I've written and re-written this post about 5 times because i keep end up writing volumes, i'm the over thinking type. I have a few years experience loading for bolt action rifles, .270 and 338LM. low volume longer distance shooting. Batches of 100 at the most but really focusing on consistency and precision, lab grade scale and all. I love shooting pistol, .223 and .308 semi auto's but it was never worth my time to reload on a single stage press and ammo was cheap enough.
I just inherited 4 super 1050s! 2 with mark 7 auto drives, 1 set up for processing with what i think is a forcht auto drive, and 1 with no auto drive. the mark 7's have a bunch of sensors and there are 2 dillon toolhead mounted case trimmers set up for both 223 and 300blk. 2 rf100's, a largish homeade looking wet tumbler and a bunch of other stuff including components galore. I'm probably going to get rid of at least some of this stuff, but i want to use them first, understand how they work, and why he had 4 freaking 1050 presses.
I'm trying to understand how to use them correctly. I'm going to start off learning how to use them for 9mm, and .223 first and churning out some hopefully big batches. I've been trying to do a lot of research, but i still have dumb questions.
So how do you handle load development? do you do it on a single stage first? Then once you have a recipe set up the 1050 to match? I understand that with a progressive press you lose consistency if you don't have something in every station? Not to mention if i'm testing multiple powder charges and seating depths? I'm not even sure how important that is for .223 and 9mm and more tactical style shooting vs bullseye. I mostly shoot steel with pistol and ar15.
What would be the right way to process and reload the brass? I don't mind making multiple passes if the auto drives are doing the work and i'm just keeping a watchful eye over them and refilling components.
Pass 1: (1) decap, (2) swage
Pass 2: wet tumble
Pass 3: (1)resize, (2)mdie [don't need to swage since it was already done? but he has the swage sense i'm assuming to look for obstructions/ringers? do you still need the swage backer?], (3)prime, (4) powder, (5) powder check (with mark7 sensor), (6) bullet feeder, (7) seat/crimp combo?
Does this sound like a reasonable workflow? Would you change out any of the die stations? Where/when do you do the case trimming with the press mounted trimmer if needed?
Would you do a different work flow for .223 vs 9mm?
The 1050s have a few settings i have no idea about. Rounds per hour? to start i'll keep everything at the slowest speed, but how do you know what to go up to? Does changing speed affect things like powder flow? seating depth? etc? Likewise there are some dwell time settings? clutch settings? etc. How do you know when you need to mess with them?
Finally, while I'm really excited to have these, and with the ammo shortage to use them because i'm eating into my cache. Do i really need 4 1050s? That seems unnecessary. Maybe keep 1 for bass processing, and 1 for loading and get the necessary conversion kits? Or Keep 1 for processing and use the money from the other 3 to get a revolution? Not sure that's much better? I don't need the money, time and space are more valuable to me. For a sentimental reason i'd feel less crappy selling to consolidate/upgrade vs just getting rid of it and keeping the cash for whatever. I plan on keeping and using these for a few months before i make any decisions, but would appreciate some thoughts/advice on this.
