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Been shooting clean shot with 125gr rn blue bullets for 2 years now. No major compliant except for one: when it rains on a match day, the pf will increase dramatically. My 133pf match load went straight to 139.8 in Mid Atlantic sectional in 2021, it rained hard that day. But, on a day like that, pf is the least of my concern. Just thought you might wanna know.

Bought 100 124 JHP V2 and weighed each of them. To use the word “impressed” on the consistency is an understatement. They are all within 124.3gr- 124.7gr. Some other 9mm products, like blue bullet or Everglades, would give me +/- 2.x grain range over the nominal weight. 1.10” OAL with 4.5gr cleanshot powder result in 2.7” group at 25yards in my Shadow 2 OR, The average power factor of this load is 128pf with single digit ES. (Tested in a 92degrees hot day in Pennsylvania, rarely gets hotter than that here, and Cleanshot powder is reverse temperature sensitive, so the load is pretty safe when shooting in northern states in summer)

Same with my S2, and in the past, with my M&P. With my experience, in order to simulate standing off-hand shooting when zeroing with bench rest, I rest my upper arm on my range bag to provide support, and my elbow, forearm, hand, and the pistol touch nothing. Not sure how to explain it in a scientific way, but this way the POI is the same as standing off-hand shooting.

No fpb, no trigger safety, no carry... This is more of an IDPA CCP competition gun in my eyes.

In a perfect world every reloader should roll size and pre-process once fired brass. But that's not the reason I started this thread. During a regular USPSA match season, I shoot around 15k - 20k rounds. I have a full time job and 1 young kid (2nd kid coming very soon), so I am looking for a solution to reduce the chance of the case gauge failure as much as possible without investing extra money and time for a rollsizer and brass pre-processing. I would be happy if I can reduce my current failure rate (currently at 5+%) to ~1% when loading with mixed headstamp range pickup brass. BTW, I wet tumble with ss pin and case lube all my brass with Hornady One Shot. The toolhead arrived last Friday. As planned, I installed a 9mm Lee FCD on priming station. Crimping parts are removed so it does not form an enclosed space with the case in the priming station. This way I have the peace of mind knowing an accidental primer detonation wouldn't cause any damage other than a loud sound. Safety first. Some have said that Dillon carbide sizing die is a full length sizing die and it should, when set up properly, ensure the cases pass case gauge, with the exception of those with glock bulge. It should be when there is no die installed on any other station, meaning when the press is used only for brass pre-processing. I don't have time for pre-processing. During normal reloading process, when tolerance stacks up from a lot of places, like the case mouth expander/swage hold down die, or the case mouth flaring by the powder funnel, there is a fairly high chance that the Dillon sizing die would NOT go all the way down, leaving a few thousands of an inch of the case un-resized. That's when the FCD comes in handy.

TSS is nice, very good facilities. I taught a few NRA pistol classes there a few years ago there.

Those are very nice indeed.

Lol... Same here, driving myself nuts trying to save time on brass processing I mainly use 125gr blue bullets which are very popular among USPSA/IDPA shooters. These are pretty consistently coated and sized at 0.355". When loading with brass with the same headstamp, e.g. blazer brass cases I saved from the time I shot factory ammo, I only get ~1 out of 1000 failure rate when case gauging. When loading with mixed headstamp range picked-up cases that are pre-processed (sized and de-primed), I get roughly the same result. Only when loading with mixed headstamp range picked-up cases that are not pre-processed (still wet tumbled with SS pins) I am having 5% or higher failure rate. So I am pretty sure it is brass related issue. From HesedTech's reply, I think 2 pass sizing the brass before seating/crimping would help to reduce the failure rate. I just sent CNC Shooters an inquiry for their toolhead, hope he would get back to me soon.

Very useful information. Thanks!

I find it impossible that, after loading 30k+ 125gr blue bullets sized at 0.355" using mixed headstamp range picked up brass, 100% of the finished rounds would pass my hundo case gauge. The failure rate is pretty high at 5+%. I have 8k+ blazer brass cases. When loading the same bullets with these cases, 99.9% would pass the case gauge. BTW, I use exactly the same setup with MBF and I use only Dillon dies. This experience leads me to believe the main reason for the high failure rate was the dimension variation of the mixed headstamp cases. Also from my own experience, I once loaded 500 rounds without noticing the sizing/decapping die lock nut was slightly loose, resulting in failure of all 500 rounds at case gauge. I then ran these rounds through a FCD w/o the crimp parts, I was able to resize them without changing the case mouth diameter and neck tension. All 500 rounds passed case gauge after that. Accuracy of these "repaired" rounds was the same as my normal reloads. That's why I am thinking about using FCD with an aftermarket toolhead to reduce the chance of case gauge failure. And I assume that it would also serves as a nice hold down die.

Case mouth diameter after powder station where the powder funnel flares the case mouth to 0.383", and the case wouldn't go into the FCD

Since I don't have an aftermarket toolhead yet, I can only demo the FCD on station 4 like this: the case would go into the die completely, and the case mouth diameter measures exactly 0.377" after being inserted into the die body. I think it is safe to say that the carbide sizing ring in the FCD only works on the lower half of the case body, and not completely resize the entire case, which actually suits my purpose here.

case mouth diameter 0.377" after expander, before powder station

case diameter ~0.372" after sizing and before expander

The expander die on station 3 does not 'flare' the case mouth, it expands diameter of the top 1/4 of case by roughly 0.005". The flare is done by the powder funnel on station 5. I posted a few photos below to help explaining

100% agree with you, that would also contribute to sizing die not going down all the way. I actually did try case gauging after sizing and before seating, the result is much more satisfying when there is no die in any other stations, meaning when the press is used for sizing/decapping only.

Shell plate is tight enough. It is not that I am having high primers, I just don’t like the seating depth variation, some measures only 0.002”, I would like 0.005” at least since I am using light hammer springs on both of my shadow 2 and stock 2

As I said in the 1st post, when loading with mix headstamp brass, the slight variation in the dimension of different brand cases sometimes prevents the full length sizing die from going all the way down by a few thousands of an inch, and that would result in case gauge failure. The FCD helps ensuring the lower part of the case meet SAAMI specification while keeping the mouth expansion after station 3. I find the Dillon expander die on station 3 keeps the bullet coating unscratched during seating process.

Hello, I have been reloading with my 1100 for nearly a year now. One of the pain points when reloading with mixed headstamp brass is that the chance of case gauge failure is pretty high due to slight variation in case dimensions. Also I think a hold down die on the priming station would be helpful to get more consistent primer seating depth. Problem is that hand sorting brass by headstamp is too time consuming, and the everglade 1050 priming hold down die no longer works with the RL1100 factory toolhead. I am trying to get an aftermarket toolhead for my 1100 so I could use a Lee Factory Crimp Die (w/o the parts for crimping) on the priming station. IMO it could help with above issue/improvement. The carbide sizing ring inside the die would help reduce the chance of case gauge failure and at the same time serves as a hold down die for priming. I wouldn't be worried about an accidentally detonated primer hurting myself either because by removing the crimping parts there is no enclosed space. Also, I have verified with a resized & expanded case (mouth expanded with Dillon factory expander/swage backup die on station 3) that the carbide sizing ring does not change the case mouth expansion. I would love your inputs on this.

This is how I solved this issue with my 750 before I upgrade to an 1100: Re-align the platform and toolhead, for this you need to call Dillon and ask them to send you an alignment tool (free) Here is an example video of platform alignment on 650 from youtube, it is the same process on 750.

I understand the pros and cons of your set up. The current design and finish of the Dillon powder funnel/expander doesn't work with bullet feeder very well, bullet would tilt/fall off quite often when rotating to seating station. The DAA powder funnel solves that problem, but it does the least amount of neck expanding, it is not friendly with coated/thin plated projectile. The redding and lyman die are a combination of those two, but it takes an extra station. If only Dillon can make their powder funnel/expander like the Redding one, then you will be able to use bullet feeder on 650. I got the Redding premium expander die (photo taken from their website), which looks pretty similar to the one in your picture, with different/updated coating judging from the color. I planned to use it on the primer station on my 9mm RL1100, with an aftermarket toolhead of course. It will be like: - Mighty Armory decapping die with flicker spring (better in preventing primer pull back) - Dillon carbide sizing die (w/o decapping pin) - Redding premium expander die - Powder (powder funnel for powder drop activating only) - Mr.BF - Dillon Seating die - Dillon Crimp Die I think this, if set up and adjusted properly, would eliminate any binding even with my SS pin tumbled shiny brass, lubed with one shot. Then I stumbled across a very good discussion on another forum on why Dillon makes that station, well, 'die less'. Basically it says, when the die body is in the case and the primer is being inserted, the case is not vented. So if a primer detonates by accident (very rare but possible), it will create high pressure inside the case that could send parts of the press flying, hurting people. I am not so sure about that idea now.

Saw a couple of youtube videos, CNC Shooter offers toolhead for 1050/1100 with regular size hole at the primer station so you can use regular dies.

Good to know. Now I am planning to buy an aftermarket toolhead for 1100 so I can use the priming station for the expander die. I have a mighty armory smart decapping die with flicker spring which basically eliminates primer pull back issue and ready for autodrive in the future. So I need the swaging station for dillon carbide sizing die, w/o the decapping pin of course.

Sounds great! Can't wait to try 1100, even though I might have to wait for quite a few months before it is shipped.

Yes, with one shot spray. Doesn't get rid of the binding completely.