gwalchmai

Well first...I actually let a friend of mine do the rough grinding because I don't own a grinder. He overshot the mark a tad and was out of square. VERY ugly. I had to "save" it with the dremel but almost ran out of material and it made the lower portion more recessed than I had intended. Second, I used a french curve to find the curve of the frame and transferred it to the hammer outside the gun so I guessed at the proper location. It was supposed to be more close to flush. Third, "flush" on a 625 is a moving target. The hammer sits differently in the gun when the trigger is pulled. The nose goes deeper into the recess and the rear (lower) part rises up a bit. So you have to pick between flush at rest or flush at the end if the trigger stroke. If I do another I will mark the hammer while in the gun and shoot for flush at rest. It was a learning experience Yes, thanks, that makes sense. I guess you can always take a little more off if you wanted, and maybe make it faster in the bargain.

That is awesome. One question, though. Why did you not grind it flush with the frame? I'm sure there's a reason I'm not aware of.Thanks!

How are you finding those RNHBs, accuracy wise, rj? I just bought a bunch of them for my 625. Thanks!

Members of GT's Reloading Forum are generally pretty high on Dillon and buying Dillon stuff from Brian. They steered me over here to buy my 550. They're a pretty laid back bunch who know a lot about reloading, but they try not to take themselves too seriously.

I have found a nice handmade bench that comes up about a foot above my beltline and I'm thinking of mounting my 550 on it. I don't have a strong mount so I would mount the press directly on the bench. Does this sound about right? Currently I use a barstool on a shorter bench but it seems that I hit about the same place. Anyway, it would be fairly easy to lower the bench. Thanks for any thoughts.

I sometimes wash my range brass before separating by caliber prior to tumbling. I use about a cup of Simple Green in a gallon of warm water. Soak and stir for five minutes, then rinse in clean water and air dry.

I tried 2.8gr and 3.2gr of (straight) Clays under a Georgia Arms 125gr LRN. (1.125" OAL) Out of my CZ75B the rounds look like buckshot patterns! Accuracy was terrible. This is very strange because otherwise the gun is very accurate. Using 3.2 - 3.5gr of Clays under a Rainier 124gr plated round nose is very accurate in the gun. Hodgdon recommends a max load of 3.3gr of Clays for a 125gr LRN, but I'm going to try 3.5gr and see if it's any better. Any suggestions?

They sent me this last week: Hodgdon Powder Company Cartridge Load Recipe Report - 2/11/2004 45 ACP Load Type: Pistol Powder: Titegroup BW: 200 Comments: .45 acp 200 gr data Cartridge Information Case: Winchester Barrel Length: 5" Twist: 1:16" Trim Length: .893" Primer: FEDERAL 150 45 ACP Cartridge Load Data Starting Loads -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Maximum Loads -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bullet Weight (Gr.) Powder Bullet Diam. C.O.L. Grs. Vel. (ft/s) Pressure Grs. Vel. (ft/s) Pressure 200 GR. CAST LSWC Titegroup .451" 1.225" 4.8 877 13,400 CUP 5.4 957 16,800 CUP 200 GR. SPR JHP Titegroup .451" 1.155" 4.7 812 13,700 CUP 5.2 884 16,900 CUP And this today: Hodgdon Powder Company Cartridge Load Recipe Report - 2/16/2004 45 ACP Load Type: Pistol Powder: Clays BW: 200 Comments: .45 200 gr. data Cartridge Information Case: Winchester Barrel Length: 5" Twist: 1:16" Trim Length: .893" Primer: FEDERAL 150 45 ACP Cartridge Load Data Starting Loads -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Maximum Loads -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bullet Weight (Gr.) Powder Bullet Diam. C.O.L. Grs. Vel. (ft/s) Pressure Grs. Vel. (ft/s) Pressure 200 GR. CAST LSWC Clays .451" 1.225" 3.6 759 11,800 CUP 4.3 888 17,000 CUP 200 GR. SPR JHP Clays .451" 1.155" 3.9 714 15,200 CUP 4.3 785 17,700 CUP Sorry about the formatting. If you email them (help@hodgdon.com) they'll send the data.