| This thread has been locked, it will not receive new replies. |
| Locked on 09/26/2008 1:01:43 PM PDT by Admin Moderator, reason: |
Posted on 05/03/2008 8:48:06 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog
Remember TDJ that you can have a good gunsmith cut that golden model down too same size as youth model. Shortening the barrel and or stock is a simple operation for a competent smithy !
Good luck !!
I had a Dillon RL550 for a long time and punched thousands of rounds out of it. It doesn’t have the automatic case and bullet feeders, so those had to be set in place by hand each cycle. I didn’t find it to be disagreeable though. Once you get in a rhythm it goes pretty fast. I stopped about every 50 anyway to double-check the powder measure and bullet seat depth.
It might be nice to have the case and bullet feed, since then all you have to do is crank the handle. But those also about double the size of the thing. Might get in the way for other activities around the bench. I wonder too if going too fast wouldn’t end up letting me double-check measures less often. It would be a bummer to crank through 500 or so and then find out that the powder measure was off... somewhere in there, and have to pull all those back apart.
I’m probably just paranoid though, because thinking back on it I’m not sure that I even once ever found the powder measure on the RL550 to have started throwing anything other than the correct amount.
I mostly loaded .357/.38 but also did some .270 and .45. Loading .357 is really easy since it is a roll-crimp. I found .45 to be way more difficult to get set up because of the taper-crimp. Had a hard time getting the seat and crimp to be just enough, not too much, but once there they crank through just like the others. .270 is a taper-crimp too, IIRC, but it seemed a lot easier for some reason. Though, I didn’t make those in anywhere near the volume of the handgun rounds.
I didn’t load .223 then since I didn’t have one at the time, but I imagine it’s similar to the .270. Should be easy as pie. Lots of money to be saved there, no doubt.
My loader is now in the hands of an old friend that borrowed it years ago, and I had told him he could keep it. I wasn’t shooting as much and didn’t have space for it. But at these prices I may have to consider getting back into it with a new one. It’s just crazy these prices.
No kidding about the prices. We took ten people to the range Saturday. Fortunately we mostly shot 22 but...
Bringing lunch is a good way to save ammo money. ;-)
I’m OK with bringing lunch - the deli downstairs rarely tempts me. But coffee is harder - and our office is almost right above, so we can smell it. I eventually just switched to tea last summer, and after awhile I stopped craving it so much.
But having a coffee pot would be easier. The other gal and I have just been discussing this, since she’s going to be riding in, too. That way at most, even if I rode every day in a week, I could just bring ground beans and creamer or half-and-half. Much lighter, or at least only heavy for one day.
Around here there are coffee pots and they keep grounds. Of course I drink tea so it is super easy to have a couple boxes in my desk. What I really need is an electric hot pot like the one I have at home. Of course then I might drink too much tea if I did not have to get up and go zap water to have some.
That’s a good plan; I would suggest commencing stockpiling your components asap, small and large pistol primers have gone up like ammo has. So have lead bullets, jacketed bullets. The brass cases have a definite life, but will last for multiple reloadings; the components are use once. I’ve been doing that as have several others here. ymmv.
G’nad is good resource for loading tips, philosophy and advice on the dillon loader.
Heh, didn’t know you had a blue machine too. I’m still in the ‘antique’ single stage press era. I concur on the .38 being easier than the .45 to set up. I shoot a variety of .38 bullets so tend to load them in batches. Wadcutters vs jacketed for example. My rifle and shotgun loading started out with the LeeLoader. Finally got a nice Mec press, but I was shooting trap twice a week in those days. Not sure about how feasible that would be with today’s prices.
bastiges... fargin' commie plot...
actually, it's fear driving the demand... if the Rats get a supermajority and the WH, gun ownership and access to ammo and components ends as we know it...
I recommend the Dillon RL 550. I load those cartridges and more. You saw my loading bench, didn’tjuh?
Dillon now has a case-feeder attachment for the 550, but I haven’t got one...
It’s a big initial investment, but with the way things are going, well worth it.
Then, so does the country. IMHO.
Which is why I’ve resigned to voting GOP again even though they’ll do nothing, but that’s better than the alternative. I wish I knew how we got into this situation...
True, and no one did a (darn) thing about it. I hate PC.
I fear that you’re more right than I care to admit.
Maybe the smart play is to stock up on primers. Brass and bullets and powder are all a lot easier to find or make than primers.
Last night I broke a toe, I think. Then the dvd player continued to give up the ghost, so we used our stimulus check to get a new one (with Blu Ray! and upconverting! It looks great). Then we went to a movie. And then we lost the keys.
Fortunately after half an hour of scouring the movie theater, the car, the parking lot, the theater again, we found them under the seat in the car and didn’t have to walk two miles home. With my broken toe.
It was a good evening though, and the dvd player looks soooo nice.
Well...ow.
You never did say how you possibly broke the toe.
Mmmm...new DVD player...
I’m sore today. Not as sore as I thought I’d be (apparently I still had some muscle left), but sore. Probably better wait a day before riding again. Which means co-workers will harass me. ;-) OK, so I’m a wimp...
We gave the Libs a free hand in public education, the mass media and most universities.
Managed to swing my foot hard into a piece of furniture. It hurts if I walk on it wrong.
The dvd player is really nice. Now we need to get some bluray disks from Netflix. The first thing we put in, last night, was some anime from the 80s - not precisely the thing to show off the player’s abilities but man, the upconverting was nice. Huge difference between what the same show was like in the old player.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.