alright who's coming over?

[freebullet]

I'm just glad it's now documented there are folks crazier than me.

We've been working on a batch of 9 @ 5500 pieces. Gunna split that batch. Then I have another 5-7k pcs I need to load myself. I don't feel alone or as insane now. Lol, thanks fiver.
Have roughly 70 lbs cast but, need 100 lbs or more to fillem all. Sadly for me 500 wasn't alot even when I bought factory ammo.

That don't include the major shortage of 30 cal bullets. Need about 6k of those. The 30's need to be of higher consistent quality than we'll let slide for 9mm. It's like this is a never ending cycle.

 

[fiver]

it for sure is never ending.
I had to force myself to put back an 8lb jug of green-dot today.
the wife wanted me to get it, the bulls-eye, and the American select sitting there too.
I did manage to grab some cci sp's and another pound of enforcer but either me or the wife must have got something else too, since I wrote a check for 125 bucks.
I put the green-dot back and the wife asked why, so I told her I need to order some sierra jackets for the 30 cal rifles.
now I gotta go look at what we got.

 

[fiver]

so after a trip to town today I come in and got a few hundred more loaded bringing the round count up to 3250 so far.
the only issues I've had so far is sending back 6 bullets to be re-lubed, I crunched a case mouth on the through powder funnel.
and I knocked the primer slide out of whack for a minute.
don't know what I was thinking.
but I didn't like how the little plate under the slide was sitting so I undone the screws and tapped it to the side,
this of course tweaked the primer slide and made it unaligned with the hole.

I also knocked the primer tube filler out of whack when a primer flipped sideways in it, this insured I got 5-6 primers upside down in one tube.
I caught them all, and when I re-load all the tubes again I'll re-set the plastic alignment guide again.
I still think the Dillon primer tube fillers I got are the best time and aggravation savers ever.
I just fill all the tubes I have [about 25 minutes of time] and work on loading instead of stopping every 10 minutes and having to poke a tube full of primers.

 

[Brad]

I have 3 primer tubes of each size for my Dillon. I figure 300 rounds is enough at one time for me. I have done more in a day but usually run 300 then stop for a while. Most I ever did in a day was 900 rounds of 9 mm.

I tend to have, at most, 10% of my brass loaded at any one time. Seems I am constantly needing to load more.

 

[fiver]

I have 20 big and 20 little.
I have them marked with colored tags and split them up between rifle and pistol but for a big run like this I use them all plus the extra's I have for the bench mounted priming tool.
I can fill 24 of them plus the machine if everything is empty.

I have been running off 200 at a time then dumping the catch box and doing another 200, then re-filling the bullet tray and brass and powder hoppers.
that's about an hour and 15 minutes worth of work so I wander off to do something else for a while.
if I do that 2-3 times a day it don't take long to get caught up and I don't spend all day in the reloading room either.
I probably should have set up the 650 for this many and just filled the brass hopper and went to town with it,
but I have never been able to really get comfortable with the 650 so it just sit's there taking up room for the most part.

 

[Ian]

If it wasn't for the primer tube system I would own a Dillon press.

 

[fiver]

they are a little different.
the tube fillers are super nice to have though I got one for big and one for small.
if I get a little low when running the press it's nice to just dump primers in it and push the button and load another 20 rounds then dump the primers in the machine right from the filled tube.

once you get the hang of the primer tubes on the presses they are about as super simple as it gets.
a rod moves them back and a spring slides them forward.
you set them in place and tighten the screws on the bottom to align everything no real fidgeting needed you just gotta not be an idiot and mess with it like I did then go full retard for a minute trying to figure out what's wrong.
then just loosening the screws and re-setting it how it's supposed to be done and moving along like it never happened.

 

[Ian]

I know it's a training issue (and a $ issue, gawd that primer filler is expensive!), but I'm stuck in my ways on this one.

 

[Brad]

I just fill the tubes by hand. Takes me 5-10 minutes to fill my 3 tubes then I'm ready to go. I am way too cheap to buy a tube filler.

 

[fiver]

cheap bastiges.

I seem to have a knack for looking at things and try to just simplify and streamline the process for whatever I'm doing.
I might spent 8 hrs doing prep work and 10 minutes doing the job, but it makes sense to me in the long run.

 

[Brad]

I don't have half the town coming over and shooting my ammo either. Maybe you should buy the kids a press and a few moulds and put locks on the doors?

 

[fiver]

I've been considering giving a press set-up to them, but I gave the SIL's dad one not too long ago and he lives about 150 yds from them.
I'm just glad most of the guns take the same ammo, or are at least the same caliber.

 

[Ian]

cheap bastiges.

I seem to have a knack for looking at things and try to just simplify and streamline the process for whatever I'm doing.
I might spent 8 hrs doing prep work and 10 minutes doing the job, but it makes sense to me in the long run.

I identify strongly with all of that. One reason I have four progessive presses set up and ready to go at all times is when the mood strikes, I just fill the consumables and start pulling a handle, no thinking or fiddling or re-tooling required.

 

[waco]

I wish I had the space and $$$ for a few more presses. Dedicated Dillon's for each handgun caliber would be slick!

 

[fiver]

I tried to give a Dillon 450 press away for quite a while, it needed a little bit of stuff to make it work smoothly but was otherwise useable.
I also had to box up and mail away 4 MEC shot shell presses cause nobody would take them either.
I had to pay shipping to get rid of them.

 

[Josh]

I tried to give a Dillon 450 press away for quite a while, it needed a little bit of stuff to make it work smoothly but was otherwise useable.
I also had to box up and mail away 4 MEC shot shell presses cause nobody would take them either.
I had to pay shipping to get rid of them.

So I will pay shipping on a dillon...

 

[fiver]

it's gone now, you missed on the MEC's too AIRC.
I wanted rid of it because I knew it worked well and I have 4-550's and a 650 already.
I didn't have room for another press that size, and it was just in my way all the time.

 

[freebullet]

I use the hornady lnl. I picked up the frankford vibraprime on clearance for 25$. After some smoothing of the channels it works like a champ. I can fill my 7-8 tubes in a couple minutes.

 

[gman]

Fiver,
Do you prefer the 550 over the 650? I have 2 SDB's one set up for LPP and the other for SPP. I am thinking of adding another Dillon and was considering the 550.

 

[fiver]

I do prefer the 550 over the 650.
they have a set of hand movements I'm familiar with and I can see everything going on.
I modified the 650 so I have to move the primer feed by hand otherwise I was constantly trying to do something with my right hand and it threw the whole thing [mostly my brain] out of whack.
the 550 is super similar to the ponsess warren shot-shell loaders in the hand movements but moves the rounds itself I don't notice the movement there because my left hand is busy seating the wad.
I'm not going fast but each movement from my hands to my eyes are going to the spot they need to be so it's just a continuous smooth flow of work without mistakes.
if I see something I need to fix [upside down primer or a case not set right] I catch it and fix it and move along right back into a smooth rhythm.