choppe

You'll get used to in in a hurry. Love having the lower dot and not worrying about brass hitting the cmore causing ejection issues.

I was just thinking about this question the other day too. I use a STI grandmaster shooing 9mm major rounds, and I'm thinking about getting another 2011 9mm limited set-up for 3-gun. I don't have a backup open gun, but could I shoot my 9mm major rounds in a 9mm limited set-up? It wouldn't have a comp, so probably throw a stiffer spring in it and hope for the best

I polished the heck out of the inside. Still the same result. I finally broke down and sent it back to Dillon. Hopefully they can find something wrong with it.

I love the velcro idea. Most of us reloaders have a limited work area, and anything that can reduce the clutter on the bench helps!

I looked in the seating die and that looks OK. No brass rings or dust. A belled cased does not hang up in the seating die. The crimp die is a different story. I took a picture of it because it doesn't look right. A belled case goes in the crimp die smoothly then gets hung up near the top. Some cases require quite a bit of effort on the down stroke from the crimp die. Looks like it needs some cleaning and polishing. For the guys that have polished the inside of their dies, what did you use? Thanks!

I've had a Dillon 550 for 7+ years now. I use Dillon dies at all stations. I've always reloading 9mm and 40 and have never seen this problem. A couple months ago I got into reloading 45 and this magic brass dust appears. Like everyone says it looks to be too much bell binding in the crimp die. I'm belling 0.010" ( after belling the outside of the case is around 0.475") to accommodate coated Blue Bullets or Berry plated bullets. Any less bell and I begin to scrape the bullets upon seating. I've tried raising the crimp die, but then there's still some flair and they won't case gauge. Any ideas?

How does that primer housing come apart? Is it those small socket head screws on the bottom?

I got into it for the money savings. I actually shoot more now, so the overall ammo price per month probably didn't change. However the price per round sure decreased!

Enjoy your press! You have the right approach. Take your time, learn every process of it, and you'll be cranking out ammo in no time.

I had those thoughts too when I started loading pistol ammo on my 550. But those thoughts quickly go away when the ammo piles up. I do think about it when I do 223 on my progressive press. I actually kind of mimic a single stage press for 223. I split the operation up over two shell plates. The first shell plate has only the sizing die. The second plate has the rest of the dies. This allows me to resize then trim, clean/deburr primer pockets, ect before continuing with the rest of the process.

I wish I new about this invention years ago. That factory primer bar is the only part of a 550 that drives me crazy.

Once you get that beast set-up I'd be curious to hear how you like it.

You'll love the 550. Awesome machines!

+1 on the tumbler.

I shot limited with a G24 for many years. I loved the long sight radius. This would be awesome to mimic that without the slide weight.

I've been saving my 9mm major brass and reloading them as 9 minor loads. Knock on wood, haven't split a case yet.

The Eagle and Marauder look very similar. What's the main differences?

Thanks for the pictures and review. STI must not tune their extractors. My Grandmaster had all kinds of extraction issues until I had a gunsmith do some tuning.

Like everyone said, be patient and look for a gently used one. Usually these will have the kinks worked out of them! I started down the plastic open gun path. Not sure I would go down that path again. I'd stick with the 2011 platform.

I've always clean/scrubed with a gun carbon cleaner like M-pro7. I'll scrub the barrel with this to remove any fouling. If there is bad copper fouling i'll uses a copper remover like Butches. After everything is all clean and shiny, re-apply some Breakfree CLP.

I've always dreamed on having my own CNC in my garage!

My open Glock will double feed after I get 1500 rounds on the recoil spring. The hot 9mm major rounds wear them out so fast. I put a new spring in and the double feed goes away.

I run those STI mags with the spacer and 9mm STI follower in my grandmaster. My bullets are seated at 1.165". I tried them without the spacer and had some feed issues.

In my experience, the majority of double feeds are caused by a weak recoil spring combined with a weak mag spring. With a weak or under-powered recoil spring the slide comes back too fast/hard and rattles a round free. Then when the slide goes forward it grabs another round. When the mag spring is weak its easier for jar a round loose accidentally. Not sure how slowing the slide down with your thumb would play into this? Crazy.

My 140 and 170 mags are stock except for the Dawson tooless basepads. STI body, STI follower, STI spring and plastic spacers.