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Posted: 3/15/2016 10:24:02 AM EDT
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Gents,
Looking at the Mini Mr. Bullet Feeder for my Dillon 650XL which will live as my dedicated 9mm press. The thing is, my standard load is powder coated lead.... So a couple of questions: 1) Any issues with powder coated lead slugs through the feeder? 2) Is this thing actually all it's cracked up to be? Thanks! |
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My thoughts on the Mini if I'm understanding the system correctly.
If you have to manually fill all those tubes and you compare the time it takes to do so vs just putting a pile of bullets in a tray, I would think I could just plant the bullets with my fingers in the same amount of time or less. I guess it all depends on how you use and value your time. I'm not likely to sit round watching TV filling tubes. Also, even though some think it's kind of cheesy, I still like using a properly adjusted powder cop. |
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Quoted:
Gents, Looking at the Mini Mr. Bullet Feeder for my Dillon 650XL which will live as my dedicated 9mm press. The thing is, my standard load is powder coated lead.... So a couple of questions: 1) Any issues with powder coated lead slugs through the feeder? 2) Is this thing actually all it's cracked up to be? Thanks! I don't have a mini (I have 2 full size standalone units) and use one of them to drop bullets for 38 super, 9mm and 40S&W on the Dillon 1050 and the other one for 45 acp on the Dillon 650. I only run jacketed bullets through mine. PC bullets should be fine, I would not run lubed bullets because they will get everything all gummed up in a short amount of time from the lube. |
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Quoted:
I don't have a mini (I have 2 full size standalone units) and use one of them to drop bullets for 38 super, 9mm and 40S&W on the Dillon 1050 and the other one for 45 acp on the Dillon 650. I only run jacketed bullets through mine. PC bullets should be fine, I would not run lubed bullets because they will get everything all gummed up in a short amount of time from the lube. Quoted:
Quoted:
Gents, Looking at the Mini Mr. Bullet Feeder for my Dillon 650XL which will live as my dedicated 9mm press. The thing is, my standard load is powder coated lead.... So a couple of questions: 1) Any issues with powder coated lead slugs through the feeder? 2) Is this thing actually all it's cracked up to be? Thanks! I don't have a mini (I have 2 full size standalone units) and use one of them to drop bullets for 38 super, 9mm and 40S&W on the Dillon 1050 and the other one for 45 acp on the Dillon 650. I only run jacketed bullets through mine. PC bullets should be fine, I would not run lubed bullets because they will get everything all gummed up in a short amount of time from the lube. Right.... I see the various warnings on bullets feeders with regards to the use of cast lead, and naturally assumed it was due to the lube issue. I suppose we'll see! |
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The regular MBF and mini use the same die. And yes, the die works well with coated as long as they don't have any flakes of coating protruding. I have been doing a lot of coating for 44-40, 45 colt, 357, 30-30 lately.. All work great. And yes, the 45 cal die works with 44. Just wish it worked with 45-70 (die too short).
I shake and bake but place each bullet bottom down in pan. If I leave any clumps, sometimes pools of powder leave protrusions on the bottom. However, if you put them through a sizer (lee works well), it shaves off the junk. This makes feeding far better. I have not been able to get lubed cast bullets working. The first dozen feed fine but once the inside of die builds up lube, it stops freely moving up and down resulting in spilling of multiple bullets. In summary, yes, it works well with coated (and plated for that matter) bullets. BTW, if you ever want to upgrade to hopper, you can special order the rest of the parts through Double Alpha.. I wanted an extra hopper so I recently did that. |
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I do not have a mini, but they use the same "dropper" dies. The dies work fine with powder coated. Due to how they retain and drop bullets I bet wax lubed bullets would gum it up fairly quickly, but the dropper itself is utterly reliable. If you have issues with "doubles" or all of the bullets dropping, your die is set too low.
For all but the shortest bullets, it is sufficient to keep the ball bearings in the upper slots of the dropper assembly. If that sounds nonsensical now you will understand it right away when you see it. Also, when you get your feeder, be really careful playing with the dropper... if you activate it by hand when not actually using it in the press the little ball bearings can fall out, and they are hard to find... The full size MBF is expensice but awesome. The minI is probably worth it over the hornady die setups so many use just because MBF's dies are just so much more versatile and reliable. |
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Quoted:
dj, do you find yourself distracted by constantly looking at the mini feeder magazine? I know I would be until I really trained with it. Next thing you know, case full of powder dumped out in the finished cartridge bin. ha! full disclosure.. I never used the mini. I had swapped emails with Double Alpha about it. They confirmed the die is the same. I had debated buying just the spare tubes to use them on the die I have.. Reason: I was hoping die would work with cast bullets and didnt want to gum up my drop tube spring. Thus I figured I would get the mini tubes for cast only. That plan was cancelled when I couldnt keep die running reliably with lubed bullets. Essentially, if you already have the regular mr bullet feeder and die, you just need spare tubes which Midway sells for much cheaper than die w/tube... I did run the Hornady tube system for a little while, and yes.. constantly looking. Just always keep a small tray of spare bullets next to you in case your case misses one. Once I moved to coated bullets, I just bought a second hopper. Already had all the die and wanted a hopper on two presses since I go back and forth as I am working loads. Cheapest MBF deal is to keep an eye on Midway. Got my first one (in 308) for over $150 off when it was in clearance. |
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