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Baragasam

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Posts posted by Baragasam

  1. 2 minutes ago, ddc said:

     

    Not sure what you are referring to. There is no station between the priming station and the powder drop.

     

    Perhaps you are thinking of the aftermarket tool heads on which the primer station is threaded for a die?

     

    If that is the case then I have used both the Lyman  M die and the Redding Premium expander die there.

    They work as you would expect although the primer slide actuator mounting bracket needed a little clearance work on my machine.

     

     

    I forgot this was a 1050 question while I was thinking of a Evo 🤦‍♂️ but yes. 

  2. 10 hours ago, Farmer said:

    One of the best die’s I’ve bought is a Lee recapping die. That’s all it does but it does it well. 

     

    I've had one and it's great for general depriming. But for crimped primers I find the Mighty Armory shorty bull is great as the decapping pin won't back out like the Lee one does as it's friction fit vs MA's capped design. But the Lee one does work somewhat as a redundancy in case the primer or whatever is being decapped is stuck in a way where normal forces can't decap by allows the priming pin to shift up instead of puncturing all the way through the primer itself. 

  3. 1 hour ago, Racinready300ex said:

    No matter the gun I tend to put a lot of time and ammo into things like doubles, and practical accuracy or even Garcia dot drill.(vary similar to practical accuracy) That kind of covers the core of hitting stuff for what we do. The things like accelerator and distance change up are great for working on changing gears. Transitions are another big thing to work on. That might just be setting up 3-4 targets, I like to include one piece of steel. Then just run through them in different orders. The order doesn't need to make sense either. Do right to left and left to right sure, but then do reps skipping around too. Most anything else I might do would probably include a little movement, even if just a step or two.

     

    Things like draws and reloads I'll save for dry fire. Especially when it's freezing ass cold outside, no real need to use ammo for that stuff anyway. 

     

    My time is always tight, I typically pick a drill and run it live and dry on the range. I shoot for being in and out in about 40 min. That includes setup, tear down, and policing brass. 

     

    That's a very good point for saving draws and reload for dry fire whereas leaving the drills that require live fire for live fire. I like that. 

  4. 23 minutes ago, Sinister4 said:

    I had a set of lenses made to make the dot look sharp,  its focus (for me) was pretty much the longest target distance, its not quite as far as my long distance Rx, but its out there,  IE the dot and the target appear to the eye at they are in the same plane, if that makes sense  My eye doctor is great and also a shooter so it was pretty easy to figure out and all.   I do however shoot irons still and for that use a monovision RX.  Without the "dot" lenses the dot is nothing but a nasty fuzzball no matter where its set 

     

    Wow I have a eye doctor too but that's cool to know that there's tailored solutions for that. Makes sense for a controlled condition shooting environment. 

  5. 4 minutes ago, Racinready300ex said:

     

    How big of a smear? Have you tried a smaller dot?

     

    Most of my dots don't look crisp either. I tend to like the smaller 2.5 moa dots. It doesn't really matter to me what the dot looks like just so it's in the A-zone. I also tend to not crank the brightness up to high. That can make a 2.5 moa dot flare up and look like a 5 or 6. Still usable just not my favorite. On closer targets all you need to do is see a flash of red really, some people describe it as using a paint brush. If that makes sense to you. 

     

    Not trying to keep you from your irons, if they work that's great. Just thinking there might be ways to work through your issue if you wanted to. 

     

    I totally agree. I tried going to different dot sizes and brightness settings but at best it still looks like 3 dots bunched together sometimes. But I agree with the fact that as long as you see red and cover the A-zones it'll be fine. Except I train mostly for self-defense and may not wear corrective lenses all the time. The point-shoot concept still applies from optics to irons though. I also enjoy optics whenever I come across a gun equipped with one. 

  6. 1 minute ago, Racinready300ex said:

     

    What exactly does a astigmatism do to the dot that makes them useless? 

     

    For me, without corrective lenses the dot looks like a starburst/smear rather than a crisp ball/circle. 

  7. @Cuz I have minor astigmatism and red dots just don't work for me unless I use corrective lenses. But at that point I also just stick with irons as I can shoot those without corrective lenses. Plus the cost and ease of modifying Glocks makes them very worthwhile for those trying to figure out what parts and accessories works best for them. 

  8. I would have to agree with all the above. 

     

    -Fundamentals: Draw stroke, clearing of the garment (if you are conceal carrying), presentation and trigger work

    -Reloading/Malfunction clearing

    -90/180 degree turns

    -Verbal commands 

     

    That's just my suggestions for self-defense training though. 

  9. 15 minutes ago, Boomstick303 said:

    When you reuse primers I could see a high chance of the primer backing out during firing.  I saw this happen in an AR and it caused all kinds of issues with the BCG and the trigger.  In my eyes not worth reusing unfortunately.  

     

    As far as cleaning, I think you have to ask yourself is it worth wasting the powder and the bullets in making ammo with primers (after cleaning of some sort) that possibly would not work.  Cut your losses and remove the primers (carefully) and keep the brass.  

     

    If you still want to try, why not just tumble the brass with the primers in a media sorter of some sort?  Just tumble the brass, do not dry tumble.  Or maybe dry tumble with no media and then use the media sorter to make sure all of the powder is out of the casings.  Tumbling the brass may cause enough force for the  powder to dump out of the brass.  Just a thought.

     

    Just to sound off of this, I would also make sure the primer has decent seating force before charging it with powder and seating it with a bullet. In the event like @Boomstick303 said, that the primer backs out and your powder spills everywhere. And if the primers don't fire off, you could also pull the cartridge apart again and save the projectile, powder and brass. 

  10. Thanks for the kind reply @Mancolt

     

    I suggest you do a dry tumbling method with corn cob/walnut media and a vibratory tumbler. Be sure to get the right media size so they don't get stuck in your cases and a media separator for that type of media. I personally use gold panning baskets with different mesh size to separate in layers but I don't think that would work for corn cob-style media, I use SS media. If money is not a huge concern I would get a harbor freight vibratory tumbler and some corn-cob or walnut media from your local hardware/pet store (usually used for lizards or something like that). There's also aftermarket media separators online so you won't have to pay for a name brand one like Dillon or Lyman. 

  11. On 11/27/2021 at 12:00 AM, Farmer said:

    Boy-howdy, you got that right! I do small batches of shotgun shells and have a mec Mk5 and a progressive. It’s just amazing how fast you can crank out a box with the progressive. It seems like you just get started and you have a box done, so you might as well do another. 😄 I still like the single stage presses for load development though. 

     

    lol I use a Lee Load All 2 and doing 12G's 1 at a time too. Progressives really came a long way for sure. 

  12. 2 minutes ago, Banacek said:

    You can reuse the primers, i wouldn't trust them for competition.  

     

    I agree with this. And also be very careful when de-priming live primers especially with crimped pockets too. I don't even know how that is possible to deprime a crimped in primer. Just make sure you wear eye and hearing pro and not have any other volatile components around the depriming workstation. 

  13. I tumble certain brass with SS and use gold sifting pans to separate. Similar to the mesh basket idea mentioned above. I too find it hard to justify that much media to separate brass when I only tumble small quantities with media and I don't use media to tumble larger quantities. I use a cement mixer for larger volume. 

  14. Also a lano+alcohol user here. I use one to two light coats after brass cleaning and don't remove lube after either. It's a little greasy to the touch but my guns never had a problem with them. The way I see it, the lube staying on also helps prevent tarnishing/oxidizing (to a degree) as a way to preserve my brass. Sure carbide dies don't need lube for 9mm but it would also help preserve dies a tad longer in my opinion. I used to load 9mm without lube as well and that wore out a steel die quite quick, just sharing another experience of mine.

  15. Can anyone share their experience with the Lee 120 TC mold on top of MP35/Titegroup powder?

     

    My projectiles drop at 126gr~

    Powder coated with Eastwood Henry Ford light blue 

    Projectiles sized at .356

    1.06"~ COAL

    Mixed brass

    4.1gr MP35

     

    1144fps average out a 4.5" barrel

  16. 2 hours ago, erwos said:

    It really is the killer app for the Apex. After seeing this thing in action, I'd never even consider buying an 1100 until Dillon comes out with a comparable solution (which shouldn't be impossible, TBH). Frankly, next year, I may even upgrade my trusty 650 in 9mm to an Apex if this thing holds up.

     

    I can't agree more. The whole point of automated progressives was to create a retail version of commercial machines. And in my humble opinion when a designer takes away certain automated aspects such as bullet/brass/primer feeds it defeats the whole purpose of a automatic progressive. Plus the automation for Dillon is made by Mark 7 anyways. I personally would prefer to support the 'original' designer who brought solutions to the retail market. The extra 10th station of the Evo is not a must but a nice plus as well. Dillon however makes great value dies and I use them on the Evo (LOL). 

     

    I initially purchased my Evo to do 1 pass reloading for 223 with a trimmer but after some extensive research including long chats with @RGA who greatly helped me out, it really wasn't worth it. But all the above points I made favoring the Evo over the RL1100 still stands true. 

     

    However, I am slightly disappointed with Mark 7's approach in manufacturing the Apex 10 parts in cast instead of milling. They did state that it does no affect the functionality and is one of their approaches towards reducing the overall MSRP of their progressive presses. Which from a business standpoint I complete understand. Especially now that they have been acquired by Lyman. 

     

    If you like your press in 223/300BLK you will love it in 9mm. The Mark 7 Evo is very smooth with straight walled caliber rounds such as 9mm in my experience. 

     

    I have even used the Mr.Bullet feeder with the nose-down conversion plate to feed onto my Lee-automatic processing press to size a high volume of 9mm projectiles.  

     

    The system as a whole works great for my uses. 

  17. Hi @erwos!

     

    Can't agree more with most of your statements. I had to remount my whole press to another location on my reloading bench plus turn it 90 degrees clockwise to get the amount of space needed to fit the Xpress. I can also confirm that the installation manual does not include the removal of the priming system so I referred to the standard user manual for 'hints'. Which I too took my time in figuring out the removal. But instead of removing the shuttle I removed the filler tube and the shuttle arm underneath that connects to the actuating arm inside the core. In all honesty it wasn't Too bad. I also strongly support your #3 statement in function checking the priming system before moving further. I had some binds that I needed to work out.

     

    While I was at this installation, I took the time to also adjust the indexing mechanism of the Evo as well prior to adjusting the indexing of the priming system. Luckily I don't reload small primer And large primer calibers so switching calibers isn't a concern of mine but I can agree that the designing of the modularity between switching from small primers and large primers could've been done better. Counter-argumentatively, it is the simplest and most cost effective way I can see Mark 7 producing it. 

     

    I noticed the same about the feed ramp liner that protrudes which the disc can drag on. Instead of filing it I used a bit of force to push it into the milled out slot with the Xpress unit itself loose on the mounting areas which gave me extra wiggle room. This made it work. 

     

    I would also like to suggest for people who are looking to install this unit to very carefully align the disc accurately with the priming disc indexing adjusters so that the indexing rod doesn't have to do most of the alignment but as a last stop aligning step of the priming disc. I believe this would reduce wear of the alignment hole on the disc and alignment rod itself. Also preventing unnecessary movement to the priming disc which may or may not cause primers to either flip or move in ways we don't want it to. 

     

    I also agree with your last statement that a primer feed stop mechanism would be nice and that for those loading volume this primer Xpress is a must as the standard priming system only holds 100 primers and loading tubes for it is a PITA. I previously used a Vibraprime to load tubes but that would sometimes jam. Circling back to the primer feed stop idea, turning off the unit is a may or may not work idea as I believe any movement to the unit itself would still move primers down the chute. But the fact that it has a primer orientation sensor and no-primer-detected alert is a major plus, eliminating the need to spend the extra $100-$200 for the on board primer sensor. Which, argumentatively can be a requirement as it detects if a primer has been successfully installed on a primer pocket (especially loose primer pockets which don't hold primers). 

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