Sunday, March 03, 2013

Blech.

Stay away from the NOS in the green cans. It tastes like slightly-watered, lightly-carbonated Delsym cough suppressant, complete with the faintly gritty mouthfeel.

It'll get the heart going in the morning, though, especially if you slam a can of the stuff after watching a Chris Matthews show that included Dan Rather as a panelist. I swear, I thought those two were going to ask the ladies to leave the room so the two of them could engage in some mutual fapping to a picture of the president. The only other time I've seen that look on someone's face, it was a member of the JV chess club talking about a varsity cheerleader.

I know conservatives get a little misty-eyed when talking about Reagan, and liberals of a certain age talk about JFK like he was the greatest thing to happen to the office since Jefferson was in it, but the obsessive adulation some of the professional punditocracy have for the current Chief Executive would get them slapped with a restraining order if they directed it at a secretary. You get the feeling that Chris Matthews has a little shrine in a closet, with carefully-clipped pictures of Barry taped all over the wall, or that the Secret Service is going to find Rather skulking in the bushes around the White House one night with a roll of duct tape and a steak knife.

Woke up to a cell phone battery that was flatter than western Kansas, and Shootin' Buddy's supposed to be here at 0800 so we can do a Broad Ripple breakfast and then go freeze our asses off at Iggle Crick, which opens for the season this weekend. Shootin' Buddy has gotten back into reloading, and I reckon I should look at setting the press up myself. I really want something better than this little Lee turret press, though...

33 comments:

NAVIGATOR said...

LEE TURRETS SIMPLE BUT GOOD

TWO PAIRS OF WOOL SOCKS DRESS IN LAYERS WOOL WATCH CAP
DRESS FOR THE WEATHER !

BONE APITITTO HAVE FUN !

Critter said...

Got the Dillon 550 up and running this weekend for some .45 Colt and .44 mag. One of the oddities of the current crazy panic is that I have no .22's but lots of components for big bore pistols and rifles. .30.06, anyone?

B said...

Don't eat the green acid...


Get a Dillon 550.

Spud said...

When you upgrade, send me the Lee.
I be just a po broken down old Vet, what cain't afford such...

fast richard said...

I recently upgraded from a Lee Reloader single station press to their Loadmaster Progressive. It is a bit finicky and Rube Goldbergish, but I could not afford a Dillon.

Joseph said...

Lots of people are gonna say Dillon, that's not a bad thing, they are good presses and I own two. They do come with an annoying factor though in that money flies out of your wallet as if Mike Dillon is standing behind you with a shop vac.

The Hornady LNL press would be what I'd try if I were to try again. Good press and you don't have to have a bunch of powder measures to make quick changes and the caliber conversions are cheaper as well.

People all speak of Dillon's great CS and how you just call them and they send you whatever broke on the backs of unicorns, gratis. My experience is they answer the phone, are very competent but I've paid for everything I've ever gotten from them and paid dearly. I guess the stuff that broke on mine was not covered under the No BS warranty.

Anonymous said...

If he's serious enough about it, I'll buy Chris M a couple rolls of duct tape and a bigger knife.

Scott J said...

Love my Lee Turret. I bought it used with an unknown number of rounds produced and I've done thousands on it myself. If I really hustle I can make 100 an hour on it.

At the risk of coming across like a braggart I have the wonderful fortune of having a friend who owns a RL 1050 but has no space to put it. It was parked on another friend's bench but he's looking to make some changes so now it is set up in my reloading room.

It only does .45 Auto for now but wow does it turn them out. I can do 100 in under 10 minutes. Working together he and I did 1,500 in 3 hours yesterday and that involved making changes for bullet profiles and charge weights after each 500.

Before I became so fortunate I was considering getting a Lee Pro 1000 since my already configured turrets will go into it. I still might do that since setting up a toolhead for the 1050 costs even more than buying the Pro 1000.

I recently realized that I have been a reloader for 20 years now.

Anonymous said...

I hate reloading!
Having said that, with the economy and supply/demand as it is, I truly miss my Dillon XL650 (it was stolen with the Ft. Knox in the burglary)
:-(

gfa

jed said...

I fired up the Rockchucker again a while back. Ya know, along with all the other shortages, I haven't found any useful bullets in stock for .223, .45, and 9mm, anywhere. So for the moment, reloading consists mostly of rummaging through all the old coffee cans, and doing nothing but case prep. I have way more cases and primers than I have bullets and powder -- one area where the current buying frenzy really caught me flat-footed.

If this keeps up, I'll start reloading for .35 Rem instead.

Robert Fowler said...

I use a Lee Pro 1000 and in the last couple of weeks I've loaded almost 4000 rounds of various calibers. Once it's set up and tweaked it works great.

After 30 years of reloading, I applied for and received a ammo manufacturers licence (FFL06). The last gun show I sold out of nearly everything I had. Nothing like turning a hobby into a small business.

Scott J said...

As far as component availability goes my limitation is primers.

I've been casting my own boolits since the panic that followed SCOAMF's first election.

Frank W. James said...

Aw Yes Reloading: I have 2 benches and 6 presses; a Dillon 1050 (10mm Auto & .45 ACP), 2 Square Deal B's (.41 Mag & the other in .357 Mag, .38 Spec & .40 S&W -- they all have the same rim diameter), a Rockchiucker and a Dillon 550.

I once had a Dillon 650, the ONLY Dillon I HATED with a purple passion. Sold it for good money, we were both happy.

I personally don't trust, nor like Lee's 'automatic' primer disc system. Too many blood spotted, speckled faces in my experiences (I also have no great love for their powder measures either), but that's MY experience -- your mileage may vary.

If you can afford it, I would recommend the Dillon 550 and Yes, their No BS warrenty is BS. I've had to purchase everything off my last 3 orders for repair parts, but even at that it's still reasonable considering the volume of ammo I've produced before their parts broke.

In my opinion, the absolute cheapest way to start is to buy either a Lyman or RCBS 'kit' that has everything for a single stage press; i.e. the scale, powder measure, lube, lube pad, dies and some even include the vernier caliper.

Some find reloading to be drugery, I find it relaxing and yet another wonderful fun pastime.

Of course, again, your mileage may vary...

All The Best,
Frank W. James

Anonymous said...

I've got an RCBS Pro 2000, I like the primer feed system on it better than the Dillon, tho it does take getting used to. But I like the one way feature that some of the Dillons use. My biggest worry is double charged loads due to errors in answering the "now, which way was I going when I stopped last time?" question.

RevolverRob said...

I have friends who highly recommend the Dillon 550. Interestingly enough, they have all had double charges that blew up guns. I'm not saying it's the press, knowing them...it was them. But...I am not the only one who has noticed this correlation: http://www.grantcunningham.com/blog_files/f78966a0fdd6ccc74de87fc14e1c6015-102.html

I personally, have a Lee Loader (yep the one that requires a hammer). I use it for loading .38 Special. Is it fast? Nope. But I only use it for a couple of hours a week and do everything in batches. So at the end of the week, I've made 50-100 rounds of loaded ammo. Since I shoot about 50 rounds a month (if I am lucky), I have a net increase of 300% over what I shoot.

Unfortunately, the shortage of reloading supplies has left me without anything to reload.

-Rob

Ted N said...

I truly can't wait to have a more permanent home, with garage and shed space for reloading and other projects. Sigh, someday...

Yrro said...

@Ted - what you really need is a friend with a garage, but no press. I was that guy, had my friend in your situation set up in a corner of my garage, and we've both never been happier :)

Davidwhitewolf said...

You have a range season?

I feel a tad better about being in California.

Old NFO said...

I'm curious as to what gloves you used to shoot...

Critter said...

My experience with dillon is the no bs warranty is great. I bought my 550 over 20 years ago and now it has a new powder measure and priming system, all for no extra cost. I just

Critter said...

Sent the old parts to them and the new ones showed up. I also have just the one powder measure that I readjust for everything so Mr. Dillon and his shop vac are kept from my wallet. (Stoopid phone)

Tam said...

Old NFO,

I use some cycling gloves like these for most winter activities that don't actually involve getting my hands wet.

Frank W. James said...

I forgot my 6th press which is a Hornady Pro-Jector and it's kind of a love/hate relationship. I have a hard time keeping it 'in-time' and the small outer spring is always breaking, but it is a STRONG and STRAIGHT press. I won't condemn it nor will I recommend it.

I also think that currently Hornady is making the best dies for the money, but that's must my 2cents...

All The Best,
Frank W. James

Agent Trask said...

So, you can actually find powder and primers for sale?

Spud said...

Agent Trask,
I hear Joe Biden has lots stored in his basement heh...

Scott J said...

Agent T,
I stocked up on enough components at the first of the year to cover last year's rate of consumption.

But I'm trying to practice more so I'm hoping I can re-supply around mid Summer.

roland said...

For years I was perfectly happy with the production rate I could achieve with a Lyman turret press. I could knock out a month's supply of .45 acp for practice and matches in a few hours. Then I bought a squirtgun, and shit got real. Dillon RL550B FTMFW. I've had the thing twelve years, cranked out a metric assload of 9mm and .45 acp, and have only had to replace a couple of springs, which were shipped to me gratis. If you merely sip the Dillon Kool Aid, you will find it ain't necessary to buy toolheads and setups for every caliber you load. Switching calibers just isn't that painful.

Bubblehead Les. said...

You can watch Rather and Matthews on the same Panel at the same time?

No WONDER you wanted to go to the Range ASAP!

Gewehr98 said...

Reloading's a great way to save money - if panic buying hadn't wiped out components, too.

Think I'll start attending estate sales looking for primer, powder, and bullets...

global village idiot said...

Just upgraded from the Lee Loaders to a Hand Press. Couldn't be happier.

As for energy drinks, I've never found one that didn't taste like what computers would drink if computers got thirsty.

gvi

Scott J said...

As for energy drinks my experience is the cost is outrageous.

An 8 ounce Red Bull averages about $3 IIRC.

I stick to black coffee (ground so fine you get sediment in the cup) that pours more like syrup than water for my morning wake up.

On those rare occasions I need an afternoon pick me up I'll splurge on a Red Bull.

I've tried 5 hour energy twice. Both times I made the expression Data did when trying a beverage he hated with his emotion chip turned on.

Firehand said...

I've had a Dillon SDB for several years, and a few months ago ran across a 450 a guy was selling and grabbed it. Both work well.

The good: reliable, load good ammo.
The bad: the SDB uses proprietary dies(thank Deity mine came with the two I really needed), and the conversion the 450 uses costs about $50 to set it up for a different cartridge; that crap will add up fast.

As to customer service, my SDB has a delrin guide piece for the primer arm that cracked. Called Dillon, gave them the number in the book:
"No, I need the part number."
"That IS the part number in the manual that came with it, and this isn't shown on your website."
"Then we don't make it anymore." Period. Too bad, can't help you. Rather pissed me off.

Anonymous said...

I sold off my Lee turret for a single station Hornady with the quick change bushings, and I find it a lot nicer to use in practically every way.