Have the new DILLON XL750 running great on 45. Have loaded over 1500. Some comments...
Loaded 750 Virgin Starline cases today. Originally sold by
@Butter to a member who decided not to go the reloading route. I had done some “experiments” with Starlines before. So I lubed 500 and ran them. I used the cheaper Frankford Armory alcohol/lanolin mix. Ran about 150 in a batch with a few cotton balls. Tumbled them manually for a few minutes in a plastic nut jar (with lid). Not bad.
Decide to run a second lot of Starlines. Got in a hurry and did not lube them. NOPE. This ain’t gonna work. The primers seat harder and you get erratic depths. The flaring on the Dillon is part of the powder measure. Mike Dillon’s concept was to use the nitride residue in the case mouth as a lubricant. Dillon tech support says to only vibratory deburr (dry with media...not wet and no SS pins). If you remove the nitride powder residue, the flaring tool will be more difficult to extract. This breaks the rhythm of the press and you get more erratic powder drops. OK....how bad can it be? FUGLY comes to mind. I stopped about 25-50 into the run. Emptied the case bowl feeder. This time, in addition to putting a few squirts on the cotton ball, I hit the contents with about 6 sprays. Should have got some more balls. 8 or so would have been right for 150-200.
WOW. That made all the difference. Handle effort was greatly reduced. Primer seating was also easier. This speeded up the cycle. Was running about 8 shells per minute. Probably doing 10 - 11. Very consistent rhythm.
I also did some speed experiments. Found that I COULD do 12-13 per minute. However that tends to impact primer seating and occasionally crimping. You have to really concentrate to get to the stops on each end...otherwise you will have some protruding primers.
Also found that the seating plug was reversible. Started loading all SWC for my new Wadcutter toy. Now experimenting with Brazos 180’s HiTek Coates. They weigh, in bulk, about 184...which is close to the Magnus 185’s. Several well known (Distinguished level BE) recommend both. Experimenting with BE and VV N-310, again based on their loads.
Finally got my “EZ2See” labeling system formalized. Marked each powder (using 4 different ones). Used 4 different colors of duct tape. Have 4 powder measures. Each one is banded. Also have Brother labels (contrasting) for easy ID. Then labeled each powder container and also color coded the tops. That should prevent mixing up. Then made up a new label template in Excel. Used colored paper so that I have labeled segregated by colors,
Other than that, it was a quiet day.....