picking up speed

[svandamme]

It was only late september that i got a hold of my permit, and picked up the PM7.. Less then 2 months and so far i've gone through 600 rounds of ammo.

I'm sure some will probably have a higher burn rate, but i'm pretty chuffed about my efforts so far. So much in fact, that i've gone ahead and dropped some moolah on reloading gear.

I'm just gonna post this thread, to keep track of my own progress in these matters.

Well, since i decided to quit my previous hobby, eg old Porsches, aka Moneypits. I've sold off my stock of parts... So basically i'm trading one really expensive vice for a less expensive one.. It don't hurt much that way.


So what did i get?


The press.. well, i figured if i'm going to do plenty of shooting, i need volume.
Progressive , people be telling me Dillon, don't look back.
So Dillon it is.

Square B, 550 or 650?
Square B was tempting, but no case feeder... So that's one down with 2 to go, coz i'm lazy
550, No auto indexing...And only 4 stations... That would rule out the use of the powder check die. I like the idea of the powder check die , might save my bacon one day..

so there we go, 650 XL... It arrived last monday.
Carbide dies
case feeder

So far i've figured out, that i should not have gone cheap and figured i'de mount it as is.. It's a royal pain in the ass to keep such a big thing steady..

Strong mount already ordered to cure that problem
also got the Dillon powder check Die
couple of Dillon 100 rnd boxes
spare part kit and decapping pins
Lyman 1000 xpdigital scale
Lyman pro 1200 tumbler
kinetic bullet puller, primer flip tray

1500 fiocchi primers,
accurate arms powder #7 (all they had in stock, we don't have gun supermarkets here)
and 500 HN 190 grain semi wadcutters.


Hope to get the mount early next week, but in the mean time with some clamps i can start getting a feel for the thing.

I test one station at a time.. the decapping was first.. pretty easy really
The only tricky part is that it sometimes doesn't go square in the shell, of the rig wobbles to much , strong mount will cure that.

The re-priming station... ain't rocket science either... just need to start counting the number of pulls till the first primer comes up ...

As a test i primed 15 rounds, fired em off in the gun
then ran those 15 rounds through again, decapped, reprimed..
i love it.. The cheerful "plink" when yet another round ejects into the basket...

this might become an addictive thing... Like a one armed bandit , except it's a Blue one.

Next week, the strong mount, final setup, and the first loads..