RCBS Pistol Bullet Feeder

[dickttx]

Saw this mentioned on another forum a while back and was interested. Finally showed up at Midway so I ordered the one for 9mm/38 and it arrived yesterday.
Interesting packaging. (left photo) It was shipped in this. (second photo)

I am going to use it on my Lee Classic Turret. In order to do this, and keep the two die seating/crimp I had to make some changes in my procedures. I removed the sizing die from my 38 Super and 9mm turrets and put them together in a new turret. I sized, deprimed, and primed at one station in a single stage mode, all in one operation. I moved the powder drop/flair die to the right one position and inserted the bullet drop die in its previous position. Now my turret is flair/powder drop, bullet drop, bullet seat, crimp.

The parts to the powder drop die are shown in the third photo. Adjusting it to drop the first bullet took some time. And it definitely needs the .385 flair as per the instructions.

Starting with the sized/primed cases the process went VERY quickly-- when it worked. I was having trouble with the Pro Auto Disk screw loosing, thus reducing the flair. The rubber band around the filler tube and the PAD pretty much fixed that as the measure can't swing back and forth. (fourth photo)
At unexplained intervals it would not drop a bullet, no matter how many times or how hard I moved the lever. Also, I had two R-P nickel plated cases for which it would NOT drop a bullet. Too thick I think.
After loading about 100 rounds I took it apart and inspected the innards. Some bullet lube and powder inside (powder from energetically moving the lever occasionally).
There was also some flashing on the tips of the plastic fingers that I trimmed off. Hope to try a few more this evening.
One thing I did notice is that it is not easy to remove the die or bullet tubes when there are still bullets in them.

As previously stated, when it worked, the process was amazingly quick. When it didn't, it took lots of time. If it worked everytime it would probably substantially increase the output from the press. However, I am not sure if there would be an overall increase in production if you count the time needed to load the bullets in the tubes and the single stage procedures.

Hope someone can use this info if they are looking at one.

Will try some more adjustments. Like most things I get into, it is probably not the equipment, it is the operator.

 

[Lonely Raven]

I didn't see that RCBS had one out till after I had bought a Hornady bullet feed die and some plastic tubing. That said, I'm into it for only $30.

I've not yet set it up, but I plan on giving it a try this weekend!

 

[SOLID EAGLE]

I bought this for 45 ACP to use on my RCBS Pro 2000. To put it bluntly, it is a piece of junk. The plastic bushing that holds the bullets in place is the problem. If that part could be improved it might perform better.

 

[Bowfishrp]

I got the RCBS bullet feed die to try this myself and I STILL cant make it work on every case...works about 1 in 6 times. No I havent called rcbs...just put it on the shelf in my pissed off state. Might call or might just sell it. Not sure yet.

 

[john16443]

I bought them recently directly from RCBS over a month ago for 9mm and 45ACP and use them on my Hornady LNL.

Yes, it was necessary to trim the flash from the plastic fingers, and they give you 2 of them. Make sure to install the rubber band. Haven't had an issue with them to date.

Yes, making sure you have enough flare or bell is important for consistent bullet feeding. The only times I have problems with feeding is when there's only one bullet left in the die.

Like the way it sets the bullet on top of the case, straight and with enough tension that it doesn't wobble out of alignment.

Drilles small holes near the bottom of the tubes and installed a hitch pin to keep the bullets from falling out. Set the tube on top of the die, pull pin with one finger covering the bottom of the die, let them settle. One or two bullets may come out in your hand, just drop them back in the tube at the top.

Don't use the powder through expanding set up on the powder measure, so I had to move the sizing operation to my single stage. Not a big deal as I size in batches right after cleaning and storing. For me it's expand/flare in station 1, drop powder in 2, drop bullet in 3, seat bullet in 4, and taper crimp in 5.

Without having to seat a bullet and insert a case, you can now complete a round in under 2 seconds, or the time it takes to move the handle down and up. That also allows you to visually check that powder has been properly dropped and a bullet set in place.

 

[Whiskey_Sour]

Got to make sure you have enough "bell" in your case, it's kinda sensitive to that. So if you have different case lengths and different amounts of "bell" then your results will vary. Be patient, it works well when things are set up right.

 

[dickttx]

I got back down this evening to try again.
First I adjusted the die again, as per the instructions. I found that yesterday I had the die much too far down in the turret.
I had 37 38 Super cases prepped for loading. Sized and primed as before, then completed them on the full turret. For the second bullet I had to raise the ram a second time. No further troubles until about 15. Had to bang the bullet tube slightly on that one and one more later. When I got down to about 10 bullets showing in the tube another would not feed. Dropped another bullet in the top of the tube and that one fell. It happened one more time before I finished.
So--5 failures in 35. Still not too great, but not real bad.
Need to drill holes for a pin as John stated.
Still not sure if there is any overall time saving, but the bullet seating is much easier when it works.
I'll try again after I empty some cases.

 

[GW Staar]

Both feeder dies, Hornady and RCBS need the weight of a stack to work. Actually that goes for Mr. bullet feeder's feeder die too. If you want problem-less feeding keep the stack higher than the point where it fails to feed reliably. If you don't have extra bullets than what you want to load, then drop a steel rod in the tube....obviously big enough around to keep it from feeding to a case or watch carefully!

The other point of the stack is to drop the bullet just enough faster so that it "sticks" in the case and doesn't fall over. I have to state that Mr. Bullet Feeder's Feed die is really tall. When it releases a bullet is falls farther. That makes up a little for a short stack. But even that feeder works better with several bullets ahead.

The other important factor in that is the specified mouth expansion. But even a measurement across the mouth isn't the whole story. If the expander is too shallow of an angle, even a decent stack won't keep a fed bullet from toppling when you advance the shell plate to the seating station.


I tried Lee expanders first and they wouldn't make the bells the right shape. The recently improved Hornady PTX expanders work and the new RCBS expanders for the Uniflow even better. I don't have a clue about how the Dillon expanders work, so I can't comment.

 

[hentown]

I'm not familiar with how the RCBS feeder is configured. If it doesn't use a collator and one has to load a feeding tube one-bullet-at-a-time, then it'd be as worthless to me as that p.o.s. Lee bullet feeder!!!

 

[dickttx]

Should have stated that both my earlier posted efforts were with MBC IDC#6, 124gn lead TCFP bullets.
Went to the range this morning and emptied out the 37 I loaded yesterday evening (even found all the cases!!).
Loaded them again this evening using PD 124gn FMJ. The bullet feeder worked perfectly from the first bullet till the last one in the die. Had to add another bullet to get that one to drop.

 

[GW Staar]

I'm not familiar with how the RCBS feeder is configured. If it doesn't use a collator and one has to load a feeding tube one-bullet-at-a-time, then it'd be as worthless to me as that p.o.s. Lee bullet feeder!!!

The great thing is....aren't you glad it's a free country and you don't have to buy it if you don't think it's worth while.

Lee's bullet feeder has other issues besides no collator.....the fingers aren't that reliable, and the tubes are too short to make it worth while. Personally the RCBS tubes are too short as well.

I buy my tubes from Linens & Things, freight free from their web site. Those tubes are 36" tall. If you were to buy enough tubes to hand load say 500 bullets into tubes while you are taking a break watching 30 minutes of CSI on TV. I bet even you will be pleased with how fast you can feed & load them.

ne should drill small holes through the tube bottoms and buy hair pin cotters, primer tube style only bigger, so they all don't fall out. Allied Armory came up with that idea. (See picture below)

 

[dickttx]

GW, what do you search for on Linens & Things? Search for plastic tubing resulted in hundreds of non-related items.

 

[GW Staar]

Lee Rigid Clear Plastic Tubing Then scroll down for all the sizes. 1/32" walls, 1/16" sizes....they telescope into each other. Super glue works if you want to make permanent connections....for example to make a coupling, you can slide a 2" piece of the next larger size, half way over the bottom piece and glue. Then you can drop in another piece.