Got my new to me Dillon SDB setup and mounted. It’s my first reloader. I used a friends Hornsdy a long time ago, but he already had it all setup.
Been familiarizing myself with it by cleaning and adjusting. I got through flaring, seating, and crimping. Made 5 demo rounds without primers or powder. They all passed the case gauge test and they cycled through 3 different firearms without a hitch. The OAL spread was most between 1.131 to 1.135 with one that was 1.141. I’m thinking that’s ok since I was using mixed cases.
The press was also missing locator pins so I can only do one thing at a time. The previous owner is sending them so I’ll have to wait a few more days.
Next up - primers and powder.
Update:
Made 25 rounds last night with 5 different combinations of powders and lengths. Shot them through 3 different firearms. Had one FTF.
Made 100 rounds this morning from the best combination I had last night. Target posted is from last 25 rounds out of that batch at 7 yards with a Glock 17.
Excited to make some more as soon as it cools off in my garage. Still hot here in FL.
OMG, what a well organized looking workbench!
Good luck on the primers and powder. Just remember even when you DON’T need poweder or primers, buy 'em anyway.
Probably the best thing that happened was not having the locator pins which allowed you to focus on each stage of the process. Too many folks go progressive out of the gate and don’t understand what each step does and they get sub par ammo as a result. Good luck going forward reloading is the ultimate mental floss for me.
I used RMR FMJ RN bullets. I’ve been stalking reloading sites and they came up a lot. Nice guys and they happened to have some in stock when I was looking.
Progressive, Dillon 500, I go one step at a time though. I check the brass, I prime the brass, Load the powder with minimal flare on brass. I set the bullet on by hand making sure it is as straight as a person can and then with the slightest press as possible and it will not gauge clearly.
I had a few of those at the beginning. I reduced the flare so the bullet didn’t have room to wobble. Also it was more pronounced when I didn’t have the locator pin in the seating position.
Need more flare. I use same machine on my 45 s. Used very little flare and had issues. Gave it kinda moderate flare and now 0 issues on about 3000 rounds.
shouldn’t vary that much only a thousandths or 2… only difference should be if you are using different bullets (rn, hp, fn…) they will seat different from each other due to shape but minor adjustments to change that depending on what you are loading. Also could be the way you are using the calipers… holding calipers inconsistent can vary readings by .010.
@Todd30 Two things to look at. The flare as stated above and your seating die. If you have the stem too far in and the brass does not go all the way up into the die you can get sideways boolits and not enough crimp. Most seating dies are “taper crimp” or “roll crimp”, if you have taper crimp dies they are more forgiving as it is an incremental compression. Roll crimp dies only work when the role is “rolled” into the boolit. Either way I would try screwing the die body down a bit and backing the seater stem off a commensurate amount. Be advised if you have already done load development and you are near max and increase the neck tension you will have to back off the powder charge as that is the fastest way to spike your pressure.
When you really get down into the weeds you will find that your seating stroke (the actual act of pulling the handle) can change your crimp pressure with resulting spikes or decreases in velocity. Additionally you can modify your velocities a bit by increasing/decreasing seating crimp. And last but not least some boolits like more crimp, some like less. This is when you get into the “Art” of reloading.
