Boomstick303

Yea I wish I would have bought a couple of more when they were that price. Not sure if I have the updated buttons or not, but they have not given me any issues. Never see them for that price anymore.

I was wondering the same thing. They have possibly out priced themselves for me. I am exploring other options currently.

Not worried in the least. Just sharing a similar experience. Everyone figures out their own process in due time. Good luck on your reloading venture.

I started to go down this path and realized I was over complicating the reloading of 223/556. I returned that die and did not go down that road. You can Neck size, but it is completely unnecessary. You can also incorrectly size your brass neck if you do not know what you are doing. Once again I turn to Erik Cortina for this information.

Yup. Let me know if you have any other questions. Lot can be done to minimize recoil with a few specific parts. One of those being an adjustable gas block if you want to run in the competition division. I should have mentioned that.

Either would be fine. If this is strictly a 2 gun rifle for 2 Gun matches I would lean towards the 12.5". I have a purposed built 12.5" just for 2 Gun matches. EoTech with Magnifier with the games guts. JP LMOS bolt, buffer to match with full blown muzzle break. This year I intend to only shoot that for the 2 Gun matches, unless there is some insane small targets out at 200. If you ever feel you may want to 3-Gun, or attend a 3-Gun match to shoot in the 2-Gun division I might lean towards the 14.5". That setup would give you more flexibility. You will be shooting past 200yds in most instances for 3-Gun matches. While one can shoot out to 300-500 yds using the red dot/magnifier combo, or even some can with just a red dot with large enough targets, most seem to prefer the flexibility and LPVO gives you past 300 yds. 14.5" guns will not limit you in the infield stages and be great for longer shots. I will say I do prefer the 12.5" with the red dot/magnifier in the infield, but I do not feel I loose any time using my 16" with the LPVO and offset in the infield. Depends on the division and what you want to spend. I would lean towards this for the reasons mentioned above on a 14.5" Build. I would lean towards the reasons mentioned above for the 12.5" build. A few of the top end guys can easily shoot just a red dot out to the max distance 200 yds which is what the local PCSL rules for 2 Gun run. Something to keep in mind regarding distance shooting is unless you intend to invest a decent amount of time for practice, the LPVO and offset red dot may be the way to go. I find that I do not have to spend a lot of time practicing to hang in the top 10 at locals. It is like the easy button setup in my eyes. If you go the red dot/magnifier route, you will need to spend a bit of resources (ammo/time) to get that setup dialed in to understand you correct holds for longer shots. You really cannot go wrong with any setup of the components you have listed, you just need to set a budget and decide what you really want to concentrate your time to. I think that would dictate a lot of the answers.

None of my Redding dies require this. I have no idea what you are talking about. Maybe a video is in order to help one understand.

For Pistol reloading Redding dies are all I use. The only thing I have done is remove a spring out of the seating die (which is the micrometer version) to get more consistent OAL. Have produced thousands of rounds with zero issue. As you have figured out creating items that create and contain little explosions takes a great deal of Attention to Detail. I do not think reloading is for everyone. Especially those who lack that attention to detail. If one is challenged in this skill, I would think they would need to be more mindful of the process to produce quality ammo. I check a couple of QC factors while reloading to prevent any major issues and catch them before I make "Bad" ammo. One other thing I have started to do is check items on the press that can cause major issues before every reloading session. For example, one time I was missing a tiny poly block on the powder drop slide assembly that created about 1-2K of ammo that did not have consistent powder drops. Every time I measured the powder drops they were fine, but once the press was humming along would the issue present itself. This created all kinds of weird SDs that I thought was being caused by the gun. I will not make that mistake again.

Been running multiple Sig Romeo 3 XL. In true Sig fashion they used their customer base to Beta test over the first year. The very first Romeo 3 Max I had to go back because it could not be zeroed, but warranty repair had it back in less than 10 days. After that, I purchased 3 of the XLs and had zero issues for over 2 years now. They seem to have addressed the major issues.

Sounds about right I would think. I would load 4.0 - 4.2 and see which load agrees with the dot movement best. I found if Plated bullets are not splitting the difference between coated and FMJ/JHP they lean closer to coated regarding powder charge for a similar PF in my limited testing. I will let you know what I find with the coated once that testing is done.

I want to play with some N330, but I have so much N320 I cannot justify moving off it. The last thing I want is to fall in love the N330 and want to replace the N320.

Like mentioned above, personal preference. Do you like a snappy return, or lazier recoil impulse? I prefer quicker dot return and lighter bullets seem to give that over the heavier bullets. Funny thing. I developed a load for my Atlas Athena, and it came out to be 4.2 gr of N320 using 124 gr JHP, with an OAL of 1.115. I ran across some paper work cleaning up the reloading room and it was a document from Atlas outlining what reloads work well in the for all of their guns including the Athena and it was the exact load I landed on. I will probably play with some more load development for the stock of coated 125 gr bullets to see what the Athena likes for those. Most likely will start with 4.0 and 4.1 gr of Sport Pistol, and compare dot movement between that the the JHP recipe. I typically see Sport Pistol and N320 almost identical gr for gr, and find that due to the soft nature of the coated bullets .1-.2 gr less of powder is required for a similar PF for the coated bullets.

Like mentioned above, personal preference. Do you like a snappy return, or lazier recoil impulse? I prefer quicker dot return and lighter bullets seem to give that over the heavier bullets. Funny thing. I developed a load for my Atlas Athena, and it came out to be 4.2 gr of N320 using 124 gr JHP, with an OAL of 1.115. I ran across some paper work cleaning up the reloading room and it was a document from Atlas outlining what reloads work well in the for all of their guns including the Athena and it was the exact load I landed on. I will probably play with some more load development for the stock of coated 125 gr bullets to see what the Athena likes for those. Most likely will start with 4.0 and 4.1 gr of Sport Pistol, and compare dot movement between that the the JHP recipe. I typically see Sport Pistol and N320 almost identical gr for gr, and find that due to the soft nature of the coated bullets .1-.2 gr less of powder is required for a similar PF for the coated bullets.

Ah, thanks.

Not sure why this is even a question. Every time. We are racing guns so why would you not remove every possible variable you could to maintain reliability of the race machine? Unless you have enough mags to not have to reuse mags that hit the ground to get through the match clean them. I clean my mags every time a mag hits the ground in any division for any gun. Regardless if I think it does or not. Just removes 1 potential failure point from the equation. I use to have the same thought process about split cases. I had heard people have issues, but since I never had one, didn't really think it was a thing to worry about. Until I had a case head separation at a level 2 match. I no longer load split case brass. For many, it seems to me, it's not a thing until you experience it yourself. Then it's a thing.

What is the scam?

No, these are gas guns. There is not that level a tight tolerances to warrant that method. What I do is take a manufactured round I know works well in all of my guns and I base my measurements off that. I use a Fortster Full length sizing die. When it sizes it drags an expander ball through the neck for consistent neck sizing. I chose that die after quite a bit of research. I am sure others do as good of job, but I went the Forster dies for my 223 reloading. I am sure as you research you will run into videos yammering on about how important perfect neck sizing is. It really is not and there is another Erik Cortina video out there that discusses that. I originally purchased a neck sizing die with a few bushing to play around with it, but I am glad I did not go down that road. I just returned that die and never used it. Like @Farmermentioned, don't over think this. Gas guns are not really designed for PRS style shooting, (although they can shoot that well if set up correctly). Gas guns and the ammo designed for them have reliability in mind more so than perfect specifications for ammo. At the start only load a dozen or so rounds. Make sure they chamber in all of the rifles you intend to use that ammo in, and then go the range to see if you have accuracy. Find a good base load for the powder and bullet you are using and load ammo using the ladder method. For instance, I loaded Accurate 2200 using Hornady 55 gr FMJ-BT bullets and loaded ammo from 22.1 to 22.5 gr. There was a noticeable difference regarding MOA at 22.1 and 22.5 from 22.3 which seem to have the best accuracy. Keep in mind this is gamer ammo that is a bit slower than most manufactured ammo. I did find this load gets me out to 400 yds very reliably. Take your time and decent notes so you can get consistent results once you find an effective load.

I thought I saw a video years ago, where the dude that runs Atlas made indicating his goal was to build semi custom 2011 guns at a price point of $3,500 to $4,000 with super short lead times. I imagine what happened is they realized there was a larger market than they anticipated and realized they could charge more to do demand alone. They did keep their wait time around 3 months until LO came along and once that became a thing it opened the flood gates which has extended their wait times up to what seems to be a year as it stands. At the end of the day it is most likely a story of supply and demand. If the demand supersedes your supply it allows you to charge more. Pretty simple really. Something every person on this forum would do if they were in the same position. While I own 2 Atlas guns, I would be willing to go elsewhere to see what others have to offer at better price points due to the current price points of Atlas guns. A cool thing that has seem to come out of Atlas being able to charge what they are is they can now well parts to other builders to build guns. I noted the Atlas Alpha grip (which is a large reason I went with Atlas) on other builders builds. I think that is a win for everyone.

Yea, they are called instructions..... As we all know men don't read those things.

Resale of the gun. It may not be everyone's jam to want silicone carbide, so that would affect the number of available customers on resale. Depending on the quality of the job performed installing the carbide could also affect resale price.

It is no different for me. I can get you a recipe later today. OAL should depend on mags used and how the bullet interfaces with the feed ramp. When asking for info details would help. For what gun?

As long as all of the bullets are above the indicated weight. If you have rounds falling lower than advertised weight you could run into issues at Chrono. Especially when loading to PF below 130. I always check about a dozen rounds when I receive a lot of bullets to make sure none fall below.

Just curious. Was this straight out of the box, meaning you did not modify anything on the pistol?

Yes as long as the die is set up properly. Something to take into consideration is not all barrels will have the exact same chamber dimensions. Let us assume one does not set up a sizing die exactly correct. The rounds might chamber in certain barrels that have "looser" chambers than others. It does not mean that same round would work in a barrel with a chamber that is tighter to spec. I have numerous AR with a few different flavors of barrels. My main gamer rifle has a Stretch Precision 16" barrel. From my understanding those were designed with a bit "looser" chamber and will almost any ammo within reason. It does not mean a round that will chamber in that rifle will chamber in every barrel if the set up of the die set up was slightly off. To make a long story short, when you reload rifle rounds make sure they work for every rifle you intend to use them for. Yes sir, I belong to the HPPS board that puts on the USPSA matches out there and I Match Direct the Big Ben 2 Gun matches out there. I will occasionally help the TAC rifle dudes put on their match.

Not to my knowledge. They only thing that would be similar is MBX makes mags that are compatible with PCC receivers that accept Glock mags. Those mags obviously will not work in 2011 pistols.