overdriv

The exterior grove under the persons thumb.

We are using TAC powder. When the powder funnel is installed with the grove up it will spill a small amount of powder which builds up after a number of rounds are loaded. I have to stop clean every thing up and go again. If installed with the grove down no powder spillage?? Powder bar is going full stroke, both directions.

Tom S, you are correct. But that is a pistol powder funnel. In my post, I'm talking about powder funnel "A" which is a rifle funnel for 22 calibers.

While helping my brother set up his 650 to load 223Rem we had problems with powder spillage. First thing we found was the powder funnel was oily which collected grains of powder and caused wildly inaccurate throws and a lot of powder spillage. Mental note; Clean all new parts of machining oils and debris. The next try to drop powder and set the powder throw was much better but still we had powder spillage with each throw. We turned the "A" powder funnel over, installing it upside down and now no spillage at all. The 650 pictures and instructions say to install the powder funnel with the machined grove up. We found it works better with the machined grove installed down. It is installed on my 550 the same, grove down, so I think maybe the instruction are a little unclear or misleading. I hope this will help someone else just starting out with the "A" powder funnel.

The two things I did that positively effected accuracy was use a powder baffle and wipe the powder measure down with a dryer sheet before filling inside and out.

My wife is in the same boat. She loves the S&W Shield 9MM but struggles to operate the slide. She has arthritis in both hands and not a lot of strength in her arms. We are retired now and really enjoy shooting together. We both have our CCW license. I bought her a SP101 3" just to see if the .357Mags could be tolerated. I loaded some 125Gr SWC and 158Gr SWC to about mid power for 357mag. She can shoot them but they sting her hand and the gun moves enough to cause a blister between her thumb and fore finger. I have the Ruger optional rubber grips on the SP101. I think I will load some 38S power loads in .357Mag cases and give it another go. I would never let my wife carry the shield until she learns to better operate the slide, she's working on it. But I think with the proper loads the SP101 might work out. She has no problem pulling the trigger but she can't hold it on target, DA trigger pull is bad in my opinion. I have a set of Wolf springs coming, maybe they will help. The SP101 is a robust mid-sized revolver. The factory sights suck as does Ruger Customer Service, but that's totally off topic. My 2 cents, good luck.

XL550B I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I couldn't find anything on it. At the moment I'm loading .357MAG, using new Starline brass. Seems to be decent brass. But, it seems to be sticking on the powder drop tube. I can clean it off with a q-tip and alcohol, but that only last for a few cases. There are streaks of what looks like brass on the lower part of the tube up to the enlarged portion which bells the brass. Is there any way to eliminate this sticking. Very annoying and upsets the smoothness of the press.

Glad it works to your liking. I tinkered with it off and on for nearly 30 days and finally decided that for the money spent, it wasn't worth more speed but less consistency over what I use now. So I sent it back. Thanks for everyone's comments. Thanks BE for taking it back and the refund.

That is reasonable to me, and what I can achieve on my Trim Pro, but of course much slower.

Thanks for the reply. Please consider this, I decap on my single stage press, swage primer pockets if needed and then clean cases. I have found that the case mouth is very tight after it goes through your sizing/trimmer die. .216-.219" In my opinion that is to tight to start bullets into. So from advice from other forums, I run my cases through a Lee universal decapping die with a tappered neck sizing ball. The decap pin does not go past the die body. With it, case mouths are sized to .221-.222", which I think is adequate bullet tension. I do have the decap die, in station #4 touching the shell plate an equal amount as the size/trim die. Hoping for equal loading. I use to trim on a RCBS powered Trim Pro. Very slow but consistency was way better than I am getting with your trimmer. I am shocked that you suggest that the inconsistency I am experiencing is "fine". I am not through tinkering with the RT1500 in hopes for better trimming consistency, but if I can't find the consistency I think it should have, would it be possible to return it? It was quite expensive.

OK, got some time to tinker with the RT1500 trimmer on my RL550B. I've got the RT1500 trimmer in the #2 position Lee universal decap die with a tapered expander for the .223/5.56 in position #4 That is the only way both will fit on the tool head. I have my brass sorted by headstamp and am running the small batches. I run a few through and check length, adjust the trimmer to yield 1.750"+-.001". Then run the rest of the batch. After deburring inside and out the case lengths range from 1.745"-1.751" I am using lanolin case lube that I mix myself and I do spray it in the month of the cases. There is normal resistance in the size die and can't feel the resistance in the decap die. Am I missing something here? What kind of consistency are you guys getting with this kind of setup?

Pardon me for jumping in, In trying to set up my 1500 trimmer and was wanting to use my RCBS Rock crusher, but noticed the Dillon size/trim die has no neck sizing ball, when do you guys run the neck sizing ball through the case neck?

Definitely something between the anvil and the primer during seating. Crud build-up can cause this also. Clean everything up once in a while. My primer seating anvil was rough and had a very small raised center. I took a fine file and leveled it out then polished it on a arkansas stone. It stays cleaner and seated primers look like they are right out of the flat.

I don't use a plastic bag. I use a 1-gallon ice cream plastic tub. I put two scoops from a 24 Oz Alum scoop I bought on Amazon into the tub. Shake lanolin sprayer well, apply two pumps of lube. Shake bucket for 10 seconds, rinse and repeat a second time. No issues with dry dies doing it that way. With a fine spray mist, you'll get lube inside and out of the cases. I didn't have trouble with dry dies, just not enough inside neck lube. I used a large plastic storage bottle, holds about 2 gallons, and like you, spray and shake, repeat. But I noticed the expanding ball was dragging and started lubing the ball with a lube saturated q-tip about every 3rd or 4th case. Now I lay them in a line all faced the same way on a large cookie sheet. Spray them at an angle so the case neck inside will get it's share of lube, then roll them by hand. Usually just takes one good spray and a few rolls to lube well. This procedure seems to lube the inside of the neck better. YMMV

Just a question for the guys lubing in a plastic bag, etc. That sounds good for lubing the outside of the case, but in my experience it doesn't get enough, if any, lube in the neck of the cases. How do you lube the neck during sizing?

Here is where I got my case lube ingredients. 16:1 seems good. Much more that that seems to greasy. For rifle I lube on a cookie tray, size on a single stage RC, then trim, swage, if needed, then wet tumble again to de-lube and debur. Then load with a univeral decapping die in position #1. For pistol, I use carbide sizing die and spray my case lube on a folded shop towel. About every third or fourth round I rub my fingers on the shop towel then as I'm getting a case out of the bin I rub the lanolin on to it. You will be able to tell how often you need to rub the rag, when the effort increases a bit. It make the loading go so smooth. Go here for lanolin Go here for 99% Isopropol Acohol Reasonably priced but they do charge for shipping. I use Midway's Franford Arsenal case polish in my walnut media. Works well and similar to Dillon product. Hope this helps, just trying to pay back a little knowledge as I've learned so much from this board. I hope this helps.

I load .223 with my 550. I have to use the large powder bar for 24.5 Grs of TAC. TAC is a ball powder that meters and flows very well. I don't make it a point to wait 2 seconds for the powder to drop. But I never hurry either. Getting the maximum output per hour is not one of my concerns.

I just have my grand kids police up all the spent primers on the floor from time to time. I would rather have them few miss the catch than even one draw-back and jam the plate. YMMV I like Dillion dies a lot.

When changing to rifle loads, is it still as easy? I understand it is not made for rifle brass. Just wondering if it's a PIA to move out of the way when converting to rifle?

That's kinda what I thought since I've loaded a couple of thousand rounds and the bottom roller I don't think has ever actually rolled. Just want to see what everyone here thought of it.

I have a 550 press. Of the two white rollers on the priming mechanism the larger bottom roller does not roll as the press is operated. Priming take place with out a problem. I've taken everything apart and cleaned it all, relubed and reinstalled. The upper roller, small, rolls just fine. Is this going to be a problem in the future? Like rod wearing a flat spot on the roller??

With carbide pistol dies, no you don't need case lube. But put some One Shot or in my case my lanolin/alcohol mix, on the corner of a rag. Rub the rag between your finger every third case, then as you feed the cases just rub them between your fingers. The ease of pull on the press handle will be very noticable as compared to no lube at all. And there isn't enough case lube on the finished rounds to hardly feel.

Nice utility. Thanks. So, I need to buy; Powder funnel "F" Dies 9MM die block for powder measure for Cal conversion stand and use my #5 shellplate and my #3 locator buttons. Does that sound right?

Yeah, I was hoping BE would comment on this. I'll try to call him, really like doing business with him.

But I'm still unclear what to order. I currently have a 550B with these complete change overs. .40 S&W .223 REM .45ACP .308 WIN I want the same for 9MM Luger. Mounting block, dies, powder measure, everything I need so I don't have to rob one of the other calibers of parts. I understand that some parts, like shell plates, are the same and don't need/want to double up. I've looked at BE.com and the crossover chart, but I'm still not sure what to order. Help and advice appreciated.