jmorris

Watch the weight, as Art pointed out. I believe the Para P18 LTD got kicked out of SSP because of its heft. Another good point is the fact 9mm 1911 have 9 round magazines. If you have problems with them feeding, it is because of the bur on the inside of the top front (at least with the ones Springfield sends out) a round file will cure the problem. The reason 10 total is better than 9 or 11 is because, at local matches the CDP (9 total) guys don’t want the SSP (11 total) and most ESP (11) guys to have an advantage, this makes the few with 10 total happy. As long as the matches are held to the IDPA limit of 18 rounds you’ll still have one to spare.

+1 on berrys find a buddy with a FFL to get the best deal.

Try http://www.precisionbullets.com/, berrys bullets are a little more $ but are plated

try precisionbullets.com

to answer Kevin C's question. Yes. http://magmaengineering.com/item.php?id=7

looks like it will work

I made the loader a year or so ago, the feed tube is 4130 chromemoly and machined so it will de-moon also. You load the rounds into the feed tube and squeeze to set the round let loose and the next round drops. It will load a clip in 6 seconds. PM me and I’ll email the video.

http://www.gunaccessories.com/Outers/FoulOut.asp

For the 45’s All of that NT brass you’ve thrown away can help the ignition problem (small primers vs. large) without going too light on the rebound spring. If you use 45-gap brass you get the benefit of small primers and can load the clips without tools.

I couldn’t post the video but here’s a pic of my semi-auto moon loader.

I noticed the different flash holes a while back when sorting for NT brass and did a very limited test. 4.6gr Titegroup 230lrn all brass was Winchester. .080 flash hole: 806,767,821,796,805 .130 flash hole: 812,835,804,815,822 NT brass : 822,822,792,762,767 I would do some more testing before taking the drill to all of your cases (that’s only 5 rounds of each). The only added benefit of NT brass is for revolver shooters as you can back off the strain screw a bit more with the small primers. However, you get that with GAP brass and don’t have to use tools to load/unload the moon clips.

Back in my younger days, my brother and I mounted our reloading equipment on wood 4”X4”X10” blocks then we could put them in the vice on dad’s workbench. This worked very well as the bench was 400-500 pounds, thus was rock steady. We had a rack that you could “plug” the 4X4s into when finished. This worked well for single stage presses and we used two Dillon SD machines. If you are going to use something like a 1050/650 with case and or bullet feeder, better plan on not moving it.

My Brother has an A-bolt in 300 winmag with the boss system, it still recoils more than I like. You can tell the guns that are not abusive to shoot by which ones your friends want to hunt with. My 45-70 collects a lot more dust than the rifles based off the 308. Also, I still haven’t had any takers on shooting my 50 BMG with out its muzzle break.

In my quest to make my shooting better/faster, without spending too much money, I decided to give bullet casting a try. I knew from watching a friend cast fishing weights, I needed a new angle. After little research I came across Magma Engineering. The company sells a very high volume casting machine (19,000hr) and a slower one called the Master Caster they said would do 500-800an hr. So I looked at the pictures they had and dusted off my drafting scale. The machine is based on a cast aluminum frame (which I couldn’t make) and was manually operated (which I didn’t want), but it didn’t seem overly complicated. So I ordered a set of molds from them for 230grn LRN .45. I made a melting pot from 7” round pipe with 3/8” wall, it’ll hold just under 60# of lead (1750 bullets worth). Wrapped it with a new (a used one doesn’t like to bend) 3500-watt oven element I got from the Sears repair center ($9.47). I had a few Yokogawa PID controllers, so I used one of them for my thermostat. I hooked the controller to a 12v dc actuated 230v ac solid state relay. I was then melting wheel weights. I soon covered the element with .045 stainless steel to keep the heat in and off my face. Once I got the bullet mold ($65 & almost three months later) I built a frame out of 1”X1” .095 mild steel. I used double split set collars (2.25 ea.) to hold the oil lite bearings (1.14 ea.), for the main shaft (3/4” OD); this will provide easy maintenance in the future. The mold carriers were machined from 1” solid stock. I rolled ½” solid rod for the guide rods to hold the mold shut. Sections of 5/16 24tpi all thread were used on the sides for adjustment. I decided that sitting around pushing a lever (to let the lead flow), and pulling a handle (to throw the bullets out of the mold) might get in the way of some “quality time”. So I went through my stuff and came up with a gear reduced motor that ran at 4rpm. With two bullets in the mold this came out to 480 bullets an hour, about right. Then I hooked a solenoid to an arm that pulled a ¼ stainless steel rod from the bottom of the pot; a ¼ 20 bolt can be adjusted for the amount of flow. Under the pot I milled a slot that diverted the molten lead to the stainless steel orifice plate that has two holes in it the correct distance to hit the center of the mold holes. The solenoid is controlled by a home made timer (duration of flow) using a 555 integrated circuit (from Radio Shack). I can adjust the pour time from 0 to 10 seconds with 10 turns from a 0-1meg ohm potentiometer (1 sec a turn). This fine adjustment is needed for the sprue (part above the actual bullet/s) to fill properly without spilling over. A double pole single throw switch controls the whole process. When the actuating arm hits the switch, the timer, with a double pole double throw relay, stops the motor while simultaneously pouring lead. As soon as the timer stops the flow of lead the motor begins to drive the mold down, cutting the sprue then hitting two pieces of angle iron that split the mold apart, dropping the sprue into one divider and the bullets into another. Then the process begins again. I found a fan is needed to keep the mold cool enough for the 480 rnd an hour pace, in summer heat. I also added an extra timer for a cool down pause (1-30secs), after the mold opens, to further cool if needed for 350 + grn bullets. The last addition (not in photos) were two 12vdc solenoids to tap the mold carriers, to knock a bullet out if it happens to get stuck. It’s still not finished out, but you can see how it works. After a few hours of playing with my new toy, I had quite a pile of bullets. They were though, a few thousands over .452. I looked at the sizers available and again they were slow or expensive. A trip to CDC surplus got me a 3” pneumatic ram with integral limit switches for $25. I machined a sizing die from stainless steel. Mounted it all to a piece of 3/8” plate steel. I used a double split set collar to hold the sizing die in place, this will allow for different calibers. I machined a piece of brass that threaded into the ram to drive the bullet through the die. I made a bullet carrier from UHMW to carry the unsized bullets from a feed tube to the mouth of the die. The carrier rides in an aluminum housing that has a momentary switch on the end. When the carrier goes in, far enough for the bullet to drop in the die, it hits the switch that drives the ram down to it’s limit then back up. After this process the bullets are perfect .452. I am still experimenting with different bullet lubes; however, I have been using a water based dry lube for forming steel that seems to work well (just dip and let dry). One interesting thing, I can, by changing the alloy of the bullets, make anywhere from 210grn to 240grn bullets from the same mold. As for saving $, using range brass, Nobel Sport BA 10 and Win primers 1000 rounds sets me back $21.

I decided I needed a bullet feeder for my sizing machine . I looked at the MS Systems set up, and at almost $1000 I thought it was a little on the expensive side. After they sent me an instruction manual, I noticed they clam a failure rate (upside down bullet) of 1 in 1000 for .45 bullets, because they are short and fat. That may not sound too bad, but if it jams up your machine… It seems it works much better with long skinny bullets (.223, 1 in 10,000). Of course, if you load wadcutters (non-hollow base) you won’t ever have any problems. I needed it for .45 bullets, 230 RN mostly but also 200 SWC capable. I took .125” aluminum and first cut a 12.5” circle then rolled a 4” wide piece to form the hopper. I made the collating wheel out of Tyvar (super slick and very tough). I added a few polypropylene and spring steel “sweeps” to knock out ill-placed bullets. A double split set collar was used as an inexpensive “clutch” if a jam were to occur. The collator is mounted using two set collars, so the operating angle may be adjusted if necessary. After a few different configurations I went with a 3 o’clock exit for the bullet. The 4-rpm gear motor allows between 2800-3200 bullets an hour to be collated. Like the MS Systems machine, a few inverted bullets would occur. This set up ran for less than an hour on my sizing machine before I decided it would have to be hooked up to the 650. All I needed to come up with at that point, was a way to make sure the machine never inverted a bullet. If a bullet went into my sizing machine up side down it was forced through anyway. In loading ammunition the down time to fix the problem could outweigh all the convenience of automation. It took a bit of thought; however, the solution was fairly simple. The collator feeds each bullet through a culling device. This failsafe system is made from a .75” thick piece of aluminum that mounts a solenoid, which operates a trap door. When a bullet drops into the wheel it is driven across a whisker switch, if the bullet is oriented correctly, small end up, it passes the (closed) trap door and continues on until being dropped into the bullet feed tube. If the bullet is inverted the larger diameter of the base triggers the switch. This activates the solenoid, opening the trap door that drops the bullet down an aluminum tube into a bin mounted on the side. This component has an 8-rpm gear motor, and can check 2400 bullets an hour, it works 100%. A limit switch was placed into each feed tube to stop the respective gear motor when a tube becomes full, much like the Dillon case feeder. Another adapter had to be machined to mate the collator to a GSI bullet feeder. The only part of the 650 that I permanently modified was the post that holds the case feeder. The wires coming out of the low primer warning system and the powder check system are for the next phase of the project. These will tie into a latching relay and shut off the main drive motor when either system is triggered. Two other limit switches, connected to a time delay relay, will stop the drive motor if the ram does not complete a full stroke, up or down, in the time allotted (saves the clutch if a jam occurs). The drive motor I chose runs at 20 rpm allowing 3 seconds per round to total 1200 in an hour, if you keep everything full. Not quite the 3500-7000 rounds an hour from most automated machines; however, also not the $15,000-$35,000 either. [attac ment=2225:attachment]