Lee ABLP with RCBS bullet feed die

[kmw1954]

As some might remember a short while ago I tried a Hornady bullet feed die on the press and that just didn't work out one bit. So I was finally able to pick up a RCBS Tube Fed Bullet feed die and got it put on the press and adjusted. Well last night I finally had time to run a test sample with this and am quite pleased to say the least!

This die works very well and only missed 2 drops but I believe that was because a bullet hung up in the tube and I didn't notice it. That hang up reduced the bullet stack weight and once I figured that out I didn't have a problem again until I was down to the last 4 or 5 in the stack.

This has achieved just what I was hoping which wasn't a gain in production rate but just an ease in placing the bullets on the ready case which is located all the way to the rear of this press. I really do believe this is going to work and make things much more enjoyable.

[onelight]

Thanks for letting us know that will be great info to have , for those of us that may want to add one in the future.
I always deprime and clean my cases befor loading it would not be any more time consuming to resize at the same time and at load time first station would be flare and powder ,drop bullet , seat bullet and then factory crimp.

[kmw1954]

Also if not priming on the press and can get away w/o a FCD this might work great on a Lee Pro1000 if using both the case feeder and the bullet feeder.

Now I don't normally load 9mm with cast bullets but I just might have to try this feeder with some of the ACME cast bullets w/o the lube groove and see how well they feed.

[troyboy]

Ive have both the Rcbs and Hornady. The Rcbs leaves much to be desired. The Hornady is a much better product but still requires lots of deburring, polishing and tuning. I modified a Lee case feeder for use with the Hornady on my Ammomaster. Projectile type makes a huge difference in reliability.

[kmw1954]

Ive have both the Rcbs and Hornady. The Rcbs leaves much to be desired. .

Could be the case but for me the RCBS works, Hornady never did work so for me there is no comparison and leaves me with the exact opposite opinion.. The RCBS I took it out of the package, put it in the press, adjusted per the directions and it worked flawlessly and as advertised. No jerking around, no polishing, no repeatedly readjusting the fingers.

[Moonie]

I have the hornady in 9mm, 40 and 45. I mostly use it in 40 and it runs very well. I use it with cast and so far I haven't managed to get it working with 9mm yet, but I size at .357 so I might try the innards from a 38/357 one. I honestly haven't loaded 45's on a progressive in a while but will be setting up a new progressive soon just for 45acp.

[kmw1954]

I have no doubt that the Hornady die works as they've sold bunches of them and I believe it is used in the Ammo Plant with the bullet collator. As I stated, the Hornady die did not work for me at all even after help from multiple members here and on other forums and at this point do not feel the need to rehash the use of the Hornady die or it's merits. If you have one and can use it that's great and let's leave it at that.

In this case I was looking for a simple inexpensive solution to a problem to which I wasn't even sure if there was a solution or if the solution was more trouble than it was worth. Now it has accomplished what I was aiming to achieve and am happy with this. Now time will tell how durable the plastic pcs. are and how reliable it maintains. My original thinking was and still is that if this worked out the way I hoped and made this press easier to use, not faster, and decided to continue with this then at some point the thought was to spend the money and upgrade to the Mini Mr. Bullet Feeder with the tube feeders..

Now I am still transitioning to this press from the Lee Pro1000 and I still haven't completely gotten the hang of the Safety Prime as I'm still dropping primers and still missing others because I forget that step. Again I don't have that step on the Pro1000 so it's trying to break an old habit. After adding the feed die I must have missed 60% of the priming as I was busy watching the bullets to ensure they dropped. Need more practice and a new routine. So switching to this setup has not been seamless.

[jcren]

I have and love the RCBS die for my 380 loads. Had to trim some flash from the plastic fingers with a sharp knife before the first use, and made a small hole in the tube to pin the bullets up until I get everything seated and ready. Then just pull the pin and let er rip. Tip; have a case in place to seat a bullet before you pull the pin!

Also, works line a champ with the Inline Fab reverse rotation and shell ejection kit.

[kmw1954]

Thanks jcren. I have shell plates now for the 380, 9mm and 45acp to use on the ABLP press. Nice thing about this die is that I can use it with both the 380 and 9mm bullets. At the moment I already have an abundance of 380 and 9mm loaded but just to help get use to using this setup I will run another 100 rounds of 9mm thru it this weekend.

I haven't tried yet to see how many 100gr. FP 380 bullets will fit in the tube or the number of FP 124gr 9mm. Might try that test this morning.

[onelight]

Now I am still transitioning to this press from the Lee Pro1000 and I still haven't completely gotten the hang of the Safety Prime as I'm still dropping primers and still missing others because I forget that step. Again I don't have that step on the Pro1000 so it's trying to break an old habit. After adding the feed die I must have missed 60% of the priming as I was busy watching the bullets to ensure they dropped. Need more practice and a new routine. So switching to this setup has not been seamless.

I don’t know if this will work with how your press is mounted but I mounted a bin under the primer ram as close to the linkage as I could get with out rubbing and it catches 99.9% of any I fumble.

[kmw1954]

Good move, only when I se my press up in the bench I took a 1.5" circle saw and cut out the leading edge of the bench so I could setback the press so it wasn't mounted right on the edge. So no I don't have enough room under the press to mount a catch pan. I did cut out a pcs of old soda case and fit it under the primer and that keeps most off the floor.

I did find the tube will hold 35 Berry's 124gr FP or 41 Xtreme 100gr RNFP.