Mancolt

We ran about 100 rounds through my wife's gun this AM with no problem. I had the primer depth set lower on my Apex 10 last night for this batch of rounds, and that, combined with seating all of them anywhere from 1.085 to 1.090 seems to have resolved the issues. I'd like to get about 500 through it before I make any definitive statements about the issues being gone, though.

Good luck Skeet! I have found that I had to load my rounds much shorter OAL than I used to with Summit City Bullets, because they were contacting the rifling much earlier in my Canik than they were in my other guns. The Canik also seemed much more sensitive to it. I had a bunch of rounds loaded to 1.13 OAL with 124gr Summit City RN, and they ran fine despite not plunking in my P320 X5's. But I had to go down to 1.085" OAL to get them to run at all in the Caniks. That was the point at which they plunked. So if they were close, but didn't plunk (and spin) the Canik really struggled with them. After eliminating OAL, the only thing left I can think of is high primers.

I am using Ginex too, and I do think the occasional (slightly) elevated primer is the issue. I recently set my press to seat them a little deeper, and I'm going to pay extra attention to primer depth on my next batches. But if that doesn't solve it, then we'll likely be selling my wife's guns, because I've tried everything I can think of and the amount of time it takes to inspect ammo (on top of brass prep + reloading) just isn't worth it. We'll find a gun she likes that eats these reloads no problem, like pretty much every other gun I own does.

Anyone else have any light strikes with their Rival? My wife has 2 Rivals, and I have 2 P320 Legions. My guns almost never light strike, and on the same reloads, she'll have 20 or so to my 1. I get probably 1 per 500 to 1k rounds. She's getting 2 to 4 per 100 rounds.

After further evaluation, I think it was the cartridge OAL causing the vast majority of issues. Plink test revealed that the same ammo that runs just fine in my x5 legion, glocks, pdp, etc, do not run in the Rival. I had an OAL of 1.13" and need to be around 1.09" with these bullets. Haven't had nearly the number of light strikes after loading the rounds shorter.

I was wondering about the follower kits. I added some Henning base plates and can only fit 21 rounds in, and that's super tight. I didn't see a Grams kit for just the Rival, and I wasn't sure if one of their kits for another mag would work. But you're saying the Grams kit for the CZ's work just fine in the Rival mags with baseplates? I don't want to order 4 of them only to find out they aren't compatible, you know? Also, has anyone else had issues with light primer strikes? If so, did you find a way to make the gun less sensitive to them? I'm pretty sure the cause is the occasional slightly high primers, but those happen sometimes. I try to catch them all when I'm checking my ammo (none of them are egregiously high, those are easy to spot), but I'm loading for my wife and I for 1-2 local matches per week, on top of practice ammo. I don't have the time to look over every single round in painstaking detail. My P320 X5 Legion has no problem setting off the rounds with a slightly high primer, but my wife's Rival is super sensitive to even the tiniest bit of elevation on a primer.

Sorry to revive this thread, but considering a feedinator for feeding an automated Apex 10 and future rollsizer. @DJRyan13 did you ever end up getting one? Care to share your thoughts?

Good call, I just ordered one from Amazon that should be here Friday. Thanks. Didn't realize there were universal decapping dies.

Small sample size, but I took 6 rounds that I loaded up last night using the worst primers from the lot of recaptured ones. All 6 went bang. Just did some up close shooting drills, but they seemed to land exactly where my dot was sighted for normal (new primer) rounds loaded with the same powder and bullets. I'll expand my testing and maybe load up about 100 rounds using the primers I've captured so far. If 95%+ of those go bang, then I'll probably take my time to recapture all of the primers from these shells. I didn't end up tumbling (dry or wet). Instead I just sorted everything by hand into 3 piles: Good brass + good primer, Good Brass + backwards primer, Bad brass + good primer. The hard part is going to be getting the primers out from the brass that's really mangled. I was thinking about using a higher caliber sizing/decapping die (like a 45acp), since that should have extra space to allow the beat up brass to still go deep enough into the die for the decapping pin to get through the flash hole.

Back to the question at hand...anyone have ideas on how to clean the primed (but unfired) brass, that doesn't totally ruin the chance of recapturing a working primer?

Thanks, this was my plan as well. Eye and ear pro, with no other stations occupied, nothing else close to the press. I'm sure I could accidentally set one off if I tried to deprime too quickly, since the decapping pin is essentially a firing pin. If I end up setting too many off, I'll probably give up or tumble them all and then trash the primers and keep the brass. But given what primers cost right now, I think it's worth it to try to recapture them, at least until 1 or more go off. Also, I don't compete (yet) so these would just be used for plinking. To your point though, I'll segregate the primers and loaded ammo so I can track what the successful recapture rate is.

Why can't the primers be reused if I don't tumble them or get them wet? After popping one of them out, it looked perfectly fine for re-use, so I reloaded it into the same case just to see if I had any issues. The photos are of a case that had the primer inserted backwards. With slow consistent pressure, it popped right out, and then I set the primer on the priming station and reprimed the same case. Nothing looks different between this round and any other that's primed using primers straight from a sleeve... I just didn't lube the case before resizing on a carbide die, which is why the outside has that dull appearance or whatever.

I bought a few thousand 9mm and 300B/O primed (unfired) scrap brass from American Reloading around Black Friday. Some of the brass is mangled, but I'd estimate roughly 90-95% is fine and can be reloaded after depriming (many of the primers are in backwards). All of the brass contains unfired primers. I put an empty toolhead with a 9mm depriming/resizing die in it, and was planning on running all of the brass through my XL750 with just the first station occupied, and carefully depriming each case and collecting (for later use) the unfired primers. The problem is some of the cases appear to have been loaded, and there's a bunch of spilled powder in the bag. So I need a way to clean off the brass before sending it through my press, or I'll just end up with a big mess. I don't want to wet tumble because I can't imagine water and primers being a great combo, and I don't have a dry tumbler (but could get one, if that's my only option). Any ideas on how to clean off the cases (not looking for a perfect clean, just good enough for a first pass) without ruining primers?

Good find: https://outdoors.natchezss.com/search?w=frankford f10 Press is $650, toolheads are $103, Case Feeder $196, Bullet Feeder $380, Shell Plates $72 each. I agree, although I started with an XL750 and added the bullet feeder and primer collator almost from the start. I did my first 200 or so without just so I could learn the process, but added them almost immediately and haven't looked back.

I assume you mean like the case feeders and bullet feeders? Only the casefeeder appears to be included with the RL1100 and M7. I always assumed it was an add-on for both of those, but that at least helps to justify the $2k and $3k price tags, respectively. Even still, I would expect Frankford's Casefeeder option to be less than Dillon's, and still to come in at $1k or less (w/casefeeder, but without bullet feeder) given their press is so much less expensive. Whether it works as well (and for that matter, the FX-10 itself) remains to be seen.

The only one that I haven't heard mentioned here, which I think could really shake things up, is the new Frankford Arsenal FX-10. There's not a lot of info available on it yet, but release date that I saw is late this Calendar Year. Will be a 10 station press with on press swaging, and expected price is around $700. I think it will be an extremely strong competitor to the Dillon XL750, 1050, and even the Mark 7, since capacity is the same but price is expected to be 1/4 what the M7 is and 1/3 what the 1050 is (and more stations to boot than the 1050). It obviously won't be as refined as the M7 and maybe not the 1050, and may not be as easily automatable, but I am seriously considering the FX-10 as my next potential upgrade from my XL750.

As the title suggests, is it possible to reload 223 (or any rifle caliber) using the XL750 with a Mr Bullet Feeder and Powder Check? Using the DAA Extra Short Powder bar, I've had no problems doing this with 9mm. But for reloading 223, I need to swap the short powder bar with the long one, and DAA doesn't make a long powder bar replacement option. Is there a workaround that anyone is aware of, up to and including using a different powder measure? I'd love to see solutions, as I'm a big fan of the powder check (for safety) and MBF(for convenience).

Care to elaborate on your bad experience? What would you have bought instead? Sounds like Dillon is by far the most popular press for reloader. At least that was the conclusion I came to when looking into which press to get.

The only place I disagree is the gap between the xl750 and the 1100/M7 Evo. As I was trying to decide between all 3 options (750, 1100, M7 Evo) they really broke into 2 buckets. $650 for a complete setup is a big diff from $2k and $3k to me. I usually do buy once, cry once, but for just getting started, it was hard for me to justify spending 3x to 5x as much as a 750 for either of the other 2 options. If I get really into reloading I could still see myself getting an M7 Evo eventually. But I dont think I'll regret the 750, as it wasnt a significant purchase and I can leave it set up for a lesser used caliber. My impression (having never used one) is that the 1100 sits in an awkward gap. It's way too expensive (my opinion, I'm sure some will disagree) for what you get and doesn't deliver enough incremental to the 750 and has not been refined/improved enough over the years to justify its cost relative to an M7 Evo. I would guess for many that could drop $2k for the 1100, talking themselves into $3k for the Evo isn't much of a stretch.

OP here. Is money a factor for you? I think that's usually the trade-off that determines your choices. You either have more time than money or vice versa. And if you have more time, then use what you have whether it's the most efficient option or not. If you'd like to save time, then there may be a purchase you could make that helps make you more efficient. Since you already have the RL1100 on order, I personally would keep that and then get used to using that and reassess in a few months whether an extra 550 or 750 would help you save a bunch of time. If you're just doing 9mm, from what I've gathered, having a 2nd progressive press may not save a ton of time. I think a lot of people use a 2nd progressive press for processing rifle brass or leave their main one set up for their most popular caliber and the extra press set up for their 2nd most popular caliber. I went with a 750 to start for my volume reloading. I could envision myself long term also getting an RL1100 or Mark 7 Evo. But I would put myself in the more money than time category, and will be doing a lot to ensure I'm being as efficient as possible in my reloading.

Yep, not only is it extreme gouging, but on top of it, the seller seems to be intentionally misleading with the title and including just enough info in the description to be justified in not issuing a refund because the quantity is actually spelled out in the listing. Very deceptive, and changed my perception from one of "this is a decent seller" to "this is pretty disgusting, especially at a time when you can already sell primers for an extreme markup". To further mark it up because people aren't clear on the quantity they're buying is just plain wrong.

I'm checking from my phone and could be misreading thing, but I thought in the description of that link it says the auction is only for 1 box or 1500 primers.

Wow, this has been really great, thanks all. Just to document what I decided to do: I bought a Forster Co-Ax press (unfortunately on backorder) as I suspect it'll be good to learn on and also will be useful longer term for loading those calibers that I don't expect to be shooting in high volumes. I also got on the waiting list for a Dillon XL750. So far I've picked up 9mm, 223, and 300BLK dies and various other reloading equipment (wet tumbler, case dryer, chrono...). I also managed to score a few pounds of powder, plenty of 9mm bullets, a small amount of 223 bullets, and a very small number of small rifle and small pistol primers. Hopefully I can get lucky and find some more primers soon so I can begin reloading as soon as my Co-Ax arrives.

Glad I stumbled across this thread. Has there been any update on the Mark 7 Trimmer? Any additional feedback about the MA sizing and crimp dies?

Thank you everyone for the responses. They have been helpful. @Boomstick303 Your response was extremely insightful. You've assuaged most of my concerns about jumping straight to the equipment that I plan to use over the long term. I've just started my Youtube and online/forum learning journey a few weeks ago, so I've still got a lot more to read through/watch. I've mostly watched Ultimate Reloader/Gavintoobe and some from Bolt Action Reloading on YouTube. Who are the good ones that you recommend? Any books I should get? I'm planning to order the Lyman reloading manual, but are there other books that would be good to read before starting? Like you, I don't have any mentor I'm comfortable enough with to ask for guidance. I do consider myself moderately mechanically inclined and handy, and I tend to do a massive amount of research before diving into something. I have no plans to change that when it comes to reloading. And I too intend to reload 9mm, 223, 300BO. I would also like to do a little bit of .45, 308, and 6.5CM, but not anywhere near the volume of those first three. I'm still learning about all of the steps. I've seen case prep come up often as many people's least favorite part of reloading. It seems you can often repurpose an older press to dedicate to that function. So I wasn't sure if it made sense to start on one of the smaller turret or progressives from Dillon (550, 750) because I could later convert that into a case prep machine.