magnum small rifle) CCI's, i would say run the 400 if you get relaible ignition, 450 if you don't, but............ I don't try to work pressure issues by changing primers. I look for dependable ignition in a primer choice and I work on pressure issues with powder selection and charge weights.

The above post contains good info for you. I don't ditch range brass, but I do sort carefully and look it over real well. I segregate all crimped in primers and deprime/swage those primer pockets every so often as a stand alone operation. You only have to do it once. Now, what you use it for is where it gets interesting. I use range brass reloads for bulk practice at close ranges, drills and match practice. For serious applications (distance) and looking for accuracy or use in a match, I get picky with brass. In AR platforms in .223 and .308 I will use a constant brand, seperate by weight, check inside and out, check OAL and case gauge em all..... For Bolt guns I even *gasp* turn necks, but those are in tight chambers.

Remember that most folks measure OAL and the bullet is actually pushed down by the guts of the seater die that don't contact the bullet on the tip. It makes contact on the rounded portin called the ogive. Any variation bullet to bullet (ESPECIALLY with lead) will look like a large variation, where the seat die actually loaded both projectiles exactly the same.... the diff being in the bullet itself. The variance you are seeing is small indeed. In high volume loading you will actually see trash and lube build up in the interior of the seat die and start messing up your seating depth. The above post about the shell plate being full or empty was right on.

Powder check die is nice. It has stopped a few problems over the years. Ref using your 550 for rifle work you are on the right track. It will work great. You also don't need to get a caliber conversion kit for the 550 for .308 if you already have a .45 setup for the 550. The .45 plate and pins works great for any case with the .308 size base. I started progressive years ago with the 550 and still have it set up, it does .223 full time now.

For what its worth, for high volume pistol ammo production, I am Dillon Blue. I have owned and used others, but I am of the opinion that Dillon does volume combined with excellent quality like no other. If you are new to reloading, but have been to matches, you have a great source of knowledge right there. Lots of the folks at your match load. Talk around and see if some will show you their setup. Always take opinion with a grain of salt, but you will see a variety of gear, set up and used in several different ways. Lots of loaders will actually show you how their machines work with pride. As a new loader, start with a few different load manuals and be cautious of unsolicited advice on powders and charge weights. Double check in load manuals. If someone tells you that their super secret private load is awesome, count their fingers....... Half a finger should be counted as no finger for your research purposes.

Great choice of press, ref OAL, look for magazine length tolerance.... Ref the Dillon vs. Lee U die, you will probably see a 50/50 split of opinion. I use the Dillon and it resizes Glock fired brass just fine to go back into a Glock barrel. The above post that spoke of the potential problems with aftermarket barrels and resizing was well spoken. It also speaks truth as to the Lee edging out the Dillon with the Deprime. I keep some spare Dillon pins on hand. Just try your Dillon to see if it works for your resizing. I just measured some 9mm in the bin and Im running 1.135.

One Shot no worky for rifle. Silly Doctor..... One Shot worky great for rifle. In Dillon 650 for .308 and .223 and on single stage with 25-06 Ackley, .243 and 6mmX using Redding Dies.