mikeinctown

A frame is serialized and needs to ship to/from an FFL. A frame is government controlled. A slide can be shipped through any carrier. For those reasons I would expect a slide to cost less than the frame. Just going by what I've seen slides sell for compared to the cost of a new gun, It's maybe 40 slide /60% frame. (or 35% slide/ 50% frame/ 15% barrel.) That would be on something that runs between $500-$1,000.

I'd go coated without hesitation. I have tried Zero 230gn, HiTek coated 230gn, and Blue Bullets 230gn. The Blue Bullets seem far more slick than either of the first two I mentioned. When I start loading for 9mm, I'll likely get some samples of 135 and 147 just to see what I like better. As long as they feed reliably and go where they are supposed to, I don't see a need to keep trying diferent stuff. I clean my 1911 after every other range trip and have yet to get anything but the soot from the barrel. Just took me a bit to figure out how long to load them to in order to have everything feed reliably. I think I load to 1.250 and have zero issues with the 230 gn Blue Bullets. When I was trying 1.26+ I'd have a feed problem here or there.

Hate to tell you, but that is maintenance on a regular basis.

More true than you know. I bought a sample pack of 100 at a gun show last year that some guys had made with the hitek coating. Just running my fingernail down the side of a bullet caused an area to flake off. by contrast, the blue bullets I get have a thick coating absolutely stuck on there and it doesn't come off. at all....

If you are having trouble, then I suspect your prices may be a tad higher than what people are expecting in the current market. Brass priced well sells easily.

+1,000 The way I'm reading it, he hasn't even read the Dillon manual which explains how to properly bell the case. One could watch YouTube videos for an evening and figure this stuff out. I hate to be so critical, but not only is your life at risk but the safety of the people around you, so when you reload, you need to have a decent understanding of how things work.

Looks like my son just got another opportunity to make a few bucks on the side, running brass on the super swage while he watches his youtube videos.

So lets get this straight, you clean your gun on a regular basis but complain that you can't possibly clean the brass that goes in the gun? Even indoor range pickup stuff gets dirt on it from people's shoes and who knows what else might have been tracked in. Outdoor would be far worse. Dirty brass with contaminants can scratch the dies or leave dirt on the press which can cause issues going forward. Plus as others said, the dirt goes through the magazines and into the chamber. As mentioned you can also have inconsistent pressures if the case volume has variance from debris. And last, if you are loading 1k rounds a week, I find it very, very difficult to believe anyone when they say that thy can't aford a tumbler to clean their stuff. All it would take is to go from shooting 1,000 rounds a week to 500 a week for like 1 month and you would have been able to buy the necessary equipment.

Yup, I've been playing with my cart for a bit. Thanks for chiming in, and the endorsement from BE goes a long way.

With BE no longer selling Dillon what is the best place to purchase from other than Dillon direct? I am looking to get a 9mm conversion kit for my 650 but would rather try and save a bit on the $14 shipping charge if I can. Takes my $78 conversion kit and turns it into a $92 conversion kit. May also look at buying a new DAA belt or holster so if someone sells DAA stuff as well that would work.

As mentioned the 1050 doesn't have that warranty like the other presses do. IMHO the 650 is a great deal for what you get, including the warranty.

Yeah the 650 tool head is like $35. Not sure what could make the 1050 so much more expensive other than it is a more expensive press to start.

I was looking at some photos of the ram just now. Thinking that you may be able to tell if something was off center by looking for a shiny spot on the casting under the shell plate. As every case seems to be off in every locator position on the shellplate, the problem seems to be from the ram/casting itself. Looking for wear or a shiny surface area may show where the shell plate is rubbing and where it may not be rubbing but is supposed to.

When you align station 1 after inserting the die, do you have a case in stations 4 and 5? I found that it is critical during setup with mine that you have the press with brass in it just as you would when loading. I mention this because you said if you tip the shellplate up on the right it aligns perfect. So either the ram was machined incorrectly or there needs to be brass on the other stations pushing down on the shellplate as if it would be during use. (could there be a burr or something on the ram?) <edit> and yeah I would hope someone from Dillon chimes in soon or I'd send it in for service. that's crazy what you have done.

I see that part, but the spring washer holds it down with enough force that it does not pop out. Either that little tab got bent, the washer is messed up, or something is causing the disk to stick, which puts more stress on that arm. (just a guess by observing how mine operates)

That is confusing to me about the primers. The lever rides up on the ramp and it advances. Not sure how or why you would need to push down on the arm unless something isn't fastened correctly. My arm is tight and has zero play. There is a spring washer just above the arm that keeps it pushed down. Also not sure how changing the decapping die makes more case gauge failures. Shouldn't the FCD be doing a final sizing of the case for you? Maybe it is because I am used to .45 and 9mm is completely different? BTW, I looked at my 650 tonight and when the case is inserted into station 1 and the ram goes it, it looks off center though not as bad as in the pic above. However the case does not move when it slides into the die and hits nothing. So I'm thinking that the view is a sort of illusion as if I change my point of view, the pin looks more on center. My station 1 has a Dillon die and not a U die.

Holy cow! that thing shouldn't move at all. I know the thickness of the countertop I am using is only like 3/4", plus the extra band of 3/4 at the front. Have it attached at a total of 8 places to the wire shelf. I wonder if me having 3 total shelves vs the two that you have makes it that much more stable? With 3 you really have a lot less leverage on each set of legs plus the middle shelf acts as a support. I also have the strongmount, which really does spread the load out from the press.

The difference between the undersize die and a regular die is like .002. The only slight difference is that the U die doesn't have as much of a radius. However, based on those photos, no radius in the world is going to align it from that far off center. I'm betting that numbering each station on the shellplate will help as you may see one or two that are completely off and all the rest perfect.

Vanman, what really helps stability is having a shelf underneath and loading it up with your brass stock. For my reloading bench I just have some wire shelving with a hunk of countertop bolted to one of the shelves. I have probably 10,000+ cases on the shelves under the main surface and the thing doesn't move at all.

Can you pop a case in the powder station as well? I'm curious if the misalignment is on every station, or just that one station. In the photo it appears way off, so the only other thing I can think of is to insert a case like that, take a photo, then let the shellplate rotate, insert another case, take a picture, rotate shellplate, insert another case, etc until you have a similar photo with a case insterted at every point on the shellplate and showing the #1 station. It may be possible that the shellplate was just machined incorrectly.

Maybe with 9mm, but with .45 the Lee gives you the wasp waist and the Dillon more of a straight wall.

+1 Blue Bullets loads perfect for me. I've tried some samples from other people who use the hitek coating and I was less than impressed. I was able to scrape the coating off with a finger nail. I can't do that with the BB coating. Maybe the samples I got weren't clean or prepared properly, don't know.

On my Sig 1911, 4.3 of TG on a 230 would still make the brass fly and the gun would cycle perfect. For me there was just too much muzzle flash. Right now I'm working my way through Bullseye @4.8 and moving down. Want to see if I can get to maybe 4.2 and use a lighter spring. Anyway, for TG even with a 180 I'd probably start a little lower than 5 as it is some very potent powder.

One thing to check for, when I was having .010 overall variations on my seated length on my 650, it truned out to be from the slight movement of either the toolhead or the shell plate. That was cured by using case lube on the brass before I tossed it into the case feeder. The brass moves into the dies easier, so there is less deflection. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. As far as how much crimp you need or want, you'll need to pull the bullet and make sure you aren't scraping any of the coating off or diggin in to the coating. The brass should just leave a nice indentation into the coating or plating to hold it in place.

Do you need the case feeder? Nope, but darn does it really help! I loaded maybe 500 rounds in 100 round batches before buying the case feeder. There were times I'd forget to refill the tube and realized it when there was no resistance on the handle. Then I paid my kid a few bucks to keep droping cases in. Then I finally got the case feed and would just dump a box of brass in the feeder and never worried about a case in station one after that. The 650 already has the support and tube made for it, so the feeder just bolts in place and plugs in.