Bullet Feeder Dies The Good and the Not So Good.

Lets start with the Not So Good. Hornady.....geez these don't want to work, not in .38/.357 anyway. Sometimes it feeds and sometimes it doesn't and sometimes it feeds the whole dang tube. Now Sierra bullets measure .356 or .355. They fall right through the die. Hornady bullets measure .3565 and they work better but they too will just fall through the die. So, they are next to worthless, at least in .38/.357 anyway. And yes, I replaced the innards thinking there was a problem...no joy. Now the good: they are cheap and come with the expander. Of course, if they don't work, then even if they were free they wouldn't be cheap.

Mr. Bullet Feeder (Minnie) The bad: it isn't cheap. Tax, shipping etc and it ran $140 and change. The good: it works! You get the die, the expander and a cute little Lee- type bullet magazine only MBF's is really well made. It digested everything I fed it and did pretty well on case as long as the bullet was hard-lubed and its diameter didn't exceed .357

I still have a set f Hornady dies in 40 S&W and .45 Auto that I haven't tried. I have a feeling though that they may being put on the block soon too.

BTW, if you ever wonder why the folks at MBF give you a spare set of bearings don't. Just be glad. I used mine 15 min after setting up the die.I pulled the wrong clovis pin. :oops:

I cussed RCBS until I got my head out of my backside and got the dropper adjusted perfectly and then all was well. I have a Mr Bulletfeeder 45 acp dropper and I would't ever buy another one.
Oh, the Lee type bullet turret that you speak about I had a hand made one back in 2000 which I assume Rick saw and copied somewhat to make his. Mine has three bullet tubes.

I have a Hornady 9mm/380 bullet feed die on a LEE Classic Cast Turret.
I feed the die manually by dropping a bullet in the top.
It is faster for me to drop a bullet into the top of the die than seat it onto the case.

The 'fingers' that do the magic were compressed together and I had to open them up to get it to function.

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Originally Posted by 6bg6ga

I cussed RCBS until I got my head out of my backside and got the dropper adjusted perfectly and then all was well. I have a Mr Bulletfeeder 45 acp dropper and I would't ever buy another one.
Oh, the Lee type bullet turret that you speak about I had a hand made one back in 2000 which I assume Rick saw and copied somewhat to make his. Mine has three bullet tubes.

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I sense a back story here. What's your gripe about the MBF die?

The hornadey die in 9mm is worthless (as is almost everything else they make) the .45 die works pretty well if you remove the second collet so the entire weight of the bullet column is pushing the bullet into the case. The mr bullet feeder die works really well (as in perfect) especially if you use a m die type powder funnel. I've yet to try any of the other feed dies as the mbf die cost me not much more than the others that I threw away.

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Originally Posted by omgb

I sense a back story here. What's your gripe about the MBF die?

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Maybe he meant he wouldn’t ever buy anything but an mbf die. I can’t fault them for anything, they do what the others don’t, elegantly and with adjustability.

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Originally Posted by omgb

I sense a back story here. What's your gripe about the MBF die?

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The MBF is over priced the ball bearings it uses inside are prone to sticking. With ANY other bullet dropper I can drop lead bullets and I can't with the MBF dropper.

Rick came out with his turret setup which is a copy of what I had back in 2000. The exception is he added several more drop tubes.

Would I buy another one? Hell no but I'll certainly do my share in copying and modifying his collator technology.

I have one of the Mr. Bullet Feeder (Minnie). It worked most of the time but at times it would spill bullets all over the floor. I took it off and hid it
from myself. It happens more as you get older. BTW it didn't really speed up the 550B.

Hmm, must be clogging with bullet lube, which I don’t use.

The new rcbs rifle bullet feeder die that I just got may be superior still to the mbf die. It used two pegs that slide in and out to positively drop one bullet at a time. It then seats the bullet for you!

I bought Hornady bullet feeder dies over RCBS because of the plastic parts.
I detailed them before using them: disassembled, filed/stoned/polished all of the burs off the slots (inside and out) of both collets, the holes at the upper end of the slots, and the angles on the end of both collets (the angle on the top of the lower collet too).

Once in use with coated/no lube groove bullets and tubes, sometimes I'd get a bullet dump when I pulled the pin on the tube.
So I took it (them) apart and tweaked the collets inward to a smaller ID, measuring as I went along.
I have not had a bullet dump since, but I do hold my finger under the die when I pull out the pin from the tube now :oops:

Anyone who thinks reloading will be a plug and play hobby are in for a ruff ride, we need to work with any "new" equipment to learn how it works.

No company can afford paying for the hand work sometimes required for optimum performance, but they can re-engineer or change the manufacturing process to eliminate the need for it.
just my take,

:mrgreen:

Note: know that I tweak everything :-o

I tweek everything too, and I’m mechanically inclines and have a full machine shop in my house. I messed around with those **** hornady droppers for way too long and they just didn’t work for me. Tweeting, polishing, heck I even swapped the collets backwards and A/B and interestingly this hardly made any difference in the reliability.

So, I putzed around with the Hornady feeder for a couple of hours but reliability was iffy, lots of FTFs and DFs. So, I mounted the MBF unit and ran 350 in about 40 minutes. Not one FTF or DF. Runn9ing out of primers was my biggest issue, it was hard to keep up. Case feeder occasionally skipped a round or two put it caught it on the next cycle.

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Originally Posted by omgb

So, I putzed around with the Hornady feeder for a couple of hours but reliability was iffy, lots of FTFs and DFs. So, I mounted the MBF unit and ran 350 in about 40 minutes. Not one FTF or DF. Runn9ing out of primers was my biggest issue, it was hard to keep up. Case feeder occasionally skipped a round or two put it caught it on the next cycle.

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So what's the difference now...based on your posts in your other bullet feeder die thread:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...kthrough-Maybe
Do what I suggested/did myself and see if it changes anything.
:mrgreen:

I started with the Hornady feeder dies in 9mm and 45ACP. I got tired of the hit and miss functionality. Required constant adjustment. Ordered the Mr. Bullet Feeder 9mm die and once properly adjusted, has not failed since. Bought the 40 and 45 dies as well and could not be happier.

I only used my Hornady 9mm feed die with plated bullets but it worked like a champ.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9pjmuHAkBU&t=70s

I've got a 40 caliber Hornady working properly with 155gr Miha slick sided powder coated boolits.

I have the MBF in 9mm and 45, it works like a charm with everything but cast boolits lubed in the traditional way.
So far I tried with Carnauba blue and it's a mess even after I added some powdered mica.

The only one I have had great luck with wax lubed cast bullets is the GSI but it is no longer made and they only made them for Dillon presses.

I tried the Hornady for 357. It dropped the bullet OK, but tore up the brass. I gave up after an hour or so of messing with it.

I bit the bullet and bought the Mr. Bullet feeder. It works like a charm. I wish I had done it sooner. (I use powder coated bullets, I could see that greased bullets may not work.)

I got the Mr. Bullet Feeder Mini instead of a collator. It is not perfect but it works most of the time.