Reload Setup

[AikiDale]

Before I go reinventing the wheels, have any of you any experience with a mobile reloading setup? I am thinking of how one might travel in an RV and take the Super 1050 along just in case you needed a few thousand rounds on the trip? How do you stabilize the press in a vehicle? Any usefull ideas appreciated, all humorous comments too!

[Flexmoney]

I don't know, but swing thru Columbus to pick me up and we will figure it out. (When does the tour start?)

[syme71]

Midway sells a portable stand...not sure how much room you have in the RV but this might work. http://www.midwayusa.com/rewriteaproduct/155024

Swing by northern NJ if you can, need someone to teach me how to reload.

[Scooter]

Man, can you imagine the number of rounds you can load on a trip. What else is there to do when you are sitting in a car for a few hours.

[kevin c]

And you're also lugging around (perhaps) thousands of lead bullets and brass that are useless unless loaded. Then you have to have the powder, and the primers, and a place to put all that stuff when you're not loading.

Most folks I know who have RV's tell me they use them to get to places they want to go where they can have fun. The RV is just a place to stay on the way and while they are there. They don't intend to sit inside the RV when they are there to be doing stuff while out of it. As for loading on the move, well, me, I'd rather be sleeping, reading, talking to my spouse, or watching the scenery go by.

I'd rather bring extra loaded ammo than bring dead weight components and a bulky press that I'd rather not be using on vacation. That being said, if I were swinging through Kalispell, Montana (MG Bullets) or Las Vegas (home of the Brassman), it'd sure would be nice to have the extra space to PICK UP unloaded components in bulk, and save the shipping.

Just my .02's worth.

[twix]

I like Dale's plan and would gladly ride along, but I know him and his partner a little so I'm sure it would be entertaining.

Hey, didn't BE hisownself travel the country reloading as he went?

From a practical standpoint my biggest worry would be eliminating the possibility of powder bouncing out of the primed case before I could place a bullet on it.

Heck, with a 1050 just mount it solid and reload enough for the both of ya when you get there. That'd take all of an hour or so...

TomB

[blue edge]

Dale,

I am with most of these others just loadmup and go! but if a guy was set

on loading as you go?? You would have to stop the suv to do your loading! but doesnt your Blazer have a CLASS 3 hitch? You probly could make it any hieght you wanted and a Blazer might be a pretty good strong mount.

I know a guy that can fab this to

[Dream]

another option is to get a second table top and mount the press on it. who eats a the table when your on the road?????

[AikiDale]

Thanks for the input! We are in the early "what if" stage of planning so I can not give you a start date Flex and Tom. But the plan is to acquire a 26 foot or so Class C mobile home and drive to fun places like maybe Mesa for the Area2 and other fun shooting venue over the course of a month or two. (If I could figure out how to make a living without having a fixed office/employer we could stretch this out longer, but I am addicted to eating). For a short trip loading before hand makes perfect sense, but on a longer voyage I thought it might make sense to take the press and pick up components as needed either at the vendors directly as mentioned, or at gunshows and local shops. It probably won't be a problem to mount the press and load when stationary, but on a long drive it might break up the long miles drivig across Kansas to be able reload on the move, if that will even work, hence the original inquiry.

[DougBarnes101]

Dale,

Just don't try to load and drive at the same time!!

If it works out I hope you have a great trip

[BigDave]

Didn't Barnhart have a pair of 1050's in the back of The Truck that Marilyn(sp?) ran for him?

[lynn jones]

have reloader, will travel.

[lmccrock]

Having lived in a motor home, I screwed my 550 to a board, then clamped it to the dinette table. This kindof works, but the dinette table is barely strong enough to eat from let alone decap/size/bell/seat/etc. I learned not to leave the scale on the table while running the press. When it was me, the wife, 2 dogs and the cat living in the thing, there was no room and the reloading stuff stayed in storeage. When I took a job out of town, wife stayed home with the animals, I could take the reloading stuff. Glad to be back in a real house.

Any portable table would have to be heavy, or bolted to something. Maybe you could stand on its feet or something.

I'm thinking reloading while moving is a bad idea for a gravity fed powder feed. And a gravity fed primer feed. For a 1050, gravity fed everything....

Lee

[AikiDale]

Thanks Lee, that is exactly the kind of first hand experience I was looking for.

Dale

[want2race]

Back from the dead (old thread).

Dale, I got you covered! I'm sitting here, in a hotel room, away from home, loading ammo. Slowly. I have a SDB mounted to a 10 x 12 x 3 inch block of wood. The block is mounted to a small dinnette table using two 8 inch parallel wood clamps. They have a lot of clamping surface area. I have enough supplies to load 1500 rounds. The SDB breaks down small enough for a smallish Sterlite tub, also inside that tub were the primers, tubes, tools, 4 pounds of Universal Clays and 1000 cases of brass.

It's hard for me to find time to load at home. Since I'm a "road hermit" and don't like to eat out or spend money while on work related road trips I knew I'd have some free time at night. Unfortunately, the A/C unit in my room smells like ass (mold).

[uscbigdawg]

Everett B. used to run around with a 1050 in his RV. Other cool setups I've seen is a press/bench in the back of one of the teardrop trailers. Pretty sweet actually.

As for securing it, frankly, I would think 2-3 straps to triangulate things would be easy. Probably better would be to just dismount it from wherever you're loading and temporarily store it 'til you got to where you're going.

Rich

[jasmap]

I think there was an article in Front Sight covering something like this. I'll have to look and see if I have it at the house.

[steel1212]

Didn't Robbie use to load from a 650 mounted to the hitch on his truck?

[kgunz11]

How nice it would be to be able to travel the US and shoot a match in every single state...

[ChuckS]

Dale,

Just don't try to load and drive at the same time!!

If it works out I hope you have a great trip

In another thread there is a guy saying that since you can drive with distractions you should be able to reload with distractions. Dale has the opportunity here to take that to the next level

Later,

Chuck

[TM262]

I have a SDB with Strong Mounts attached to a table using very large wood clamps. It works great and I can remove it easily any time I want. I could take it on the road or move it to another location in minutes. The Strong Mounts are great. I think the main problem in a mobile environment would be the surface that you mount the press on.

Make sure the base is stable or you might end up with high primers <-- Don't ask me how I know that...

Good Luck and send pictures!

[want2race]

I use a visual reference to ensure the primers are set. On the SDB, the square top (holds the shell plate) goes to flush with the white teflon corner thingie (technical term..). I look at that reference every single time. I also do a push/pull. Push on the handle, pull on the wood block it's mounted to. That keeps the table from banging into the wall.

[AikiDale]

When I first brought this up we did not have the RV yet. Having traveled in it, I think the best thing for travel is to load the ammo before the trip and use it for ballast.

[Huston in Austin]

I reloaded on a Black and Decker Workmate while waiting to set up bench in new Apt. Had a 1050 on the front and a 650 on the back. I replaced the top with double thickness of 1/2 in plywood. Put bullets and brass on shelf on the bottom step.

[jmorris]

I can load ammo plenty fast enough to take along as many loaded rounds as needed (I actually take that X 2 just incase).

My portable reloading is for working up loads. I didn’t want to spend weeks figuring out how much of powder “X” does it take to make power factor and does it shoot any softer than Y or Z. So, I used a large container (Dillon media separator tub) to hold the different powders, primers, bullets, cases, dial caliper, a SD, chronograph, and a powder scale (so you can load up in one trip). The press mounts to 2” box tubing that fits into a standard receiver; studs hold the press with wing nuts, requiring no tools to assemble. A small 115v power inverter powers a digital scale and a Tupperware cake pan lid shields it from wind. Testing 4 different powders and loading 20 rounds of each to SSR power factor took a little over an hour.

Once I find the load that I want and is running the velocity that I need I just take the powder bar out and install it into one of the “production” machines (650/1050).