Things are going pretty well now. Yesterday I set up the 9mm Luger tool head, made adjustments to all the dies and the powder drop. Unlike with the .223 Rem. procedure, this time I resized and primed on the press. Which involved some changes and adjustments to the auto prime equipment. It was set up to load large primers, so figured that out and did it. I loaded my first primers; I'm was a little surprised how quickly and relatively easily it is to use the Dillon tube tool.
Once I got going on loading pistol, I had the usual slip-ups in sequence. Only three cases got ruined. The biggest problem I had was getting the primer loader lined up. After that, I had a few cases that weren't over the primer hole, kinda caught on the edge. This was because I hadn't yet doped out that little spring wire where you feed the cases in. It needs adjustment for each head change because cartridge bases are different sizes. When I figured out that once in a while a case wouldn't stay aligned over the primer hole, I would hold it in place while I pumped the handle. Right after that, it dawned on me that's what the little spring is for. I'm sure that's in the manual but I missed it.
This morning, I got really frisky and decided to get the .357 head that came with the machine set up to do .38 Special. Which I did without too much trouble, having learned the kinks on 9mm. This was pretty easy stuff, I didn't need to prime because I have 1,000 aluminum CCI cases that I bought from RMR. These are pull-downs from ATK. The are primed, clean. So I resize them with the decapper removed in station #1, then they just go on along through the process as brass cases would. Use once, throw in the recycling.
You can feel in the press when any little thing goes wrong. You just stop and investigate.
A couple of thoughts about the Dillon brand. You'd think for the price this would be a cast iron press. I can think of reasons it isn't. For one, shipping costs to deliver to customers would be higher. Another, might be difficult to get the detail in an iron casting of things like the little boss the primer cup hangs from. Just wondering.
The other is, boy oh boy is Dillon stuff pricey for what it is. Plastic cartridge bin, $30. Bullet bin, $47. Cartridge conversion set, $52, etc, etc.
Well, fellows, I guess this may be the last post in my series re. getting the Dillon. I think I'm far enough along now that it will be fairly routine from now on. Thanks for your interest and all your comments.
Once I got going on loading pistol, I had the usual slip-ups in sequence. Only three cases got ruined. The biggest problem I had was getting the primer loader lined up. After that, I had a few cases that weren't over the primer hole, kinda caught on the edge. This was because I hadn't yet doped out that little spring wire where you feed the cases in. It needs adjustment for each head change because cartridge bases are different sizes. When I figured out that once in a while a case wouldn't stay aligned over the primer hole, I would hold it in place while I pumped the handle. Right after that, it dawned on me that's what the little spring is for. I'm sure that's in the manual but I missed it.
This morning, I got really frisky and decided to get the .357 head that came with the machine set up to do .38 Special. Which I did without too much trouble, having learned the kinks on 9mm. This was pretty easy stuff, I didn't need to prime because I have 1,000 aluminum CCI cases that I bought from RMR. These are pull-downs from ATK. The are primed, clean. So I resize them with the decapper removed in station #1, then they just go on along through the process as brass cases would. Use once, throw in the recycling.
You can feel in the press when any little thing goes wrong. You just stop and investigate.
A couple of thoughts about the Dillon brand. You'd think for the price this would be a cast iron press. I can think of reasons it isn't. For one, shipping costs to deliver to customers would be higher. Another, might be difficult to get the detail in an iron casting of things like the little boss the primer cup hangs from. Just wondering.
The other is, boy oh boy is Dillon stuff pricey for what it is. Plastic cartridge bin, $30. Bullet bin, $47. Cartridge conversion set, $52, etc, etc.
Well, fellows, I guess this may be the last post in my series re. getting the Dillon. I think I'm far enough along now that it will be fairly routine from now on. Thanks for your interest and all your comments.
