Buzi

Well, for what it is worth after reading your sad tale : I went out to the xl i have and grabbed the very old primer assembly I have that dates to 1993 and is dedicated now to large primers. Lucky for you it was just laying there. I dissembled the thing and measured the indexing arm spring at 1.45 inches in length. I looked in my spare parts collection and found what I THINK MAY be the supposed replacment backup and it measures 1.3 inches. That is all I know. I could remove the small pistol setup from my press which is a brand new primer assembly dedicated to just small primers but that would cost a bottle of Makers Mark and I ain't buying. I have no idea how long the spring is in that one. Maybe by next month I will. If your spring is shorter, try stretching it some or go to local hardware , old school kind that has actual hardware as in NOT home depot, Leows, and you can probably find a spring that would do. I presume the small spring under the detent ball is as it should be as that would sure lead to some goofy issues. Keep at it, it has to be something 'stupid'. I have stupid happen all the time to me, it is usually the last place I looked.

Interesting thread. I'll confess I"ve not read all the posts so if this is a repeat I' beg forgiveness. I'm surprised more did not mention the Lee Classic Turret. IMO it is a wonderful press and system. Progressive properties yet can be used as single station if one desires. Its only major downside for me is an annoying finicy primer system. I am a recent convert to that Lee as I started in the 70's with a single station RCBS which I still have and use on occasion. I picked up a XL650 in 1993. Great press but has its annoyances when one is working on small batches or experimenting. So after watching a LOT of youtube vids a year ago I decided to invest in that Lee Classic as a 'backup' and 'screwing around ' press for various things I want to do that a XL650 just is not well suited for. It was cheap and it gets the job done. I can see why some dislike it if they don't learn the "Lee foo'. SOme break em I think because of not being mindful of press strokes and how that plastic index cam works. I'm still using the original little black nylon insert but I guess I have the right 'foo' down. I like the powder drop system on that Lee. I find it quite accurate and flexible as git with another set of disks to double stack. It has its issues but I've worked around most, other than the damn primer system. I still drop to many primers on the floor, especially large ones. I tend to now tell budding loaders to give that press a damn good look due to its low entry cost and flexibility. IMO that system is supperior to other turret types I see floating around and it sure is far less pricy to buy turrets for. I can see why some want mroe than 4 turret holes to play with though, I've never had that need though. IF I ever did, I'd just get a spare 4 hole Lee turret or use my RCBS single station as hole number 5. If I had to pick from that Lee Classic Turret and any other? I'd go with the Dillon 550. I got some popcorn shrimp calling me or I'd risk further alienation time here among the Not Lee Turret users out there.

At a gunshow in Pasadena TX this weekend I saw signs of hope and change all over the place .. cough. On one hand I noticed the typical ammos sellers that showed up at that particular show had lower prices overall on many cartridge calibers than say the crazy insane highs I saw the month prior. Talkin bout say 357 mag, 45 acp and the like. Still higher than say prices from fall of 2012, like double but not 3 to 4 times as high. ANother indicator of hope and change was I actually saw AR15 style magazines for less than 60 dollars. Some as low as 35. Saw some what I assume to be Chinese knock off Magpuls being offered for 40 bucks. That is all down from the 90 dollar Magpuls I saw 2 months and 3 months ago. However, here is a wild kicker. I did manage to spot 4 vendors selling bricks of 22 LR ammo. With real boolits not 22 bird shot. Some weird brands I never had heard of before, some the standard brands one see.s Price per brick? 90 to 120 bucks for 500. It was not some exotic ammo. Just said 22LR high velocity and or standard. I enjoyed that much. I also saw a lot of Joe Biden Specials. Quite a few vendors had these awesome home defense weapons. Short barrel side by side 12 gauge with real honest to god 1895 style cocking hammers on them. Joe Biden approved. Cheap too. The one vendor that usually shows up with reloading stuff, again was just about of all powder and what few primers they had were gone within hours. I snarfed a 1k box of large pistol magnums for 30 bucks. Not because I needed them so much as I decided I better buy em now and stash for if I do decide I need them. Last box of those she had. If ya wanted shot shell primers though, you were in the pink. So, there is a lot of hope and change still. (you hear the haunting sound of Vincent Price cackling laughter in the background. You fail to spot the Grue under the nearby stuffed chair...)

Best let me buy those from you at the 1990's prices. Just to be safe. I'll take the risk for you. I am still using primers from 1978 or so. Prices on the CCI boxes I had were 5 to 7 bucks a K. Small and large pistol and large rifle CCIj. They work fine. I'm using them up rapidly though , in fact all my large pistol ones from that era were recently consumed. I had to restock with 10k at absurd prices (29 to 35 a K). 5K small pistol I picked up too. Still have 3000 Large Rifle from 70's , CCI too. I recently picked up a 308 Ruger Scout (yesterday in fact) and will start loading for it. Also a ancient Mosin Nagant 1935 model my now deceased old man had bought for 10 dollars back in 1963. Inflation and all... So I'll start using those primers. No need to panic for me on Large rifle just yet though I may just buy 5k for just in case since I"m sure the price will just get worse. Oh, and I still am using powders from late 70's. They still go bang. Some of it was in cardboard like packaging that Hercules used to use now called Alliant. Some still have price stickers. One was 3 bucks and c hange for a lb . Others 4 to 5 bucks a LB. Want some old 22 shorts ? I got 1000 of em in bricks dating from the 1960's and I suspect one brick might be from late 1950's. They still go bang. I'm only 57 years old I just had bought more than I had use for in the 70's during my crazy 20's. But, that stuff you bought in the 90s might not be as good as that 70's stuff. Best let me handle it.

I want one, too. Especially with the cost of ammo now, I'd probably buy 2 of them. Cough, blink, (cackling madhouse laughter heard in the background) I just got back from a gun show in Pasadena Tx today. While there looking for this and that, reloading supplies included I stumbled across several vendors who had 22 LR 500 pack bricks in stock. Cost? varied, they were competing I suppose. 90 to 110 dollars a effing brick. Half of what I saw were bricks people must have had laying around from a decade ago or more. Yeah, save that money , honey. Cackling laughter. I"d say, if one has 22 LR hanging around in the closet, best not shoot it up to terrible quick.

I recently got back in to reloading. I still had primers and powder and cast lead bullets from the 70's. 1970's that is. I wish I had had the foresight then to have bought more primers, especially. Prices on the boxes I have from then, 6 to 7 bucks per 1k. Some of the powders 4 to 7 bucks a pound depending. SO I recently had to buy 5k each of large and small pistol. Sticker shotck. I say buy as much as you can snarf and store. Damn kids, get off my lawn. Oh, I was at a gun show today. Saw a bunch of Joe Biden Specials there. .. short barrel 12 gauge side by sides complete with 19th century cocking hammers. No small rifle or small pistol primers there though. So I needed the laugh. Oh, p.s. the CCI primers I had from 70's are still working fine. So was the powda. I did store the primers inside for most of those years though, so that probablyi helped.

This probably too slow as well but since Chargemaster was mentioned I thought I'd bring this up as a alternative, and much cheaper. http://www.midwayusa.com/product/595054/dandy-products-omega-2-speed-electric-powder-trickler Dandy Products little vibrating powder trickler. I bought mine direct from his Dandy web site a couple months back. Works good but so far I've onliy used it with 231 , and Unique type powders. I decided to splurge as my old hand crank trickler from the 70's was starting to bore me. There are vids of it in operation out there. Works good for what I need it for, just to top off oddball rounds while I"m adjusting my press powder drop during 'tweeks'.

Any advantage using this N320 over say more common typical 45acp powders? Examples Bullseye, Unique, 231, SomethingDot, Or is it more a case of using what one has in time of shortage?

I've had that Thumbler Tumbler for a couple months now. My impression of it when I got it and got it runnign was not good, not for the cost of the item. IMO I agree it is poorly constructed and flimsy in a few key areas. One that stood out to me was the cheap motor mount set up. My Tumbler motor had a lot of shake to it when driving the tumbler and the cheap plastic pulley on the tumbler assembly was one, out of alignment (fixed by me) and 2 out of round. I could not fix the out of round ness and that introduces un-needed wobble and vibration on the motor and mount. I determined after watching the unit run that the cheap steel angle mounts would break sooner than later due to the vibration. I used one of the unneeded bolts sticking out the back of the motor to shove a rubber home brew motor vibration isolator under. That greatly reduced the motor vibration. Overall I'm happy with it, it does the job I wanted. However for 180 some odd dollars and all, frankly I was not happy especially with it supposedly being made in the USA. SLoppy workmanship I expect that sort of thing from Made in China, not on Made in USA. So I hope it holds up. Perhaps it is just the newer units that have slipped in quality construction. I hear people have used them for many years but those of course were made years ago. I had to mod mine to not slip when in use by gluing some sandpaper on the main drum. Else the thing would just spin out. I was careful not to overload it, 5lbs SS media, no more than 2 pounds brass and just enough water to reach within 2 or 3 inches of the lip. Now that I have the sandpaper (actually some foot grip stuff I had laying around , sandpaper for steps, stairways etc) in place I can load the unit with up to 3lbs brass with no issues. Motor doesn't seem to mind and I only need to run it for 1 and a half hours to clean brass squeeky clean. I dunno why some people run for 3 hours plus. I've yet to find a reason to run it longer than 2 hours per load max. /shrug.

LoL. I got the notification too. One hour later I looked and backorder status already. I may try making my own if I can find a used unwanted batter powered dildo someplace. Should be easy to mod .

Yes, thanks to another thread elsewhere on this forum I learned of these bullets. SO I ordered a case of 230RN in 45acp on the 25th. Besides, I have more ordered elsewhere from 3 weeks ago and not heard a peep from them as of yet. Need em for slapping bowling pins around once a month.

Might make a great bench top. I'm not familiar at all with that material though. If it doesn't stink up the room with outgassing anyway. I just used 2x8x8 planks for my bench top then polyurathaned the thing. Surface is flat enough after I screwed it down to the 2x4 box frame below it, used drywall screws for that, well actually DECKING screws which are just fancy ass drywall screws. I'm sure a carpenter will jump me on that statement. I did plane some here and there but I had picked out myi 2x8x8 lumber with some care and they were about as flat as one could wish for such a application. If I was extra picky I suppose I would have glued some melonite or similar top on to avoid the seams. The tiny seams between 2x8's dont' bother me. I did use long ass clamps to help me snug that bench top before screwing the boards down though. Had to do some board flipping to find the best seam match.

I have Lymans , Lee, Hornady, 9th edition Speer plus the 'handouts' from Hercules/Alliant, WW, and a couple others I can't think of just now. IF I had to pick a 2nd source besides Hornady it would have to be Lyman's. Speer 3rd. IMO Sierra just is a waste of my money so I dind't update my ancient 1978 era one. It is fine if you buy Sierra bullets however , but I do not, as a rule. Miy older Speer isn't the lawyered up version that i understand is out now. I've not seen a reason to update it. Just the new Lee, Hornady and Lymans for me. Lee is okay but for the calibers I tend to look up, 45acp, 38/357 , 45colt/454 Casull there are lot of 'oddball' powders listed I never use. IMO Lyman comes in more handy for me. I use em all when working up a new load or considering a change. Looking across all those tables gives one a sense of 'rightness' even though one doesn't have the exact bullet or case or primer make in a given load in a given book. I load mostly the above with a bias to lead, some plated copper lead, and of course jacketed. Lyman and Speer help me the most with the lead boolits I tend to run across. Rarely do I have the exact one listed so I just avg across tables and load then chrono.

While your at it contact Dillon and ask for the alignment kit for the 650. You will end up needing anyway someday, perhaps sooner than later, depending. . Out of the box that 650 should be fine but all 650 users need that alignment kit. They send it out on request. I dunno why they don't just ship it with the press. I switched to stainless steel pin media and liquid tumbling using one of those Thumblers. Dish soap and Lemishine. Dash of each with water. Still keep the vibratory around for other reasons but I never got brass as clean that way as with the stainless steel pins/rods and tumbling. Enjoy your 650!

If you get that bearing kit here is my tip: It comes with two washers. Don't bother using the lower washer , just use the washer to cover the top of the bearing. You will then also have to make another adjustment to the ejector spring as the bearing and washer raise that up. If I was just loading 223 and not messing with short wall pistol ammo I'd probably not mess with the bearing kit. However if you are seeing some powder spillage due to excess case slap when rotating to the detent positions it would probably help. I use the bearing kit here to help with case jostling and help avoid ...lessen.. powder 'jumpage' but for 45ACP. It does help once adjusted just so. SOme get by with just clipping the spring that holds tension on the detent ball bearing. I had tried that before I 'sprung' for the bearing kit on ebay. For my needs that bearing kit worked better. Your mileage may vary. Hah, My online spell checker is ignorant of the word 'detent'. It insists I want detente which I think is some silly French word having to do with chewing blood pudding and cockscomb.

I'm breaking out my high speed drills as I type this. I recetnly ran across a good number of range found WW brass with larger than normal flash holes. I have since learned they are supposdly enlarged to provide better chance of ignition for WW large lead free primers in their factory ammo. I stuffed them in a separate coffee can for now. I'll try to replicate your test some day. However NONE of the WW brass I found with the enlarged holes were as vast as the one you pictured. That is truly cavernous. I think a alien armed with a probe got to that one.

Well, after bumping into this thread I just ordered 1000 230 grain 45cal round nosers from them. Thanks to you all another is in the queue. Got to give these a try. They are black, they have to be good. I need them for knocking bowling pins around so they need to be special.

I love my XDS 45. I shoot the same stuff in it as in full size XDM 45's. I went XDM crazy in fact and now have the complete set. 3.8. 4.5 and 5.25 . Thanks to Obama I went out and got a SPARE 5.25 I have stuck away in my safe. ANyway, my XDS seems to not care about what I feed it. So far anyway. It seems as non picky as the XDM's all are here. Far less picky than my Norinco 1911 45acp which isn't all that picky. Nor as picky as my Star Firestar 3.x inch that dates from the early 90's. So, that means, 185 gr Berries HBRN,(plated), locally produced 200GR LSWC from Friendswood ,TX, 230 GR Rainier plated, and some factory Remington 230g HP and some Eagle 230 RN Ball. I forgot to mention I also loaded and shot a bunch of Ranier 200 GR Hollow Points too. Workie good. My personal loads are all hovering around 830 to 920 or so FPS no matter what GR bullit I use. Powder 231 I tend to favor as of late but am not picky I load what I have these days. Might be Unique even. now, to be fair, I've not shot my XS near as much as I do my 5.25 XDM but not a single malfunction yet. I predict the 9mm XS that comes out this summer will be one hard bird to find.

I'm tempted to go with what bull2700 said. I'm willing to bet it was you not the ammo. Did ya bench those shots or doing that standing up and holding the gun. If it was a set of bench groups it could mean what you imply, the ammo. Did not notice you saying how ya shot those groups. ALso, as others said, need more group runs. Hope ya find something significant and post back.

What? Me worry? . . . Some people call free market pricing 'gouging'. I call it free market capitialism. No, I dont' like it when things I want go way up in price, but I realize it is due to massive demand for far to few of what it is people want. That is how free markets must work if they are free, anything else is socialism and communism. I suppose anyone older than 45 years of age knows how bad it was in Soviet Russia during the communist rule there. Look up bread lines or something on Google. They loved price fixing and central authority. In our case the current dilemma is just far too many paniced buyers and not enough makers. Differ situation but a FREE MARKET has room to move and adjust. If we give it time to work. If I dont' like the prices. I don't buy. I can wait. Sorry for the near rant. Time to get a drink.

Hah. Funny I've had the same issue. Nto sure if I can blame 57 year old eyes blessed with astigmatism or not. I've yet to find a real solution other than to curse the devil that decided 45 acp brass needed a optional small primer. When I do find the evil culprits I destroy them with a smash of my foot (on the range) or at home, they go in the trash can. Steve has the best answer but whatever ya do, KILL THEM ON SIGHT. (the small primer case's.)

This site is loaded with goodness.

Awesome use of a compact situation. I've heard of gun porn is this a sub set 'reloader porn'? Great pics.

Hey, Chimp ! Whats up my brotha. Want to have some fun:? try this google search : dillon 550b rebuild Bunch of neat discussion posts to read. After this mad house period is over I may have to send in my 93 era 650 for a rebuild. If they do as I have read elsewhere, for about 60 bucks I may well receive a virtually new machine updated to the latest changes of which there were several over the years since 1993. Unless I was desperate I'd think about waiting while the Great Panic of 2013 has them rushing just to catch up with orders 2 months ago. However, who the hell knows when that will be... /sigh.

While you have it apart clean and polish things without removing metal from critical areas overly much. On my ancient 93 era 650 I recently had to do some rigourous polishing to the aluminum channel the anvil side of the primers face when they are transported along via the wheel. It had some minor pitting typical of aluminum. I took a craytex cylinder that was almost exactly the width of the channel and HAND polished the channel with that to clean that up. No power equipment was used! I also had to face sand the wheel on mine using 200 and 400 grit sandpaper. I also used a craytex conical tip to lightly polish the primer disk transport holes on both sides. I said lightly. cough. The holes were a bit cruddy that took some solvent and cotten q-tip work with a bit of encouragement with a 22 caliber sized bronze brush. Or maybe it was 17 caliber. It fit. Course mine is a 93 era primer assembly. I'm sure one of your primers is sitting crossways in a bad spot. Like another mentioned, possibly a bit of metal flake caused that. I should post a pic one day of the inner tube of my primer assembly . About a year and a half ago I blew a primer stack. That was fun. First time I ever had that happen. Put the outer safty tube (pipe_) half way thru the wall board in my garage ceiling. Sounded about like someone firing off a 38 caliber handgun about 4 feet away. I ended up salvaging that primer assembly and had to just replace the inner liner (large primer). That and some other minor parts. The plastic primer follower had some amusing distortions done to it..... Yah, do be careful. Take it apart and fix that jam. Goggles please. or facesheild even