Albroswift

Report on the range-- Jonsin' for some shooting, been snowed in last couple weeks, made it out this morning Rifle range melted snow and mud-- Closed 50 yard Bullseye snow over ankle deep water- Closed 25 yard Bullseye- OPEN! Thank the good lord for pistols, revolvers, and pistol caliber rifles

Accuracy: 1 for 10+ on a full sized steel wolf at 75 yards. Good for self defense inside your car, living room, or the bad guy in the bushes/ cash machine drill...

Hello, Sisco Keep an eye on the rear of the frame, I sent one back to S&W and they sent me a new one after it cracked, <200 rounds. Don't have 200 through the new one yet. No +P's or anything like that, S&W said it was a factory defect.

the Dillon RT1200 (now1500) trimmer motor is spendy, I set it up originally for 308, 338, and 556. The 44 is just a bonus. I think with a little ingenuity you could fix something up, but the RT works very well with the Dillon trimmer dies. Don't know why it wouldn't work with any press.

Been working on this for a couple weeks so far, ran 450 rounds 44 MAG today no issues +/- .001 or so. Pretty fair results. (The dominant paradigm over on Brian Enos forum is there is absolutely no reason to trim pistol brass, but they are all taper crimp people!) Challenges with the RT1200 setup: Cutter needs to be 1/2 way down into the the tool head Trim die not available. Not enough room for 2 locknuts. 13/16x20 thread on the trimmer, 7/8x16 on a die/ toolhead Pile of parts, different thickness of locking rings to set height. 2 part die, cut sizing die to hold shell, turned 13/16x20 on the end of a shortened Dillon powder die. First attempt was to turn the 13/16x20 thread on end of sizing die, but waste diameter on the die was too small/ wall thickness wan't adequate, which is to bad, die steel mills way nicer then the metal Dillon uses on their powder measure. 1/4" FIP hole for vac attachment Setting final height of locking ring thickness First attempt, turns out the cutter does not make a large enough orbit for 44 mag. Needed new cutter design. Cut one out of a parting tool. Start over setting height. Final iteration.

Just curious, looking at the photo, ammo seems to have no crimp. What brand?

Sweet! Love old Rugers Besides the Hamilton I have an early 44 Flat Top BH, un converted, a 44 SBH and a 45 Colt/ ACP BH convertible 3 screw, both lawyered up but have the original parts also. (Also a couple single sixes, 22/ 22mag) Do you know if they made a .357/ 9mm convertible in a 3 screw? I had a new model 357/9mm convertible but didn't like it, traded it off. My hunting sidearm, Ruger 45 Colt 4-5/8" W/ full blow H110 loads 300 gr XTP clocking a little over supersonic. (and the biggest ball of flame you ever did see!)

Keeping my eye out for an old Ruger Blackhawk 3 screw in .357, and an HK Mark 23. Ahh, the duality of man...

Them were the days...

Sweet.

Thanks. Got a bunch more in the safe, not too many to shoot in a day but way to many to clean in a day!

It is one of the nicest shooting "out of the box" 45's on the market. I fitted the ambi safety, other then that nothing. Has cycled everything I've thrown at it. Stupid tight offhand groups at 50 yards. The milling inside the top of the slide is really rough looking, I mean really rough. Other then that no criticism.

Oh, Knew I was forgetting something, the E-Series S&W 45

Sunny Morning here on the left coast, headed out to the range with several of my favorite shooters. Then to the shop for a less favorite sport, cleaning. (Damn those wheel guns have a lot of holes!) Bucket O Glocks Bottom left Model 24/ 40S&W, Bottom right M24 w/ wolf 9mm barrel, extension, porting, beaver tail, and slide lightning by yours truly, Top Left Model 34, Top right 17L Freedom Arms 454 Casull and a Hamilton Bowen custom 44 Mag built on a 50th anniversary Ruger Flat Top frame, Herrett grips, Turnbull case hardening. 260g Freedom Arms FP bullet out the pointy end at just under 1850 FPS. Enough room in the cylinder for 2100 FPS worth of case and powder but this is plenty brutal enough on the cowboy gun sized frame! Smith and Wesson 629 Classic 44 Mag built by an old boy for me over in PA and a Rossi Cyclops 357 Mag, hand made grip, new unfluted cylinder, timing and tuning by yours truly.

3 times to the range so far performing flawlessly

Dillon: The dillon trimmer is too short/ too fat to reach down into the tool head for the pistol length cases, but I agree, it could have been designed (or re-designed) a little differently. It's good at what it is designed for. LEE: I ran a couple last night, just messing around, first trial in the Rock Chucker, worked perfectly but no case feeder/ progressive features obviously. The Lee trimmer depends on the shell holder (or plate) being forced against the die base otherwise the inner collet and shell spins.On the Dillon the tool head is just about 1/16" too thick, kind of a boss around where the die meets the tool head. Flipped tool head over, reinstalled die, worked great, so need to mill the boss off one of the stations (or just run tool head upside down) rig a vac attachment, good to go. The Lee produced a trim length +/- half a thou variance on the 5 cases I played with, and chamfers/ bevels to boot. Mickey Mouse having a drill motor hanging out the top of the die but awesome looking results.

I use a dillon electric case trimmer on my .223, .308, '06, and belted mag cases in my progressive press. Sets up on a caliber specific die, vac attachment, very fast and accurate way to mass produce trimming. Unfortunately doesn't work with pistol length brass. Just got a Lee Deluxe Quick Trim trimmer, a caliber specific die setup, came with a drill motor adapter. Trimming a batch of 44 Mag this weekend, going to see if I can get that run that on the Dillon.

Lee factory crimp die is my go to die, just about every caliber I reload. a lot less case length sensitive then typical dies. Ram fully up, screw in until the collett completely closes (no more) without a round. Put a round in, ram up, and look down the die, if the collet is closed you are good. Inspect round afterwards of course, nothing wrong with a small amount of in or out to taste, but you can damage the die by over crimping. If you run max length cases it will look like a collet crimp, "Trim To" length brass it will look like a nice roll. On my 300 Weatherby loads, non cannelured (ELD-X) bullets, I back off about 1/8 turn. As with collet pullers, a little grease between the collet and the die body sure doesn't hurt.

Seattle. Shoot at the Seattle Police Athletic Association (SPAA) Happy New Year!

" ...sweet spot at 53 grains under a 300 gr Hornady pill..." Going over and logging my data into the book noticed it was actually 55 gr Varget, but highly unlikely anyone is going to be relying on a 308AR forum for obsolete cartridge data anyway...

It's a fun process if you are in no hurry. Month's worth of work spread out over several years. Thanks for the kudos.

Been a work in progress, 7-8 years or so. Started with basically no wood, my dad did the furniture from scratch, bore was in great shape, rest of metal not bad. Old local smith did the finish. .223, .308, .405, 45-70

Took my "Good Medicine For Lions" 405 cal '95 Winchester to the range today, been trying to get a decent load for it over the last couple months, hadd spreads close to 100 FPS with H4895, over 60 spread with factory loads, tried Varget today, sweet spot at 53 grains under a 300 gr Hornady pill got a SD of less then 4! Managed shoot a couple of 100 yard groups that rivaled the scoped gun next to me, wind blowing rain sideways kind of a an equalizing force! 405 Winchester M1895 1929 build. 300 gr pill over 53gr Varget Truly a gun that earned the "Punishes at both ends" title. Providence Tool Peep Sight

OK, Range report Started with the Seekins adjustable block closed, wanted to see how much extraction force was required for a couple different rounds, seemed about right but nothing to really compare to. They extracted without too much force. for future may be a good way to judge chamber pressure. Then using some wimpy loads, took it out about 3-1/4 turns to get it to cycle and just lock back. took it out another 1/2 turn for good measure. Then ran a couple hundred rounds through it, 2800 fps 150 gr bullets AR Comp powder, 180 gr RL-15 hunting loads, 180 gr AR Comp loads, bunch of misc BL-C2 and Varget loads from earlier testing. Cycled flawlessly over the entire range of loads. Brass stacked up in piles varying from 11:00 to 5:00 depending on load. Wimp loads stacked up on the shooting bench. Shot over a couple hundred rounds, Re-lubed BCG after first 100 rounds. Now ready to start tuning rifle and loads for accuracy.