twistrate

I recently ordered 5000 processed 9mm cases from them. I'm only into the first 300 but so far so good. I got my order in two boxes of 2500 and have only opened the first 2500 count box. Random samples pulled for close inspection looked really good. Primer pockets have been reamed and the cases are nice and clean.Loading with them is nice and smooth since they've been fully sized and roll sized. My Dillon sizing die isn't encountering any resistance so I can tell it isn't sizing in station 1 on the downstroke of my XL650. That's a good sign. I got a great deal when I ordered it and so far, if things stay consistent, I would order from them again.

I use Ben Stoeger's hundo 100 round 9mm gauge. It's totally worth it. Can't believe I didn't get one earlier.I load 400-500 rounds at a time on my 650XL and the 100 round gauge saves me about 80% of the time needed to gauge my ammo. Now I gauge all of it, even for local club matches since it's so easy. My fail rate has been extremely low. Less than 0.5% or roughly 5 in 1000 and it's usually a high primer (often because of a NATO crimped primer pocket) as opposed to a sizing issue. If you're seeing 3-5% fail and upside down primers there's a problem with your reloading setup. Those are pretty high fail rates.

Seems like hitting chronos is far more common than I thought. Out of curiosity, what is their repair policy like?From their product website for the Prochrono:”Non-warranty repair guarantee: Competition Electronics will not charge more than ½ the current retail price to repair any current model chronograph we manufacture regardless of its condition. " So, basically $60 or less to repair/replace it if you accidentally shoot it. https://www.competitionelectronics.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=20&category_id=7

Prochrono from 10'. Great chrono. Highly recommend it. Can be found online for >$100 shipped. They have very good customer service and support. Fantastic repair policy in case you ever shoot it by accident too.

They told me they were hoping to have these available by sometime in March, if not earlier, but that March was realistic.

Yup, that is correct. It is 1000 .223 cases, and not 600. My mistake. Not a bad deal for all of that. MSRP is $229 but I'm sure it will go for notably less online once it's shipping.

I was at SHOT Show this week and stopped by the Battenfeld Technologies booth to see what goodies they had for us reloaders in 2014 and came across this. It's a Frankford Arsenal rotary tumbler for stainless steel media brass tumbling! It has a very high capacity... something around 600 .223 cases IIRC. It will be sold as a kit that includes media and polishing liquid additive. The tumbler has a built in timer and the tumbling vessel is fully rubber lined internally and has windows on both the top and bottom caps. The construction was pretty solid overall. MSRP $229 for the kit with everything you need to get rolling in SS media wet tumbling. Also, in the foreground is their upcoming case prep station. Modular and designed to change between calibers very rapidly, and prep brass quickly at a constant duty cycle. Unfortunately I missed the price on that one.

So, I called S&W today. My M&P 9 Pro 5" is at about 45,000 rounds and I figured I would order a new barrel. Seeing how the barrel has been revised the timing was good too, although I never really had any complaints about how it shot. I was explicitly told that they will not sell a barrel as a spare part and that I would need to send my gun in. Lead time was "several months" and possibly 3+ months. This is completely unacceptable as a customer service policy. I can understand a backorder on a barrel of +++months, but expecting me to send in a firearm that will sit on a shelf until then is absurd. I can't believe they would expect me to miss out on 3+ months of matches until they get around to replacing the barrel, which is a completely user field changeable part. What if this was my Shield?? Would they expect a cusotmer to go without a CCW weapon for 3+ months? What are they doing? Are they fitting the barrels to the guns by hand? No... they aren't If this is a change in S&W service and the trend they are taking I'll need to start looking at replacing their products in my collection with other manfuacturers starting at SHOT next week. Glock may start getting more business from me as a result. I had their new 9mm revolvers on my "to buy list" for this year and just scratched them off. If S&W wants to be ridiculous and actually expect me to send in a gun for that long then by that token I should expect them to send out a loaner for those months. Absolutely ridiculous and unfortunate too. I love my M&P, and really liked S&W prior to this change in CS attitude.

You can find all of the part numbers, terminology/descriptions, and exploded view diagrams in the 650 manual. You can download the manual from the Dillon website here: http://www.dillonprecision.com/manuals.html Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 4

Interestingly I load 124 gr. Rainier plated round nose bullets with 4.9 gr. of Autocomp at 1.150 oal for a velocity of 950 fps and get great accuracy with that load out of my M&P 9 Pro 5". I think that combo of bullet weight and speed is what the M&Ps like in 9mm. I had other loads of 115 gr. using Universal and the same oal doing 1100 fps. The grouping just sucked something awful. Literally 3-4" at 20 yds at best. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 4

I've used VV320, W231, HP38, Autocomp, Universal, and HS-6. All of those with Rainier plated 9mm RN 115 & 124 gr. bullets. They all work just fine. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 4

I typically add a capful when I start a batch or two. If I do Batch back to back I don't add any. It's basically whenever I can tell the media has dried out and the spirits have vaporized out. Also, if you use a good polish in your media the mineral spirits help to reactivate the polish. I use Nupolish car polish like a lot of others and it works great. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 4

+1 on the lithium batteries Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 4

I simply cut a small piece of 3M double sided tape I had lying around to the size of the flat platform at the end of the ramp. The tape is just tacky enough to act as a buffer and stops the sliding primers from flying off but doesn't hold them in place tightly. I never let enough of them get by to make accumulation an issue. Once I get 4 or 5 I just pick them up either by hand or with the primer tube and drop them back into the primer feed. Hasn't really been a big deal for me. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 4

Yes, that is correct it is not necessarily a linear relationship a lot of the times. One additional factor is that the initial increased pressure from the deceased volume due to OAL actually affects and modifies the burn rate and characteristics of the powder for the rest of the burn. This "feedback loop" can cause very sudden changes and spikes in charge behavior. This can be seen with slower burning powders like HS-6 and Autocomp. It's one of the reasons people report more complete combustion (less dirty) when they load max loads or major loads with them.