peter2772000
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Finally got my 650. Set it up and started using it Saturday to load .40 S&W....
By Sunday at 9:00 am, I was ready to sell it. My bud and I had set it up on Saturday. I had started, he came to finish up and also to show me how to use it. That was a mistake right there. I had set up some stuff, not other stuff. He assumed I'd done one thing and we skipped a few verifications. But we managed to crank out 150 rounds after the initial problems/glitches were fixed.
Sunday at 7:00 am, I got started to reload & experienced all sorts of little glitches and issues. Primer issues, cases entering the de-primer would get clobbered because they weren't inserted 100% into the shellplate, cartridges with missing primers etc.. By 9:00 am, I was so frustrated & pissed I could hardly think straight. So instead of trying to "hit & run" the problems all at once, I stopped reloading & started to laugh....
I realized that there must be something wrong. So, I started back from step #1 in the instruction manual. Set the whole damn thing up again, starting from scratch. I found a couple of minor things like the powder-check die not set deep enuf into the toolhead, the case insert which pushes the to-be-deprimed/resized case wasn't pushing the case fully into the shellplate. There's a little stainless arm which acts to hold a case into the 2nd (primer) station, it wasn't adjusted properly... There was stuff we'd never checked, and other stuff (like loose screws etc) which were like that straight from Dillon. I went thru the whole damn machine.
Stoopid little details like the previous were to blame. Afterwards, I started to reload again and everything went relatively smoothly. It's a learning curve and I was quite intimidated by the complexity of the machine. Between the different stations, the noises, trying to concentrate on making sure the cases had the right amount of powder.....it took awhile to get into the swing of things. By 3:30 yesterday afternoon, I'd loaded 1000 rounds. I learned how to manually index the primer plate, therefore avoiding un-primered cartridges when first starting the reloading process. I learned that if you stop reloading to answer a phone, take a washroom break or anything else, look carefully at the different stations & make sure you seated the primer 100% before starting up again.
Moral of this story. GO THRU THE SET-UP INSTRUCTIONS. ALL OF THEM. Start at the beginning, with no distractions. No friends, no telephone. And check all the little bolts/nuts/screws to make sure nothing's loose. I've learned my lesson.
PS: I have around 100 rounds in total where the cases won't slip into the case gauge 100%. On some cases, the cause seems to be a slight ridge on the case near the extractor groove. Others seem to simply be slightly bulged. And though they don't fit the case gauge, the ones I checked did fit into the chamber of my S&W M&P. Whazzup with that?
By Sunday at 9:00 am, I was ready to sell it. My bud and I had set it up on Saturday. I had started, he came to finish up and also to show me how to use it. That was a mistake right there. I had set up some stuff, not other stuff. He assumed I'd done one thing and we skipped a few verifications. But we managed to crank out 150 rounds after the initial problems/glitches were fixed.
Sunday at 7:00 am, I got started to reload & experienced all sorts of little glitches and issues. Primer issues, cases entering the de-primer would get clobbered because they weren't inserted 100% into the shellplate, cartridges with missing primers etc.. By 9:00 am, I was so frustrated & pissed I could hardly think straight. So instead of trying to "hit & run" the problems all at once, I stopped reloading & started to laugh....
I realized that there must be something wrong. So, I started back from step #1 in the instruction manual. Set the whole damn thing up again, starting from scratch. I found a couple of minor things like the powder-check die not set deep enuf into the toolhead, the case insert which pushes the to-be-deprimed/resized case wasn't pushing the case fully into the shellplate. There's a little stainless arm which acts to hold a case into the 2nd (primer) station, it wasn't adjusted properly... There was stuff we'd never checked, and other stuff (like loose screws etc) which were like that straight from Dillon. I went thru the whole damn machine.
Stoopid little details like the previous were to blame. Afterwards, I started to reload again and everything went relatively smoothly. It's a learning curve and I was quite intimidated by the complexity of the machine. Between the different stations, the noises, trying to concentrate on making sure the cases had the right amount of powder.....it took awhile to get into the swing of things. By 3:30 yesterday afternoon, I'd loaded 1000 rounds. I learned how to manually index the primer plate, therefore avoiding un-primered cartridges when first starting the reloading process. I learned that if you stop reloading to answer a phone, take a washroom break or anything else, look carefully at the different stations & make sure you seated the primer 100% before starting up again.
Moral of this story. GO THRU THE SET-UP INSTRUCTIONS. ALL OF THEM. Start at the beginning, with no distractions. No friends, no telephone. And check all the little bolts/nuts/screws to make sure nothing's loose. I've learned my lesson.
PS: I have around 100 rounds in total where the cases won't slip into the case gauge 100%. On some cases, the cause seems to be a slight ridge on the case near the extractor groove. Others seem to simply be slightly bulged. And though they don't fit the case gauge, the ones I checked did fit into the chamber of my S&W M&P. Whazzup with that?
Last edited:
....
