Todd7446

Sounds like a Sycamore. I spent most of my 41 years there and have 3 degrees from ISU...You still aren't missing much. lol Fightin' Engineer instead of a Sycamore. Close, though. Had some good friends at ISU. In fact, if you're 41, we were there at the same time.

I now have the RCBS Lock-Out die in station 3. On an unrelated note, I'll soon have a U-die in station 1. I've loaded ~700 rounds with this configuration and all seems well (shot ~500). From my personal experimentation, it seems that in a 9mm case, the sensitivity of the lock-out die is about +/- .2 grains. That is a very safe margin based on my chrono testing covering that range, too. Thanks again for all of the input, guys.

Love the ceiling fan thought. I'm going to have to try that. I have the miniature targets printed and dry fire on them, but of course they don't move. I shot a star for the first time last weekend at the Ohio match. I shot from a shaky bridge for the first time last weekend at the same match. Now put both of them together - I was pretty nervous about it. I cleared the star with 8 rounds, so in general, I was pretty pleased with that.

My application is in the mail. Thanks to Sudden Death for talking me into coming over for this. I spent four years in Terre Haute, so this will be a kind of homecoming! Looking forward to it.

Chris - Thanks. That's the way I read the scoring breakdown, too. Monica - Thanks - I've never really been afraid to just go for it. You were right - I would have been very disappointed if I didn't enter and give it a run. Great time - already looking forward to (and setting goals for) next year's edition!

I don't understand. What is the point of the rubber cap? Do you cut the tube below the "step", and use the cap to hold the primers, instead of the plastic nose-piece? That would make sense, but I would have to destroy each tube's ability to revert to low-tech manual primer pick-up. I spoke a little too quickly. I bought aluminum tubes (from McMaster-Carr, I believe. Found part #'s earlier in the thread) and put cotter pins in one end and use the rubber caps on the other. I still have my original Hornady pick-up tubes intact. Yes, you could cut off the vinyl pick-up ends and put caps on there to do just what I've described, but it would destroy them for back-up picking up. Sorry for the confusion.

I think I've bought 6 or 8 from them. Glued in Delrin rods to help prevent tilting, drilled reliefs into the primer area, and then milled the tops back in the primer area. Good as new ones!

So far I really like my XTR. Bought it with the PEPR mount & FastFire III package for $809 from Optics Planet when they had a 10% off sale.

Kevin - Big thanks to you and your staff. You guys made my first Major a very enjoyable one. Outstanding job! Thanks also for all of the advice you've given me along the way. Todd

Ben B - Another thing you can do is go to Lowe's/Home Depot and get some vinyl caps from their small parts drawers in hardware. I don't have the number, but they had some that were a perfect fit for the OD of the tubes. Now, cotter pin on one end, vinyl cap on the other = good to go. I loaded 5 tubes that way Saturday morning and all went very well.

Received the Lock-Out die last Thursday afternoon. Set it up on Friday evening. Loaded 500 rounds Saturday morning for the Buckeye Freedom Blast. Paid very close attention as I was doing it. Everything went very smoothly. Per dzhitshard, I thought back to any possible causes. The only thing I've come up with was when I pulled powder from a case to check charge weight, I wonder if I mistakenly dumped the powder back in the dispenser instead of the case. Aside from that, I haven't come up with any other mental boo-boo that would have caused it. Thanks for all advice, guys!

Andre - It took me a little while to mess around with mine, but it is working pretty good now. I still get the occasional upside down case, and every now and then one gets sideways up in the top of the funnel and it fills up. One thing that seemed to help mine run more smoothly was closing down the gate where the shells drop into the funnel at the top with pistol cases. Now that mine is running pretty smoothly with pistol cases, the next adventure will be getting it to work with small rifle (.223) cases. Good luck!

What a day at the 2013 Ohio Buckeye Freedom Blast! Entering this as only my third match, I had appropriate expectations - don't do anything stupid, don't screw up badly. I exceeded them. Finished up 49th out of 68 registered in Open as the highest D class shooter. Only 9 Deltas, 1 Mike, and 2 No Shoots for the whole match. Even got 1 Charlie (and a cloud of dust from a 2nd shot) on the mover on Stage 9. Never shot from a shaky bridge before, and never shot a Texas Star before. Cleared the Texas Star from the shaky bridge in 8 shots, swung left, and went 5 for 5 on the plates - very pleased with that. Made a few rookie mistakes (ran dry once and wasted precious seconds reloading instead of taking a Mike since it was my last shot), and realize that I really need to get my slide racker mounted (very hard to quickly rack slide with C-More in a Quinn III mount), but didn't do anything stupid. Definitely need to work on speed, but know that will come with more practice. I can feel that my dry fire has been helping quite a bit, too. A big shout of congratulations to Chris Keen for winning Open. Great shooter and teacher! Congrats also to Monica Taliani for High Female in Open - also a great shooter and teacher. Thanks to Sarge and crew for putting on a heck of an event.

Awesome job, Chris! This was a great event - especially in my very limited experience - and it's great to see you win. I can say I've trained with the best!

Your slide positioner is pretty slick. That's a good idea. I have the same low primer alarm that I got from Inline Fabrication, and like it, too.

Sorry guys, should have followed up long ago, but got behind. In early April I really opened and smoothed the loading port and smoothed the entry into the magazine. I didn't change a thing with the Easy loader bracket, or with the Tecloader tubes. It loads like butter now. I can't believe what a difference it has made. Just wanted to share and close the loop on this.

I've got a Magpul CTR on mine right now. Really like it. So much that I'm debating whether to even put on the ACE ARFX that I have in the cabinet.

So yesterday, Midway showed an expected in-stock date of 5/23 (today) for the Lee 9mm U-die. Today they show it expected in-stock on 8/4. Anyone have a spare they want to sell?

Finally figured out how to clock the powder drop to get it in station 2 last night. RCBS lock-out die is waiting for me to pick it up at the UPS terminal. It will be set up tonight (after daughter's softball game) and I'll be loading tomorrow. SLOWLY. On a slightly unrelated note, the Lee U-die that I have on backorder at Midway, which was showing due in today, was just changed to due in on 8/4. Grr. Anyone have a spare Lee 9mm U-die that they want to sell???

jmorris - RCBS lock-out die is inbound now. shooter1911 - yes, I use One Shot. I will look at the end of the drop tube for buildup. I've never felt or seen any buildup on the cases or any dies, but will look there. Thanks guys.

Thanks. I'll be trying to fit it in station 2 tonight.

Well, I've got a Lee U-die on backorder at Midway with an expected in-stock date of tomorrow. We'll see how accurate their system is.

old506 - So I can move the powder drop to station #2? I thought it was too tight of a fit there - will have to try again. I have a powderfunnel in it now. dzhitshard - I have thought about distractions, and couldn't come up with any. I will definitely be paying more attention, and will tear down the powder drop to look for obstructions.

It still happens to me as pretty much a newbie. I switched from Aimpoint to C-more and its getting better. I'm doing more and more dry fire practice and its getting better. Someday I hope it will become instinctual.

I'd been using the grippers with the individual finger springs (Gripmaster Heavy) for some time now, doing 5 sets of 50 reps with each hand while driving to/from work. Just got the COC Trainer over the weekend. Holy cow, what a difference! Just doing 3 sets of 10 with each hand to/from work now. Maybe someday I'll grow up into the big leagues like some of you guys.