Sizing and collating the Magma 45-180RNFP

I use a Magma Lubemaster for sizing with a MA-systems collator. Since this also is used by the Star sizer I chose to post it here....

Anyway... This fat and short 45-180RNFP boolit is a pain in the rear end to collate. After 2 days of adjusting everything I could think of, I got it to work... sort of.... OK. Not good but OK, except for one thing. The slots in the collating plate for 45 cal is the same as the length of these boolits and of course they get stuck in the slots sideways. The only sollution so far is to pry them out with a screw driver. I can live with some of the boolits going in backwards because of their short and fat design but after sizing 9000 of these I'd wish it would be another sollution than the one described above. This boolit is popular with the local cowboy shooters so, its a great demand for them.

What I have not tried yet is to deburr or round the edges of the slots in the plate with a flat file. If I could open them up just a tad it may be enough to make them less sticky. My thought is that they might be loose enough to get the wipers to wipe them out of the slots when lying sidways. To get them to lay just up/down and not sideways seems to be an impossible task. I don't want to mess up my plate with the file either since it works great with my other boolits....

I have mailed Magma since they always has been great at customer support, but they have not been able to answer my questions yet. So, what better place to ask... I guess someone in here has a tip. It sure would be greatly appreciated!


Thanks!

One more thing..... It's the MA Systems model with the bullet funnel at 3 o clock.

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I don't even try to collate the 180 gr. RNFP through my M-A Systems collator. My demand is fairly small for that particular bullet, so I load those into tubes and just run them through the Star sizer. Magma also makes a .45 caliber 150 gr. RNFP, and they state right on the listing for that bullet that it won't collate, and it won't. I don't make many of those, but they are strictly a hand feed proposition.

You can try "gently" smoothing and polishing the edges of the slots in the plate with a fine Cratex wheel in a Dremel Tool, but it's going to be time consuming. Those short, fat bullets are just plain hard to collate...... I know a lot of commercial bullet makers are doing it, but I haven't conversed with them to find out how they accomplished it.

Hope this helps.

Fred

I got this answer from Magma today.

"I spoke to M-A systems about the problem that you are having and they said that because the bullets are so short, you will need a 380 collating plate and a .437 ID funnel if you do not have one already. "

This advice must be based on a misunderstanding. I can not see how this could work! The bullets are bigger in diameter than the slots so they can not fall through.

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.380 like for a 38-55 or 375 Winchester not 355 for the 380?
I don't see them going through that, or the 437 funnel either.

unless they are saying those are the ones you need to modify to make the boolits work.

I had to modify the feeder bar for my stars to make their 165gr rnfp work.
it's so short I ended up grinding the bar down to depth in a wedge shape to make it work.

No, that doesn't make sense at all. M-A systems collators for bullets is one guy working in a company that makes other things. I sent my collator back to him, along with a bunch of bullets, and he lost the bullets (he said), so I sent him more. He said my collator was adjusted for the bullets I sent when he shipped it back to me, along with a large bill for his services, but it wouldn't collate the exact same bullets I sent him.

I ended up polishing the plate myself and making the adjustments to make the bullet (125 gr. RNFP .38) collate. When I talked to him on the phone, let's just say he was "different", and leave it at that.

You may be able to modify your plate like you mentioned and make it work better. You'll probably also have to adjust the flippers a little, but that bullet is pretty short, and I think it's still going to be a problem.

I'd try to talk the shooters you're selling those to into shooting the 200 gr. RNFP. It's a better bullet and can also be used with great success in the .45 acp.

Hope this helps.

Fred

Making the cowboys over here to shoot another boolit is not an easy task 😅Most of them, shooting at a high level, uses either the 180 gr or the 160 gr. I'm not even considering buying the moulds for the 160!

Well... Guess some cuddling with the 45 collating plate I have, is worth a try, if Magma and MA can't give me a better advice.

Trying one thing at a time, trial and error, and swearing, in my experience may work.....

I'll report back either way.

maybe only mess up a couple of the holes so the plate still works as intended.

I've tried one slot last night and gave up after that. The plate was hard as rock so it was noth worth hours of grinding.

Got another answer from Magma last night wheb they have had another talk with the guy at MA. Because of the fat short nature of the boolits he said that I needed one plate made especially for this boolit. I'm tempted to order one but, I have to say that 325 USD plus shipping and tax is a bit on the steep side, so it better work!