Messages

1

Star Reloaders / Problems with priming system

« on: April 04, 2005, 08:56:16 pm »

I have owned Star Reloaders for something over 20 years now. The single, biggest problem I have with them is with the priming system. Recently, I got a sleeve of the new style Winchester large pistol primers--the ones which are not nickel plated. These primers tended to leave slivers of brass in the priming area, both causing the punch to stick in the slide and the slide to bind. I had to disassemble and clean the system about every 25 rounds.

I am now using Federal large pistol primers in the .45 ACP machine and the problem has gone back to "normal" levels. I have to clean out the priming system every 100-200 rounds. While giving the machine a through cleaning, I replaced the old primer slide with a new one and cleaned the primer seating punch throughly.

Both of the Star Universals I am currently running (one for .45 ACP and one for the .357 Magnum) have always had a problem with shavings falling into the primer slide area and binding up the machine.  All of the Star machines I have seen have had a similar problem.

Has anyone discovered the root cause of this problem? Does anyone have a method or modification that will keep this from happening? I like my Star machines, but my Dillon RL 550 will load hundreds of shells with no problems with the priming system. My C-H AutoChamp would do the same. I reload to shoot rather than enjoying reloading as a process in itself. Hence, I am interested in troublefree operation which will allow me to load up several hundreds of rounds without constant problems.

If anyone has any ideas on what may be wrong and what can be done to correct it, I would appreciate their advice. Thanks, Les

2

Star Reloaders / Calibers loaded

« on: December 05, 2004, 02:25:25 am »

I use one Star Universal to load .45 ACP and a second unit to load .357 and Super .38. Small lots of the less commony used (by me) ammunition are loaded on a Dillon RL 550 machine.

As to the 9mm. I do have a rarely used conversion unit for my Star machines in 9mm Parabellum. I have loaded a few thousand rounds with it, over a ten year period, with no problems. One of the reasons the 9mm die set is more expensive is because the 9mm P is a tapered case. This means you have to have a longer carbide insert and it must be tapered to match the case taper. This makes it more expensive to produce than a .45 auto or Super .38 which use non-tapered cases and a small carbide insert at the very bottom of the loading die. Both the 9mm and Super .38 seem to use the same shell plate and taper crimping die. Les