Best Bullet Feeder Die

[dverna]

I am not interested in an automatic bullet feeding system. I do not want to fill to tubes as I see that as a waste of time. I see little or no speed advantage to an automated bullet feeder as I can have a handful of bullets in my left hand and drop them into the die about as fast as I can operate the press handle. I want a bullet seating die that I can manually load a bullet into the top of and not mess with placing a bullet onto the case. I do most of my loading on a 1050.

My primary calibers are .38 and 9mm. I run cast bullets with traditional lube. So a die that does not need cleaning regularly, or is easy to clean, would be preferred. But it MUST be reliable and not need constant tweaking.

Please share your experience. Any advice will be appreciated.

[jmorris]

I see little or no speed advantage to an automated bullet feeder as I can have a handful of bullets in my left hand and drop them into the die about as fast as I can operate the press handle.

If you can keep up with a collated bullet fed 1050 by hand, that would be impressive.



In any case, this is the style you are looking for, getting one in 9mm or 38 spl might not be easy though.

http://www.meachamrifles.com/Easy-Seater.html

https://www.reloaders.com/products/b...-die-body-only

http://www.brownells.com/reloading/r...prod37206.aspx

[Moonie]

I have the Hornady's for 40, 9mm and 45. They all work well with PC for me. The 9mm took a little smoothing out inside as I use 9mm sized to .357, it also works well with 38 special and 357 magnum.

[rancher1913]

the hornady's do ok, the mr bulletfeeder is supposed to be better.

[Drew P]

There is no question here, the mr bullet feeder dies by double alpha are hands down the best available. I hesitate to insult the Hornady fans but their design is a joke in comparison. That goes for rcbs also. I have several and I use some of them as you are proposing. For rifle bullets. The die holds 3-4 bullets and I feed the die which feeds the case. It's much more precise and easy because the placement of the next bullet happens at any point in the stroke, not just at the bottom like hand feeding. It's great.

[6bg6ga]

I can certainly see the merits of a bullet collator as proven by Jmorris. I unfortunately am still using a bullet dropper with a bullet tube. As I have mentioned before I have my Star sizer drop the finished sized and lubed bullets directly into my bullet tubes with me simply inserting a cotter key into holes on both ends of the tubes. When it comes time to load the bullet dropper tube in my 650 I simply place a full tube above the empty bullet tube and pull the cotter key and my tube is full again.

With respect to the bullet dropper dies... I have both Mr Bulletfeeder for 45 cal and I have RCBS for 380, 9mm, 38,357, and 40 cal. The round balls in the Mr. Bullerfeeder seem to gum up with bullet lube leaving me high and dry. The RCBS however works well all the time and is 1/2 the money. Someday I will make or buy a bullet collator but until then by preloaded dropper system still works well.

[jmorris]

Despite the title to his thread, If I am reading his post right, he doesn't want a bullet dropper style feeder at all.

Rather a window style bullet seating die, like this.

[Rich22]

Despite the title to his thread, If I am reading his post right, he doesn't want a bullet dropper style feeder at all.

Rather a window style bullet seating die, like this.

I may be wrong but I am reading it slightly different. Believe what the OP has in mind is any die he can drop the bullets into and have them started in the case so he does not have to place it manually into the case and then have a seating die push the bullet in to the case to the correct depth. Why, on a 1050, where you obviously bought the fastest generally available press, one would wish to do this I have no idea. That being said, I have used the Double Alpha, Hornady, and RCBS, however with coated, not lubed bullets. The Hornady would work but not consistently, Traded it, the RCBS went back to the factory 3 times and would not function, trashed it. The DA is amazing compared to the others. Believe I have had two failures to feed a bullet since it was set up 6k or so rounds ago. Very easy to clean if needed I would imagine.

[dannyd]

I may be wrong but I am reading it slightly different. Believe what the OP has in mind is any die he can drop the bullets into and have them started in the case so he does not have to place it manually into the case and then have a seating die push the bullet in to the case to the correct depth. Why, on a 1050, where you obviously bought the fastest generally available press, one would wish to do this I have no idea. That being said, I have used the Double Alpha, Hornady, and RCBS, however with coated, not lubed bullets. The Hornady would work but not consistently, Traded it, the RCBS went back to the factory 3 times and would not function, trashed it. The DA is amazing compared to the others. Believe I have had two failures to feed a bullet since it was set up 6k or so rounds ago. Very easy to clean if needed I would imagine.

It should be for the price

[jmorris]

I may be wrong but I am reading it slightly different. Believe what the OP has in mind is any die he can drop the bullets into and have them started in the case...

That is what you would think from the title but in his post he wrote,

I want a bullet seating die that I can manually load a bullet into the top of and not mess with placing a bullet onto the case.

I guess only he knows what he wants and why though.

[dverna]

That is what you would think from the title but in his post he wrote,

I guess only he knows what he wants and why though.

Sorry for any confusion and my poor description.

I want to be able to drop a cast bullet lubed with traditional lube into a "feeder" die such that I do not need to start the bullet by hand after the powder is charged. The slowest part of running the 1050 is insuring the bullet is reasonably straight in the case before seating it.

I am using Dillon dies if that is pertinent.

I can make it easier to seat the bullet by increasing the case mouth flare but prefer not to get to aggressive with case flaring as it reduces case life. I suppose for cheap brass like 9mm that is not too important.

Thanks for the replies to date.

[jmorris]

I have GSI feeders on most of my 1050's. The attached photo is how much bell I use with my cast and coated 230 gn bullets. I have also used them with wax lubed bullets but the bad news is that you would have to find one on the used market because they quit making them.

They are their own toolhead, so they feed and seat at the same station, unlike "dropper dies" so you can retain the powder check and still seat then crimp in two stations.

This is my 45 ACP 650 but it works the same as my 45 ACP 1050.