my poor mans primer depth / over travel handle stop XL650

[alecmc]

I shoot a lightened action revolver which works best with federal primers seated between .008 and .010.

Now unfortunately the xl650 doesn't have any sort of depth adjustment for seating primers, and I have a problem either over seating them by pushing too hard, or to shallow by not pushing hard enough.which would result in light strikes

Brainstormed a little bit today and came up with this, an adjustable over travel stop for the handle. made of some scrap pieces of steel I had in the garage.

I knocked out 50 or so pieces of brass and measured each one... Way more consistent .008-.009 typically(PPU head stamp which I have a metric ton of ) , but federal likes to seat a touch shallow at around .0065-.007ish, so does winchester.

Yes, it's ugly, Yes I know the welds suck, Yes I know revolvers are stupid.

But - here it is... let's just call it still in it's " prototype stage "

-alec

The only issue now is it in the way of the ammo tray, - just notched it out and proped it up on 2 primer boxes and she's good to go. I'm going to try to come up with some sort of extension piece for the ramp so I can have the tray sit a little farther away.

In action:

Edited July 10, 2013 by alecmc

[GTOGuy06]

1)That is an awesome idea. I was curious to how people kept their primer depths consistent. I figured it was just based on feel (what I am doing now)

2)Who cares if its an ugly weld, it works.

3)Revolvers are far from stupid. People who think revolvers are stupid are stupid. How's that for some logic.

Anyways, cool handle stopper.

[alecmc]

Thanks GTO

As far as i've seen in my research this could be the first of its kind ! lol

I di alot of searching online when I first inquired about a primer depth adjustment on the 650... the general consensus was " upgrade to a 1050 "

Should slap a patent sticker on that bad boy haha

&

Revolvers = Love

[Youngeyes]

Great idea. How will it work for different headstamp brass that has different thickness pockets and rims? Will you need to separate brass and readjust?

[alecmc]

Great idea. How will it work for different headstamp brass that has different thickness pockets and rims? Will you need to separate brass and readjust?

Most my brass is PPU headstamp... like 80% of it , but I also tested through Winchester, Federal , And Aguila , and RP

PPU consistently comes in at .008

Winchester and Federal averages about .0065-.007 ( but my revolver still set them off )

Aguila came in at 008-009ish

I just adjusted it so that they would all sort of be within range across the board... I dont need super tight accuracy , but happy if they are in the ball park. I think this will really help with overseating, which was my biggest issue.. If I pushed just a touch too hard I would have primers as deep as .015, which is wayyy to deep for my revolvers. So hopefully this eliminates that problem.

[practical_man]

Alec

That is a cool idea. I use a 550 so I don't think I have ever experienced the over seating problem. I am thinking about a 650, so is this a problem unique to that machine?

Thanks

[alecmc]

Alec

That is a cool idea. I use a 550 so I don't think I have ever experienced the over seating problem. I am thinking about a 650, so is this a problem unique to that machine?

Thanks

I wouldn't really call it a problem with the machine, the machine itself is excellent. - I just require my primer depths to be a little more specific due to the nature of the light triggers on my revolvers. And there wasnt an option for me to do so from dillon via the press itself.

and when I say that I seat them too deep or too shallow, that is specific to the parameters i'm aiming for depth wise... Any other gun ( factory/stock/whatever) would light them off regardless.

Edited July 11, 2013 by alecmc

[gunnit]

Nice work alec, that's a great idea. I have a hard time with primer consistency, I might be trying this.

[cecil]

good idea... start making / marketing them !!!

[Greg in VA]

That's cool....if you spray it blue no one would know its not factory.

[SD1]

Nice!

Simple and effective

[Franco79]

That's what this forum is all about... Ideas that work!!!

[alecmc]

Thanks guys, going to run it for a while and see what else it might need to be modified, then I'll build version 2.0

thinking about using a rubber padded foot thingamabob like this:

though concerned it might have a little too much flex in the rubber,maybe I can find something that's more of a hard plastic so that it doesn't dent up the handle to bad

[Gandof]

Wow! I would have gone with slightly heavier springs in the revolver. Still if you need that kind of primer seating depth control, looks like you've got the solution! A pretty inovative one too. Good job!

Gandof

[practical_man]

Alec

That is a cool idea. I use a 550 so I don't think I have ever experienced the over seating problem. I am thinking about a 650, so is this a problem unique to that machine?

Thanks

I wouldn't really call it a problem with the machine, the machine itself is excellent. - I just require my primer depths to be a little more specific due to the nature of the light triggers on my revolvers. And there wasnt an option for me to do so from dillon via the press itself.

and when I say that I seat them too deep or too shallow, that is specific to the parameters i'm aiming for depth wise... Any other gun ( factory/stock/whatever) would light them off regardless.

Thanks Alec. I guess I have just been lucky so far. I am running my triggers around 6 pounds to get reliable function with federal primers. Never thought about being more consistent with seating depth. I will experiment some with this when I have time and get some new brass. Mostly I use mixed head stamps. It's about time to call Starline...

[Youngeyes]

Thanks guys, going to run it for a while and see what else it might need to be modified, then I'll build version 2.0

thinking about using a rubber padded foot thingamabob like this:

though concerned it might have a little too much flex in the rubber,maybe I can find something that's more of a hard plastic so that it doesn't dent up the handle to bad

Try this stuff to coat the nut. It works great and comes in Dillon blue. It will cushion the hit without flexing. You can control the thickness by adding coatings.