Livin_cincy

Hello, I currently use a Lee Classic Cast Turret to reload. I clean, deprime and size then clean the pistol brass. To clean I keep it simple and just soak them then dry them. So I begin my reloading by seating the primer with a fwd stroke. Then I load powder with a Lee auto drum in station 1, Hornady bullet feeder in 2, seat in 3 and Lee FCD in 4. This is on a turret press that has the auto index rod enabled. I have been pondering the same procedure and set up on a Dillon 550. I like this model as it is essentially a turret press with a shell plate vs a single shell holder. I do not have one to set this FrankinDillon operation up on. I am also unclear as to what might happen if you mix Red & Blue to make bullets. Will it end up purple ? So, if you have a desire to try out a purple press shoot a video of it and give us a full report. I am guessing this would increase production by 2-3x over my LCT, perhaps 1.5x of a 550 and still be a simple machine. Thanks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaPoU1mCRW0 http://ultimatereloader.com/2016/05/20/lee-auto-disk-powder-measure-from-unboxing-to-loading-pistol/

The directions were written by their legal department. They are confusing until you start to do it. If you look up FortuneCookie 45 on YouTube he has a video or two or maybe three on the AutoDrum. In one he converts it to throw every time. I am on a turret and just press the lever button down with my finger when I seat a primer.

The Lee AutoDrum that is case activated should work fine. You can operate it using the chain to reset it, use your finger to depress the lever, or have it dispense every time a case is inserted. It can be used on single stage or turret presses without the chain. On their progressive press they use the chain. It is inexpensive, accurate, and the removable insert keeps your load ready for next time. Extra inserts are cheap @ $3-4 each. I did follow all of their instructions about setting it up and breaking it in. I had to keep turning the knob to get the drum pressure & seal correct. I used graphite and ran a hopper of powder thru it. This let me get comfortable with adjusting it and measuring loads. I weigh three charges together and it is dead on with Hodgdon CFE Pistol.

I had found a discussion about primers that mentioned the size of the Primer box is dictated by transportation rules by the government. Evidently there is some sort of drop test that makes them safe to transport. I saw a video of an old box of primers in a cardboard box with wooden bars/sticks between rows of ten primers. Now they all ship in an individual pocket and the package is larger. To avoid impact detonation of a box larger packaging components are required if the primers are more sensitive. So this might be a way to judge sensitivity of the primers on shelves at stores where you can see the packaging for a 1,000 next to each other. Now the manufacturers lawyers may have driven the engineering in a company to make larger than needed and skew the 'box' size method. But, the bean counters and engineers do not want to waste money on packaging if is not required. I am guessing this will drive the size of the package to a greater extent.

I made OAL match some factory ammo. It was around 1.155. I then did 1.145, 1.135 and 1.125. I shot ten of each and scored the shots using the points on the rings of the target. I found that the 1.145 scored more than the factory ammo and was the highest points of my loads. It also had the best grouping. I plan to add a 0.1 grain of powder and repeat with OAL set at 1.155, 1.145 and 1.135. My initial load is the published min by the powder manufacturer. I am using X-treme plated bullets and they say use loads between mid/high range lead and mid range FMJ. So I have several increments to adjust the powder from where I started and where I will stop going up a 1/10 grain ladder. The targets will pretty much show me where I am at as far as accuracy. It will take awhile to work thru things. But in the end I will have a load that works best in that barrel... Then start over on another pistol !

I have the Lee Autodrum. It seems to work great and hold accuracy for me. Being able to save your dialed in load with a $3-4 disk is really nice. So you just keep the powder disk with your dies. I did follow all of the recommendation / directions including the graphite and then running a full powder measure thru before using it. So mine was checked out before I began running production. Turning the adjustment key that many times let me get use to how it metered powder.

I did some measuring and confirmed my barrel can take a longer COAL than the magazine. So I could sell my magazines & covert my semiauto into a single shot to maximize COAL and accuracy... I decided not to. I did do some tests on COAL and did see the bell curve of how it effects accuracy. Longer was better than shorter. But longest was not best. This is the fun of reloading. Now I am going to add powder and see what changes occur.

Hello, I am a new reloader. I am loading 9mm. I see the SAAMI drawing with its value for Over All Length of the Cartidge. This seems to be listed as OAL or COAL in different sources. It seems dependent on which reloading manual you first read to describe the measurement of the length of the Cartridge. Either way this is the Maximum length that firearms manufactures use when they design their products. When I look at Load Data I noted that Lee makes it perfectly clear that the OAL they list for a powder charge is the Minimum Over All Length for the Cartidge. Hodgdon, for example, lists an OAL in their Load Data. This value is generally understood to be the length of the cartridge that they tested in their laboratory to create their velocity & pressure. With a 9mm there is a max of 1.169 listed and load data is typically down around 1.1 depending on the powder you are using. i have read to use a length that functions reliably in your firearm or firearms. With the longest that will function being the best choice. I measured factory ammo and it seemed to be in the 1.15 range. I see many reloaders in forums using the min value in the powder data to set their length. This seems odd to me for 9mm. Is there a reason ? http://www.saami.org/PubResources/CC_Drawings/Pistol/9mm Luger - 9mm Luger +P.pdf

I could not get bullets to feed after having no problem with the initial set up. It chewed up a piece of brass so I knew something fell out of calibration. I took it apart and discovered that bullets would not fall thru the upper collet. So I opened it up a little. I used a blade screw driver to open the collet Now they fall thru the upper collet and wait in the lower collet for a case.

Your Micrometer Head was purchased from whom ?

I looked at this same debate and decison. You are looking at loading several calibers and that adds up in tooling costs no matter which way you go. It also might prevent loading calibers until you get all of your calibers tooling purchased. The incidental costs outside of the press add up as you set up your reloading bench area. Also many reloaders will tell you that you will always want a single stage for depriming and other case prep duties. So which press to start with is not a simple question. I ended up going with the Lee Classic Cast Turret Press as a first press. They make two turret presses and you want the more expensive one from everything I read. It works like a single stage, a manual index and an automatic index press depending on how you set it up. I went thru Brownwells / Sinclair do to their customer satisfaction policy regarding returns if I regretted my decision in the future. So you can see if you like to rotate manually like on a 550 or not. That is the only complaint about the 550 that is common. You can compare it to Auto indexing like a 650 to see if that is preferred. The 650 has some complexity with setting up the case feed and resolving powder spillage but these have all been solved if you look for the answers or call Dillon. So you will get a feel for how much you like the auto vs manual indexing. As you might have gathered from others 550 / 650 is a very individual preference like choosing a modern auto pistol. Now the Lee Classic Cast Turret will not produce the quantity of completed cartridges that a progressive press will by any means. It seems like anywhere from 200-300 per hour is about average for the Lee CCT. It is also very easy and cheap to switch powder charges between loads and calibers with the Lee Auto Drum. It works great to work on load development when you are only making small batches of 10 to test at the range. This happens when you can't find one of your old components and have to start over developing a load. Then when you buy some new bullets in each of your calibers you develop the load on your LEE CCT. Once you have your new load you can then crank them out on your Dillion. What is nice is that you can use the same dies between Lee & Dillon 550 & 650. So it becomes just handy to have around. I give credit for my using a Lee CCT to The Reloader Dude over on YouTube. He has Lee, Redding, and a Dillon 650 in his reloading bench and talks about why he uses each one and for what. I found his videos helpful. The Lee CCT might let you afford to load all your calibers initially do to initial set up and tooling cost alone. Load up a large portion of the brass you think you will need next season this winter. You will know which Dillion type you prefer by then from the manual vs auto index feature on the Lee. Then you can put your savings from reloading into the 550 or 650 you buy in the future. So during the shooting season you can make 4-600+ per hour easily with your new Dillon.

I made the decision and went with the Lee Classic Cast Turret press. It is as simple as a single stage to operate. I like how the primers fall vertically down and out of the way like on a Redding Big Boss 2 press. I just don't shoot enough at this time to use the volume that a Progressive produces.` http://leeprecision.com/4-hole-classic-turret-press.html Using the Dillon Precision website 'Break Even Calculator' http://dillonprecision.net/break-even-calculator/ : LCT = $250 for two Pistol Calibers. Dillon 550 = $700 for two pistol Calibers { only (1) powder measure } So when I put in the numbers for two pistol calibers with tool heads, shell holders and dies I can pay off a LCT in 16 months verses a 550 in 44 months. I will have to spend an hour pulling the ram with the LCT vs 30 minutes on the Dillon each month. Even doubled it is a tolerable amount of time on a laundry night. In 44 months reloading with the LEE will have saved me about $800 when I factor in the original price difference. Enough to buy a 550 or 650 if I am wanting to start shooting 500 per week. I can also use the Lee as a single stage for rifle and case prep work for the rest of my life. The real clincher was Brownwells / Sinclair Warranty: "100% Satisfaction Guarantee on Everything We SellIf you aren’t completely, 100% satisfied with any purchase you receive from Brownells, for any reason, at any time, return it for a full refund or exchange. No hassle, no problem. And, we won’t bog you down in endless paperwork. Your complete satisfaction with each and every product we sell is what’s most important to us." So they have a 'Dillon' type Warranty and I can always get my original investment back if I decide LEE is a good door stop. They also had many of the items I had to buy to start up reloading on sale. Plus they were running a 5% sale with free shipping with a code. I went to Graffs & Sons to get some items out of stock or not sold on the Brownwells' site. I bought the Dillon 3 poise scale from them. I like the 3 poise vs the 2 poise of RCBS, Hornady & Lyman. It looks easier to read to me.

Yes I am !

Greetings, My birthday present to me is going to be a reloading press. I do not shoot a great deal. Typically I shoot a box of 50 at an indoor range each week. Occasionally I will go to an outdoor range for a day. Cost and availability of ammo controls things. So my desire to reload is to control those two items. So with my best guess I can figure 100 rounds per week average if I double my current level. This is a low production level. So technically a single stage and spending an evening would work to satisfy my needs. But it will require diligence to spending an evening to stay supplied. So i looked at turret presses. The Lee Cast Turret is 150-200 per hour. So I can crank out 300 in an evening and be good for couple weeks. Of course... that is 1,200 pulls. Cost is low to get set up in my two pistol calibers. So that is attractive. I watched numerous videos on how to get your Hornady AP to work and realized how it will always be chasing down issues to get thru a session. It seems very hit and miss on how it will work when you unbox it. It would bother me to have be concerned about the press so much. So I decided no to the Red One. RCBS is a bump up in price that I cannot justify. So I ruled out their Progressive ones as being far to much press for me. So I said No to the Green One. Then there is the Blue One. I can't justify more than a 550's level of production. So at 400 per hour I would only load a caliber every other month. That seems like more press than I could ever need. I found a common thread in various locations on the internet. I see " Buy more press than you think you need " as a common piece of sage advice. It seems everybody has a collection of presses as they progressed from one end to their present one. The 550 will produce 3-4x the ammo of an LCT based on (4) cases being worked on with each lever pull. So I ran some numbers. I took into consideration the future value of a Dillon 550 vs a LCT. I looked at ten years down the road. I figured that inflation would bump new prices by 1.5% each year. I conservatively estimated a used 550 to have 75% of new retail if I wanted to sell over night. I see some say 80-85% is typical. But I wanted to be conservative. I put the LCT at 50% resale and that could be high. This could be as low as 33%. But I wanted to be conservative. Well... Over a 10 year time the Lee Cast Turret press would cost about $40 more to own. I included nothing for replacement parts on the Lee. I also negated the interest income on the initial purchase of Dillion over Lee as the money sits in the bank. So then it comes down to which press will be more pleasurable for those ten years ? I think even the Green & other Red Press folks would say Dillon 550 over Lee Cast Turret. I notice many have a second single stage press for depriming and other case prep work. The LCT would be excellent repurposed for this. So I am back to thinking the LCT would serve all my needs now and in the future should I decide to buy it. Or am I going to be staring at a press I rationalize having instead of a spare toolhead on my Dillon 550 ? I am seeing that a good case prep session with a dedicated toolhead creates a reason to clean the Dillon good so when I seat primers during loading it works flawless. Your thoughts ?