DL266 .410 for me!

[W.R.Buchanan]

Here is the nearly new Pacific DL266 I found for $200 to go along with my new .410 O/U Browning Shotgun I get tomorrow.

I took this one apart and cleaned and removed all the surface rust from the Steel parts and then hit them with cold blue and then Frog Lubed the ship out of them.

On the Hornady red paint,,, You all know how it always looks faded? Well spraying WD40 all over it and letting it sit over night and then wiping off the excess brings the paint right back to life.

I personally think Hornaday made a big mistake not rebuilding the mould for the Platen and Die Holder after the idiot dropped it and broke it. They just dropped the product which is arguably the best single stage loader ever made by anyone. [smilie=b: A wrong corporate decision IMO, since the machine shares many parts with the DL366 which is a current model and only has a few parts unique to itself. Nearly a two for one type of product.

Pretty stoked about this little aquisition as these things are like hens teeth, and especially the .410 models. It took me nearly a week to find this one!

I have 1000 O/F Win AA hulls coming which should last me for a long while.

I plan on using them up too.:Fire:

Here's pics.

Randy

[LUBEDUDE]

That is one fine looking machine Randy!

I sure hope you enjoy your new acquisitions.

Thanks for sharing.

[No_1]

That is nice looking.

[seagiant]

Hi Randy,
Good deal! I'm surprised you found one in a week! That one looks like it just came out of the box. You seem to have good luck finding really nice used reloaders! Now ain't people proud of those old Dietemeyers when they decide to sale?

Here's a pic of my DL-300(still my favorite shotshell loader!) and if you look to the left you can barely see my old blue 266! I replaced the powder and shot tubes on it also. Thanks for the tip on the WD-40!

[Swamp Man]

Why can't I find a good used 410 press? I don't have one and ever used one I find is way over priced so I guess I'll be going with a new Mec 600 jr before to long.

[LUBEDUDE]

Yeah, if it's a 410 or 16 ga it brings a premium.

And even 10 ga.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Greg: This one didn't look quite that good before I took it apart, and I had to pay a little more for it than I wanted but it wasn't too unreasonable at $200. It took a week on Trapshooters.com to ferret this one out of the weeds, but one guy finally responded. Everyone else was just saying "Good Luck!"

I got my 12ga one for $50, and even though it was brand new, it was missing a bunch of parts and I had to make the charge bar which most just wouldn't have been able to do.

It all worked out and I picked up my new gun today so all I'm waiting on is some O/F hulls to show up and I'll be loading .410's.

My Club's Skeet shoot conflicts with my IDPA shoot on the second Sunday of the month, but they have started a nw 3 gun shoot in the afternoon after the IDPA event, so maybe I can shoot skeet in the morning and then drive to the other place and shoot the 3 gun thing in the afternoon?

Might be a bit much for a Sunday.

Randy

[seagiant]

Hi Randy,
Well,it's a darn good looking machine! I rebuilt a nice little Bair-260 that is the predecessor (can I spell or what!) to your 266. Of course all the shotshell loaders that Bair made was designed by Dietemeyer anyway. A little confusing I guess. The 260 is a great little loader and makes a great shell but it is not as organized as the 266. On the 266 you start at the left of the machine and work your way to the right always moving to the right as the hull is loaded. On the 260 you have to move the hull back and forth as you go thru the steps so is a little more "busy" in operation!

As per info from Pressman if the machine is red then Hornady made it and if it is blue DL, Pacific, (BAIR) made it! They are exactly the same as far as I can tell! Here's a pic of the 260 I sold. Oh yea my 12 guage 266 is blue!

[W.R.Buchanan]

Greg: hot tip on a 266 is to put the handle on the left side so you can move the shells with your right hand.
I know you're left handed but,,, It makes moving the shell from the left hand sizing die easier when you don't have to dodge the left guide rod.

you did a nice job redoing that 260.

Randy

[W.R.Buchanan]

OK,,, I finally got mine up and running. After I mounted it to one of my aluminum plates, I had to wait on parts from Hornaday for a week, but my charge bar seals came in last friday along with bafffles for the hoppers and some spare wad guide fingers.

The charge bar doesn't leak H110 any more.

I had to make a powder bushing and I bored it to .296 which ended up being 16.2 gr of H110.

I got everything pretty much set and started running loaded shells, and everythign is going fine.

.410's are kind of finicky about the crimp and every so often one comes out smashed, not crimped.

The press runs just like my 12 ga one except you have to manually place the primers. You can't go quite as fast loading .410's as you can with 12ga, but the speed of production is still acceptable. About 4-6 boxes per hour at this point.

Shot and powder last alot longer with .410's

Here's pics of the machine and loaded rounds showing the sequence of events.

Randy

[kenyerian]

Nice!

[EMC45]

"I had to make a powder bushing and I bored it to .296 which ended up being 16.2 gr of H110."




irony...

[W.R.Buchanan]

"I had to make a powder bushing and I bored it to .296 which ended up being 16.2 gr of H110."




irony...

No,,, more like *******,,, I didn't want to wait another week for one after I forgot to order one, However I would have had to open it up anyway as they only make a .292 and a .300

Also there is a lathe less than 6 feet away from the machine. It took about 10 minutes to make the bushing.

Randy

[EMC45]

I was referring to the H110/296 quip. Same powder and all that. Nice press for the .410 BTW.

[W.R.Buchanan]

I'm a little slow on the uptake sometimes. Got it!

Randy