Dillon 1050 reloading presses suck,

[CGT80]

because they can pump out lots of bad ammo very quickly.

At the 3 gun match today, the director said that experienced shooters are often the ones to make stupid mistakes because they get complacent. I suppose the same goes for experienced reloaders.

My first stage of the day went bang, bang, click, rack, click, rack, bang, click, etc............................... I knew right away what had happened. I should have listened to my gut when I was reloading that ammo.

While loading, I played back something in my head from a match a number of years ago. There was a bunch of ammo in a trash can at the range. Someone said it may have been from a person who had the settings wrong on a Dillon progressive press. They said that Dillon presses pump the ammo out fast, but there is no guarantee that the ammo is perfect. That part is up to the reloader to ensure.

I loaded 200 rounds or so last night. My old batch of ammo from the 550 was getting low. I dumped what was left of my big container into the small coffee can that I keep in my range bag. Instead of keeping the new batch separate, I topped off that little can with it and loaded 3 of my mags. I knew that the only thing that could be wrong with my ammo was bad primers (not likely as I have been working out of the same batch) or primers not seated deep enough. I had used a case gauge and my barrel to check the ammo, and I had run dummy rounds through the gun by hand. I know the components worked well when loaded on the 550.

One of the two top features of the 1050 came back to bite me in the ***. I knew of the potential, because it popped up when I first setup the press for 9mm ammo. The primers go in on the down stroke and you don't feel it. They go in as far as you set the adjustment to put them in. You can leave them out of the pocket a bit, or you can dent, and maybe crush a primer. I didn't want to go too much and pop a primer or blow a tube of primers. I had backed the primer adjustment out and saw the primer was a bit less than flush. Then, I set the adjustment back where it was. Primers were flush or below. Maybe they weren't seated all the way.

What I should have done is set them deeper so that I could have seen an imprint of the priming pin on the primer, then backed off. The one other odd thing is that a tray of my wolf primers was missing 9 primers from the middle. Once in a while I have one that just won't go off, but not enough to worry about. That was the first for missing primers and I bought them in sealed cases.

Tonight, I will readjust the priming system so I can test a few rounds at the lever action match tomorrow. I need to see what will happen if I set off a case that only has a primer in it, in my XD pistol. I think I recall hearing there was a problem with that but I can't remember.

If you make stupid mistakes, the Dillon 1050 just multiplies those mistakes very fast. I thought of this as well when I was loading, but it seemed like the primers were good. Last night, I wanted to load more, but it got late and I got tired. I told myself that I should only load a few test rounds and then load more when I was sure the press was set right, but loading on the 1050 is so much fun compared to any other way I have done it. I was a little too drunk on blue kool-aid!

An old pic of my loading bench for those who need photos:

[bullieblue@gmail.com]

If you want I can take that 1050 off of your hands even though it sucks

[Bumslie]

At least it wasn't "click - kaboom!"

All seriousness. Glad you're safe and enjoying your new toy.

[kdsd731]

You must be shooting at WEGC huh CGT80?

[CGT80]

I will deal with the growing pains of setting up another caliber on the 1050. The machine worked so well on 9mm, that I never bothered to really understand everything it was doing and I forgot how to adjust it. I played with the primer depth a bit. I set it to just flatten the primers, then backed off a bit. I will test 30-40 rounds of that ammo tomorrow.

Yes, it is like a new toy again, even though I had been using it for 9mm for a few years.

Yes, WEGC. I am a full member so I have the code to the gate to shoot anytime day or night. Tomorrow is the lever action match. Next Sat. a friend and I will practice on the dueling tree again, for the upcoming calguns match. I need to get this 1050 dialed in so I don't make a fool of myself at the calguns match. The WEGC matches are great fun and open to the public. You don't have to be good to have fun and try it, you just have to be able to handle your firearms safely. The partial membership beats shooting at lytle creek, but I sprung for the full deal right off the bat, two years ago.

Have you shot at West End, Kdsd?

[kdsd731]

I'm a full member. Never done the comps but have watched the 3 gun. it looks fun. Would like to do it sometime though. It's the best range around. I go often but almost always try to shoot in range 6.

[oddjob]

I load 5.56 on a 1050 as well. The more I think about it the more I'm thinking of switching the 5.56 loading to one of my 550's. I don't shoot as much 5.56 as I do with handgun rounds and was thinking the 550 is good enough.

I would resize and trim on the 1050. Then I would load and seat bullets on the 550. I have to admit though my 1050 is running good and so I don't wanna screw with it.

Just keep a coffee can labeled "practice only" around....I've got quite a few coffee cans!

[CGT80]

For 223, I use the 550. I modified the casefeeder to feed rifle brass. I tumble, then size with dillon lube, tumble, swage on the dillon bench mounted tool, trim with a cts trimmer, then run it in the 550 again to load up. I thought about getting a head for the 1050, but then I would want a power trimmer too. That would be an expensive setup for 100-150 rounds per month average. My 223 is lower volume use and 40 is what I use the most of.

The 550 is a great machine, but the 1050 is just a few steps better. The crimped primer pockets were an absolute pain when loading 9mm on the 550 and that was a major reason to go to the 1050. I swage all my 223 brass because I only use range pickups. I wasn't willing to swage all my 9mm.

Prep on the 1050 and loading makes sense, if you want to use that 2nd toolhead for something else. You would be missing out on using the case feeder though, and priming on the down stroke.

[bubbapug1]

I think the problem is your reloading bench is too clean and uncluttered. How can you work in an enviroment like that?

[CGT80]

Messes drive me nuts. The bench will sometimes get a little more cluttered, but I clean it up after I finish up a project. There is a small utility room next to my garage that I use for casting, tumbling, powder coating, and single stage work. It is more messy, but still doesn't compare to what I have seen some people post. I am too OCD to put up with a major mess.

Right now, there is a powder thrower, stand, scale, and a few other misc. items on the iron griddle that the Hollywood sits on. For this pic, I moved a few akro bins that usually have various tools and parts in them. It needs cleaned up. The shelves above are packed full, but nothing is going to fall off on it's own.

I did try out my test loads after adjusting the primer depth and they all went off with no problems. When I used to load on the old Hollywood, I didn't have to worry about making a bunch of extra ammo that might now work. It was tough enough to make what I could shoot in one trip. Although, I would have probably been more mad if I made 200 rounds of ammo, that was bad, with a single stage because it does take so long.

I seated the primers deeper on that batch of bad ammo. Yep, while it was live. I used some ear muffs, a full facesheild, and leather gloves to seat the primers with my bench mounted RCBS strip primer. It doesn't take much to fully seat them, and the odds of setting off a primer were very low. It will be used as practice ammo still, but at least I wont have to rack out 20+ percent of them and clean them off to try again. I still have all my fingers

[bubbapug1]

Clutter....before I added the 1050!!!

[bullieblue@gmail.com]

Now that's what I am talking about - nice shop bubbapug

[CGT80]

Bubba, that is too cluttered. Maybe I should store those presses for you. That looks like 3-550 presses, a 650, and the 1050 you added later!



I can't compete with that. One of the other guys I shoot with, has his garage setup with a big bench in the center of his garage and one against the wall, just for reloading. My garage gets too messed up from the cutting, grinding,and welding that I do, and there are too many tools to fit reloading stuff in there, but it is only a single car garage as well.

[bubbapug1]

You will probably beat me out of a few of them if we ever bet on shooting matches!!

Its (the bench) a mess, but I am with you on the 1050...its just a little too touchy to be a flexible quick change machine. The 650 is a pain too, but it can be done, at significant cost.

I like the 650 set up just for 9mm, but the primer feed is goofy if you ask me. The auto indexing can be as much your enemy as your friend.

My 1050 is set up just to process 5.56 brass (decap, decrimp, size, trim, remove brass flash from trimming) I have done 1000 cases in an hour more than once, but that's really humping....sure beats doing them by hand.

I also added a MEC for 12 gauge.

I got a RCBS hidden back there for 50 bmg, you can see the hopper for the powder throw next to it.

And the three 550's which are easy to set up and still run almost as fast as a 650 when you run a case feeder. I like the 550 better than any other Dillon machines.

Just remember reloading machines are actually free to own because you can always sell them for what you paid for them, or for more.....so the only cost is the interest rate the money would earn in the bank, which is about zero right now.....