this is a little long winded....my apologies.
(an effort to try to stem off a few questions by being long winded.)
my press is a dillon 650 stripped of the priming station and all that extra stuff that probably works
but ...i just don't like.
so...where the priming station mounts i made a plate that fits there were the priming station was.
had to also make a football shaped piece of 1/8 " steel to fit where the primer carousel was.
all this was to make a smooth ride to station 2 which by Dillons idea is the powder station.
i added a buzzy thingy to the top of the powder which vibrates the powder at the bottom AND the top of each stroke.
i used to get powder throws all over the map with the problem powders.....BUT NOT ANY MORE!
700X
800X
TRAIL BOSS
UNIQUE
POWER PISTOL
SOLO 1000
AND MANY OTHERS NOW ALL METER WITHIN ONE 10TH EITHER HIGH OR LOW.
(i know ....there will be a few who say their powder is like potato chips and their dipper or slide drawer powder
measure works perfectly every throw...zero variances....BULL! . this is what i like remember?
I never like dillons powder measure with the linkage and all ...so i opted for Hornadys case activated.
but it also seem that i don't like the "powder thru expander" which is supposed to put flair on the brass
AND drop powder into the case.
so i bought extra expanders and ground down (or thinned the walls ) of the expander until it fit loosly
inside the brass, ad yet still operated as a case activated powder measure.
stage 3 is my powder "cop"........no "bubba-ing" this ...works like a champ.
stage 4 is my seat die. okay.
stage 5 is my crimp die.....and for .45 acp i do have a slight bevel on the case.
( i know some here only remove the flair and no more. so sue me.)
at this point i have my cases which are clean, de-primed, sized, inspected, i get my flair via a different
progressive press with a lyman "M" die. then they are bench primed.
so when my case feeder starts dropping cases into the press, they are already
to get powder , then check the powder, then recieve a bullet , seat then crimp!
if all is good, i should be ready to rock and roll AND MAKE TASTY BOOLETS (AND J WORDS TOO).
started with 840 winchester cases purported to have been once fired ...and maybe they were.
now then nothing hacks me off worse that standing on the line pistol raised and have a ...
failure to load
failure to fully go into battery.
whatever ...!!!....the slide won't close! aHHHHHHH!
so now i check each and every round i make (no matter the caliber) with a chamber gage!
i know again.... some will say i do the "plunk test with the guns barrel ...not a gage....
(little secret...the gage does more than a barrel will.)
out of the 840 cases.... 92 did not pass the plunk test with a gage. here's why....
winchester in their infinite wisdom has determined that it costs just as much to make a bad cartridge
...as it does to make a good one.
so along with their premium cartridges on the shelf they also have "WHITE BOX" winchester cartridges
for a few dollars less....they are the same!...right?.....i'm not so sure.
what i discovered to be true is that all 92 case exibited the same problem...leading me to conclude that
the cases are seconds in the "white boxes".....not 100% sure of that but more sleuthing is required.
the proble lies in the rims of the brass either being slightly over sized after they are turned.
also when turned, something else is slightly off as well, resultin in the rim being 2 or 3 thousandths off center.
heres the case gage secret....with the case cleaned and sized it should drop all the way into the gage.
these cases hang up right at the rim...and you can see the rim sitting on the gage face.
no?
more proof?
remove the case and try to stick it in backwards, if the case is good, then about 90% of the case will drop right in. CORRECTION...my new starline brass goes in after loading 100% backwards or forwards.
if the case has an off center rim it might go into the gage about 30% then hang up tight.
(it takes good eyes and magnifying jewlers glasses to see where its off but is do-able.)
i take a emory board for finger nails and cut the off center rim back to square.
i know ...too labor intensive ....but i did it. (and i won't be repeating this in the future...now i'll be adding the "check the sized brass in the gage" step.
this will be to avoid trying to salvage made ammo that won't pass the plunk test in the future.
i'll back up my claim with another little tidbit.
my next run of brass in the same machine, same j-words, same seat , crimp......every thing the same...EXCEPT THE brass!
630 brass by the "C-B-C" company...also from the same range. also purported to be "once fired"
after assembling all 630 cartridges .....NOT ONE WAS BAD ...or off center...needed to be filed on.
nada, none!
i use to believe that winchester was the best you could do....i'm sad to report that i was wrong.