Livin_cincy

Thanks for sharing. I had success with both the WC & SWC they sent. Their design is sold base for both varieties. I loaded using Hodgdon CFE powder & Loading data. I worked up towards +P for the bullet weight. I found the lowest charge worked best. I ordered 500 of the WC and have had continued success. The groups seem fine and the holes do to. I am shooting out of a Ruger LCR. I am am going to try Tight Group next to see how it compares.

That would be irritating to have to ponder if it had moved on you. After market to the Rescue !

The powder adjustment bolt. Use a 6" Caliper across from the end to the bolt head.

I contacted Xtreme Bullets about a smaller quantity of bullets. They box in 500 quantities. I am loading for a 3" 38 Special Revolver and bullet weight can move POI on these guns. So I did not want a shelf weight. They are sending me samples this week of their Semi & Full Wad Cutters. I just asked about them and no problem. I am also getting daily discount emails on these Bullets.... Anybody shot these ? Next plated bullet I plan to try is the hollow Base Berry's Full Wad cutter.

It moves by design. The Part is used on the Classic Cast Single Stage press. The Manual gives directions on aligning it. Basically you turn it. The primer seater can be used or a wrench that fits into the gap. Only the top moves. You will see a line on the Ram where the two parts join. LEE should have a picture of the upper part on their website in the parts section. You can also call or write to LEE to get help.

You can use your Digital or Dial Caliper to measure how far you have unscrewed the bolt and record it for any load in your personal loading manual for your guns. Then you just turn it to that length and verify with your scale.

Rifle reloading can be significantly different than pistol reloading. The case preparation required before you add powder and seat a bullet can be extensive if you are using range scrap. There is a lot of examining cases as you process them. You also only get 4-5 reloads with rifle cases before they need to be annealed for them to be safe. Range Scrap requires verification do to not knowing how many reloads have taken place. So you have to exam each loaded case to see if it has cracks from mouth flaring, bullet seating & crimping the case. You may find you want or need a Single Stage or Turret Press to perform case prep and load development. You will be picking up each case for measuring cases, examining primer pockets, & verifying primer seating. You can fully load rifle on a single stage at about 100 per hour. A Turret Press will double that to 200. The beauty of the 550 platform is it works like a turret press doing 4 rounds at a time. You can pull cases to examine them and then index the shell plate. While all this stoping and examining is slow you can achieve 250-300 per hour. If you plan to purchase new brass or fully processed brass then you can avoid much of this. Pour them into a 650 and reload them as fast as you can. Then you decide if you want to examine, measure the length and verify primer depth of each case. Shooting large quantities of rifle reloads can be a lot of work. A rule of thumb that LEE Precision gives is 500 rounds per week before you a consider a progressive press. It is easy to shoot 500 on a Saturday if you compete. Many shooters use winter to load brass and summer to empty it so they have time to load 15,000 in the winter and only 5,000 during the summer season. If your shooting is less you might want a single stage or turret for rifle.

I have a surplus / LEO trade in 92s and found a manual for it that says not to. So I keep a snap cap in it.

Call them and use the replacement warranty. They have no issues with honoring their warranty. I have used their warranty on a powder measure and had no issues. Keep in mind in an effort to mitigate lawsuits that the hand primers are designed to fail before detonating a primer. With the number of mil-spec one shot cases being sold to the Reloading community the detonation from a primer being squeezed into a pocket is real. I did not like the LEE handprimer. I never found the ergo version on a shelf to try. I liked the Lyman over the RCBS. My preference was based on feel in the hand at the store.

I am guessing a case activated measure should work fine. There re are pictures of Red & Green powder measures on blue presses on the internet. Another option might be the LEE AutoDrum with removable inserts. Plenty of YouTube's showing how to use one. Look at FortuneCookie45 for an impartial & critical review. His Reloading bench is a rainbow of colors. The metering inserts are about $4 each. So you get one for each load data you use. The powder measure is $35 maybe. Buy from a retailer not LEE's website.

I am curious about Matt's Bullets 75 grain Wad Cutter bullets. They say, "This little bullet takes low recoil to the extreme! It can also be loaded two to a case or used to top a load of shot in a .357 case." Has anyone done this ? http://www.mattsbullets.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=65&products_id=231&zenid=737o30hcan4ajoha8644fcvho1

I use the Hornady 380-9mm Bullet feed die on a non Hornady brand Turret Press. I just drop bullets by hand into the top of the die. It holds 7-8 I think. You can also buy a tube and have a stack of them. I figured picking them up to drop in a tube or in a die is the same time.

That is a good piece of information. The list the 550 at 400 per hour I believe. So you gain 80 per hour on the upside. On the downside caliber changes take more time. If you are loading 10,000 cases before a caliber change it is worth it. Loading for 2 hours everyday will make a wintery January roll by quickly. Then you change primer size and caliber for February. So it comes down to batch size you will be loading.

I found with proper load development a zombie green bullet negates the need for a double tap to take down a zombie...

That is pretty common place for Lee. Their price point is such that they cannot send out enough parts to assemble a second Press. So they do track what they send.

Another option would be to do all your case prep first and the reload. Deprime, clean, inspect, seat primer, and inspect primer before you load your case. It sounds like a lot of additional work. But it does solve some issues and ensures your case is properly prepped. With pistol cases most people deprime and reprime without inspecting the primer pocket without a case issue... only primer seating issues. You can size and deprime cases very quickly. Just insert & pull. You can Prime Only with a hand Press or bench press. Or use your press. A hand press let's you do them as you have a few minutes or while watching TV. You can store seated primers in cases safely and have them ready to go. This lets you drop powder at station #1 and lockout on station #2. This is also removes primer jams and primer gunk jams during your loading session. Rifle cartridges are reloaded this way so it is not 100% obtuse.

I picked up a Very gently used Ruger LCR-X 3". The front sight is white and fixed with a fully adjustable rear sight. I can shoot with both eyes open. I shot consistantly low. I did adjust the rear sight to raise it. But I still seemed low. I only shot 50 shots. I seemed to shoot the 158 grain bullets better than the lighter 125 grain bullets. My sight picture was centered and flat across the top like in the manual. I am wondering if I need the bottom of the white flush with the bottom of the rear sight. Thus elevating the gun. Ideally i I would like a 6:00 hold. I have read read that the trigger is unique and it is me doing it. I dry fired extendively before going to the range. So I thought I had the trigger figured out. The recoil is very mild and controllable to me. The nice grip is the reason I suspect. So has anyone else been down this road ?

One of the Features of the LEE Modern Reloading book is how load Data is presented. Richard Lee shows many manufactures of Powder Load Data for a given bullet together. You can compare powders and see their published Velocities. So so you can find a low velocity & low bullet weight combination that meets your needs for soft shooting or hard hitting. You may buy her a special pound of powder just for her so the loads are soft enough. Just DO NOT under any circumstances do this for Mother's Day, Anniversary, Her Birthday, etc.

Some thoughts. The COAL / OAL published with reloading data for 9mm is typically significantly shorter than the SAAMI max. SAAMI is what gun manufactures use to design barrels & magazines to function with commercial ammunition. The shape of the bullet will determine the cartridge length. A semi wad cutter is more likely to plunk test over a round nose at the same correct length. Rifle shooters typically make their cartridges as long as possible. Pistol shooters shoot wad cutters that clearly have a 'jump' to the lands of the barrel. Then there's the clear bullet jump from shooting of 38's in a 357 barrel for practice. So shorter than SAAMI seems to work. Shorter than load data is never a good idea. Somewhere in between ??? More than likely the " sweet spot " for your Barrel is in between the two extremes. Finding it for each bullet manufacture takes time. This is why some enjoy finding it and others always shoot the same bullets. So if your bullets are the correct diameter back off the cartridge length. You may find bullets are not perfect and you just need to load shorter to ensure the gun cycles safely. Just stay clear of ever going shorter than your pupblished load data.

I can't resist... " Get a Ford or Get a Dodge Rusty Chevy !!!

You asked about a cheap single stage press. Look art the LEE Classic Cast Press. The ram is hollow and spent primers and gunk go down a tube like on a Redding Big Boss 2. Get the standard one not the Breech Lock version. You can remove the bushing and buy Hornaday Lock & Load die holders and an insert to put them in the press. The lever arm is adjustable in both length and angle so you can find what works for you. If you buy from Brownells you get their Lifetime warranty on it. Just watch for a free shipping sale. They have them priced at $109.00 currently. Which is $30 less than the Rockchucker Supreme that will have you chasing primers all over the room and cleaning up primer gunk all over your press. The spent primer issue is why many people pay $40 more to get the Redding Big Boss 2 over the RCBS. Ultimately accurate rifle reloading is the result of the operator. You can make quality ammo on a small Sinclair Press or LEE loader at the range if you are diligent. http://www.brownells.com/reloading/reloading-presses/single-stage-presses/classic-cast-press-prod54176.aspx

FYI your screwed... You can't sell that press either. Nobody wants to be the one that took her memories from her. 500 per hour each week is 25,000 cartridges per year. Some long winter afternoons will let you roll a few thousand more.

I suspect that Dillon is content making a product that 70% of their customers are happy with right out of the box. Another 25% buy the host of after market parts and get there Press to work the way they like it. The remaining 5% sell their Press for 70-80% of retail price and move away from reloading. The Dillon Product line is showing its age. So if the market place reduces sales they will intrudes a new models. Until then they will not shelve their current product. RCBS came out with ProChucker 5&7 station presses. They are still full of growing pains as reviews and factory issued modifications are sent out. Lee has a new 4 station Progressive Press that uses the same tool holder/ Turret as their 4 hole Classic Cast Turret Press do out in the next 12 months. I have not heard anything about Hornady. I suspect Dillon will be moving to new products as well. They have plenty of discontinued models from the past so they are not against change. They are also required to stay on the top of the hill to maintain their pricing. I suspect more stations and a swagging station are on the new Dillon. I would like to see a move away from primer tubes as well on their new Press. RCBS abandoned their strip clip of primers to the shagrin of their loyalists. Not sure if the patents are up on that or not. Being able to load primer strips with a hand primer while watching TV and have a thousand ready vs filling pick up tubes seems nice.

Do you find that Bayou Bullets shoot better with a dash of Tobasco in the Barrel ? ( wink )

The slight amount of play is by design to permit precision alignment. When all the dies are aligned with cases in each station the toolhead aligns and does not move when the shell plate is up. Think Forester CoAx Press.