.223 Super Stars Conversions

[bwpsc]

If the .223 Super Stars Conversions are worth so much or costing so much how come we don't see more copies of them?
Are the links, the powder tube, and the dies the only difference?
Just saw a conversion on flea-bay and the asking price is 1850 dollars.
Seems a bit steep?

Bryan

[NYKenn]

I do not own one, but believe you are correct on the parts difference including shell plate,  and yes 1,850 is a lot. They are however rare, and few and far between. The value is set by the seller in hopes of a buyer. Interesting to see what/if it really sells and for what.

Makes we wonder what my wife/children will be able to sell my Star's for in the distant future. With the improvement of progressive reloading (Dillon 750 for example) who will want to buy a Star that has not been produced in what is approaching 30 years.

Bruce Williams might jump in here, but I would suspect no one is making clones or copies as it is to a very small and costly market. Much the same reason no one is making a current Star reloader.  With such a small market, one has to wonder how many they would need to sell to cover development and production costs as well as realize a profit. The market is much smaller than just all Star owners. I would suspect that many Star owners reload many rifle calibers beyond .223 that these cannot be done on the Star.

I for one load .223, as well as 30-06 and 308. all on a Dillon. While I would certainly like to reload .223 on my Star, I would still need another option. And at 1,850, I could buy a lot of components. (If you could fine them these days in any quantity).

My 2 cents
Regards

Kenn
 

[tony barone]

Although I only load 38 Supercomp on my Star and it has all MA System attachments also with a Mr Bullet feeder it has loaded 275,000 rounds of perfect ammunition. Never had a squib or a primer problem. One can never say that with a Dillon 1050 or any other machine. I have seen many problem reloads from Dillion machines. I would love to have the new Mark 7 auto loader but would not give up the reliability of the Star. There will always be a place for the Star machine.

[bwpsc]

I would love to own one to have up on the shelf to look at but I would not load on it.
I shoot service rifle so I load several thousands of .223 a year but they are all batch done on a rock chucker. Actually I have 2 presses right side by side to each other.
I have a couple of Dillon 550's that could load rifle rounds but I feel the primers can not  be felt on a press so I hand prime them. Also I do not think the powder measures throw evenly enough for competition shooting to load with the progressive.
I guess I could get or make an adapter to use my Harrells measure but batch loading seems to work out okay.
I do load a bunch of .223s. I batch load with a 5 gallon bucket. 3700 empties fit in a 5 gallon bucket.
You are correct about the worth of the Stars being low to a new re-loader or a non-Star brand re-loader.
They just don't appreciate the value until they have seen one run. And run.
You will never hear of other machine brand owners talk about getting 250 thousand loadings off of their brand without a major rebuild or two.

[cc656d]

Does anyone have an idea how many Super Stars were made ?

[rbwillnj]

Don't know if it's still there, but on the about page of Dillon's website (while Mike was still alive) it said he sold about 100 of the kits.    Some of the parts, like the powder magazine and powder slide were were available separately.    I accumulated five of the kits, but the first one took me forever, getting pieces here and there.

Bruce Williams

[Green Frog]

The advertisement states that this is for the "Star Progressive" press.  Was this actually the case or was their design for use on Universal Progressive presses?

Froggie

[NYKenn]

Bruce

Did not see a date on the flyer.
Any idea when it was produced?

[rbwillnj]

Green Frog,

It's definitely for a Universal,   Part of the kit is a couple special shell locator straps.

NYKenn,

No idea but I'm thinking late 70's, or very early 80's.   Here is a link to Dillon's about page.   https://www.dillonprecision.com/about-us.html

Bruce Williams

[NYKenn]

Had read that a few times. Great example of a small need that sparked a multi-million dollar business!

Was not very active in rifle at that time, so really no no interest in the conversion. What might have been!

Regards

Kenn

[cc656d]

Did they have a carbide sizing die ?

[rbwillnj]

No, not carbide, but most bottleneck rifle dies are not carbide and even those that are still recommend (require) using case lube.  I'm pretty sure that Dillon had RCBS make the dies for the Super Star Kit.

[cc656d]

Thanks