Dred Bob

if you don't find a suitable trade I've had a fantastic experience with the Tisas 1911A1 and if you catch them on sale you can get them for just over $300 new https://tisasusa.com/tisas-1911-a1-us-army-45-wg/

Your picture appears to be a Dillon 550. If you've seen or worked with a "Square Deal" there's nowhere near that much room or visibility between the shell mouth and the dies/head. But the idea of a camera like a remote bore scope or the ones for looking into walls or pipes with a 1/4" probe might actually work. I did mount magnetic lights around it so it's well illuminated. I can see everything except the powder in the case. and btw.... WOW that is one clean press! I might have a little progressive press envy going on right now.

I just started reloading with a progressive press after 15 years with a Rock Chucker. I have a Dillon Square Deal (SD) and I don't think there's a place for the lockout die you mention. Another challenge with the SD is that it has a very small rotating head and you can't see into a tall case like .38 without removing the pin and removing every case to inspect. I started out checking every cartridge but finally decided to trust the machine on the last batch. If this doesn't work then my next step is likely to figure out how to use my old manual RCBS powder drop and a funnel. the RCBS drop is amazingly accurate and has never missed a drop in 15 years of reloading for Bullseye and everything else. I'm still learning (which has been half the fun of CAS).

had a barrel lodged squib last weekend on a Dillon loaded 105. placed my order.

Final followup. Shot our monthly match this weekend with the new loads. Found a cowboy at the match that I know has a ton of experience reloading shotgun and everything else and went over my load and had him check over the shells I made. I only had a few of the short stack rounds (5) and the rest were the final recipe using the 7/8" wads. He said the crimps on my final recipe looked good and the others would be safe if not exactly ideal. I shot them all up and they all shot well. No misses, no problem with knockdown, they sounded normal and felt just a little lighter than the factory load originally in the hulls. Perfect cartridge for me Here's the final recipe that I'll be sticking with - Remington Green Gun Club 2 3/4" - Winchester 209 primer - TiteGroup, ~16 gr (#16 MEC bushing) - 12ga, 7/8 oz, WAA12L CB0178-12 (grey), gave me the extra 1/8" for a full shell stack and tight crimp over 1oz wad - 1 oz, #7.5 soft lead shot

I just started CAS shooting last year so you'll get replies from much more experienced folks but I figured I could share this part of my journey. Started out with .45 Colt everything but hit the wall on Lg Pistol Primers and learned about not being able to retrieve brass at the big matches so quickly ended up switching to much cheaper .38. I'll go back to .45 Colt someday because I like shooting it but for the near future it's .38. Started out playing with 158's and 125's and settled on 125's (3.2 gr TiteGroup) seated a little long to make my 73 think they were almost .357 length. I don't know if I had to but it made sense to me and it feeds well. Earlier this year a friend of mine that started CAS with me and reloads on my equip was talking to many of the shooters using 105's. So we bought some 105's and made several test loads with different amounts of powder for both 105's and our 125's. I didn't expect much difference but humored him just to see. We took the loads to the indoor range and shot a bunch of all the recipes. We noticed a little drop in recoil by reducing the powder load in 125's but not much. There was a noticeable difference in the switch to 105's at 3.0 gr and even more noticeable down to 2.5 gr. It actually made a felt difference in the nice calm static shooting environment of an indoor range without a timer. So we bought up some 105's and changed our pistol load to 105's over 2.6 gr TiteGroup. We stuck with 125's in the rifle over 3.0 gr. Mostly because there's no way you'll tell the difference in the rifle and we didn't want to mess with potential feed issues. So we spent the first part of this year with separate loads. Then he started having some almost squib loads during matches. It might be because of the Dillon trying to drop too light a load or just too much empty space in the cartridge so we bumped the 105's back up to 3.0 gr minimum on the Dillon drop. I had my first squib with a 105 this weekend with the bullet lodged in the barrel but thankfully it was on my 5th shot so no harm. Honestly I can tell the difference if I'm shooting at the indoor range but I can't honestly say that I can tell the difference shooting a timed stage at a match. I haven't had any issues with feed or anything else on 125's over the last year and have actually bumped the load back up to 3.2 gr minimum just to avoid light drops or more empty space in cartridges. Once I use up my stash of 105's I'll probably just go back to 125's so I only have to manage a single recipe that has proven to be less problematic for me reloading. You can try to find the lightest load but for me the perceived benefits don't outweigh the possible issues we've had. I've thought about loading some 158's just for the occasional knockdown's but haven't done it yet as our 125's have managed those stages fine. That said I see a lot of 105's at the loading table.

yep, this is exactly what appears to solve my only concern with the load. I am still using the mfg recommended 16gr. I may lighten it up a little later once I'm comfortable with the load and loading the shells. planets are aligned

I'll check out the link. I did indeed buy that manual last week and read it over the weekend. The recipe I'm starting with is right from Hodgdon for TiteGroup so with the exception of the stack being a tiny bit loose it seems to be good. It looks like a CB 7/8oz wad is about an 1/8" taller than the 1 oz wad recommended. I loaded a couple shells swapping out that wad (loading 1 oz of shot using the longer 7/8" wad) and it solves the stack issue and the case is full and crimp where it should be. Now is that a reasonable substitute? I have a match this weekend so I'll try a few shells from both versions of the mfg load.

My issue is that I am completely new to shotshell reloading and unless I'm overthinking it I know enough to know that there's more to it than that. Managing pressure and optimizing stack size and just learned about matching wad and shell for tapered vs non-tapered and.... Change the shot charge and you can really change pressure, change the powder and density as well as rate changes which can change pressure, change the wad you can really change pressure, too loose and .... Even a change in primer brand seems to have almost as much impact has powder burn rate and density for rifle/pistol loads. Matching all of this stuff and not building a dangerous load by accident is a challenge for somebody that has never tried to load before. Since this is for SASS at least I don't really care if it is accurate or how it patterns. I just want a safe load using what's available which in my case is TiteGroup powder and Rem Gun Club (tapered 2 3/4") shells, and lead shot (req'd for SASS). The whole wad choice is very intimidating for somebody not familiar with the components. Now throw in press setup and actually building a shotshell and making sure it was assembled correctly like wad pressure, fill, crimp, and taper. Plus I remember the good old days when you could just pick a powder, primer, husk, shot, wad and go to the store and buy all the stuff you wanted. Now it's pick your top 3 choices for each, see what you can get and then try to substitute and find a combination that's close and works. Most of the people reloading have a very good understanding of how to build a load, what can be substituted, and probably have an inventory of what they like and use and just replenish it as it becomes available however briefly. If I want to load now I have to use what I can find now and probably not in a documented or optimal recipe. Then there were all the extra parts in the baggy that came with the used press I bought..... lol. Wondering where they go and what happens if I don't figure it out! I know, long reply to a short statement. But these are the things that I (over)think about since I don't have somebody looking over my shoulder to stop me from doing something stupid or wrong.

the crimp actually seems good and reasonably tight it's just "pushed in" a bit. I wasn't sure how bad that is since all the factory stuff is level. I'm not concerned with shot falling out and it's not loose enough that I feel it move. it might be worth it just as a tease to the black powder shooters. lol

See my message above.... Maybe I need to use the CB0178-12 with 1 oz of shot to fill the hull? I'm not sure how this works. I'm hesitant to stray too far from the Hodgdon recipe at first and I'm not sure which dial to turn to tighten up the stack. powder / pressure / wad / shot ? also I ended up buying a used MEC Sizemaster for the reloads since my buddy with the 9000 took off for Arizona and I didn't feel like waiting. Not sure if that matters but it is a change from my original thread with 9000 setup.

The recipe for TiteGroup on Hodgdon with Rem shells was "1 oz / Win 209 / WAA12SL / 16.3 gr TiteGroup" which is VERY close to your recipe. I went out this weekend purchased stuff to try that load. My first shotshell reloads ever btw. I'm using the Hodgdon recipe with CB wads CB1100-12 (WAA12SL). I measured and the shot bar is throwing 1.005 oz of 7.5 shot and a #17 bushing is throwing 16.2 gr Titegroup. I'm setup for just a hair > 40 lbs compression on the wad. However my crimp is "dished?" and if I shake the shell I get just a little rattle although no felt movement. I'll upload a picture. Is this a problem or do I need to change something like go to the "Fig 8" wad RP is using? edit : uploaded pic

When was the last time you bought any? I was planning to use Red Dot for reloading when many SASS members recommended it. More than a year later I was able to find and purchase all of 1 lb of it. I had to give up and went to plan B. Maybe it's just a local problem. I live in Ohio and haven't seen it and the 1 lb I did purchase was while out in South Dakota last year for Prairie Dogs. They had 2 lbs and my shooting buddy bought the other one.

just bought several 8lb jugs of Titegroup for $220 ea to load pistol / rifle / shotgun. Been using it for pistol / rifle. Switching to it for shotgun. It's pretty dense so a pound goes quite a ways. It's the cheapest powder I've seen and it's available.

I'll have to have somebody show me the difference in the hulls and take a look at the ones I've saved. How do you tell which wads are for tapered vs straight once I figure out what the hull is? I think I found that topic you mentioned and Fretless mentioned having to use a Federal 209A primer with a tapered hull. I get the wad being different but how does the primer play into this? and found a good video on the tapered vs straight. Never would've ocurred to me and I can see all kinds of challenges figuring that out without this conversation