Wow! See what Mr. Bullet Feeder's been up To--Video

[GW Staar]

Rick has teamed up with a British Company and together they turned his home shop produced product into a smaller, more attractive, better working, mass producible product!.....and they say ... cheaper?

YouTube Video
The New International Website

The best part of Rick's collator has always been the bullet flipper that makes the collator so efficient and fast. (jmorris "borrowed" that feature for his home-brewed version) The collator got improved even more with the spring loaded sweeper they added. Neat trick to be sure. Mounting the collator to the Dillon case feeder has to be a real cost cutter, besides, it reduces footprint to zero.

If you own any bullet feeder, the following is worth reading: On the International Website linked above, there is a list of video's to watch. Video #4 is about their "new custom powder funnel" which is almost exactly the same design RCBS used on their new "Powder-through expanders" introduced last January. The design is notable because of the initial bulge preceding the funnel shaped portion of the expander which can further bell the case. This bulge expands the case deep enough to hold the bullet...while the funnel portion bells the case just enough to start a bullet. This is a better way of expanding, pioneered ironically by Lyman years ago, allowing less case working, but enough for a falling bullet to stick. Hornady needs to upgrade their expanders to follow RCBS's and Mr. Bullet Feeder's lead so the over-worked wide bells are a thing of the past.

If you watch some videos, you will notice a lack of clear tubing except at the bottom, and a spring tube that is pretty darned floppy. Well folks, this is brilliant! The "stretched" version of the usual spring tube does two things I can see. 1. You can see through it! You can see the bullets dropping....so you don't need lots of clear tube. 2. It flops like the devil's in there! At first look, you think negative, but having experience working with spring tubes on my modded Hornady, I can tell you that friction is an enemy neatly worked around by all that bouncing! What a simple and effective idea....as long as you have the tube anchored well as each end and it isn't so long that is makes a pocket for bullets to hold up in.

I can tell you that if this product was in its present reincarnation, I would have bought it instead of the Hornady....and may still. It appears to be a super product!

The following is one of RCBS's new Powder-through Expanders.....compare that to Mr. Bullet Feeder's "Custom Powder Funnel" shown Here!


Congratulations, Rick! Best wishes with this....bigger venture! Bet he'll have more time now. (Bet Dillon is going to hit themselves for not teaming up with Rick first)

Downside? It can still get very pricey as you add $150 every time you want to add another caliber. Their advertising claims its the cheapest bullet feeder in the land. That's wishful thinking. Hornady's is...especially considering their $30 caliber changes. Still....nothing's slicker.

 

[jmorris]

You have to have a pretty long spring, if your using one on a 1050 as the tool head is the part that moves, on all other presses it can be much shorter. You still need a "stack" of bullets to give the seated bullet a "tamp" so it sticks when moving to be seated.

Still takes the powder check spot, so I'm not interested for pistol. The mount is a lot better than the old KISS style big PVC pipe stand.

I thought about mounting off the case feeder but I still have a tightwad bone in my body so I move case feeders around, using them on different machines. So I mounted my collator off the post right where the case feeder stops.

 

[RhinoDefense]

Bet Dillon is going to hit themselves for not teaming up with Rick first

Dillon wants nothing to do with bullet feeders. That would put them as a defensive article and subject to ITAR registration. Currently, they are not under ITAR for their machines. Adding a bullet feeder would do so.

 

[GW Staar]

You have to have a pretty long spring, if your using one on a 1050 as the tool head is the part that moves, on all other presses it can be much shorter. You still need a "stack" of bullets to give the seated bullet a "tamp" so it sticks when moving to be seated.

The video is with the 1050 so the long one obviously works, but I hear you, shorter would be an advantage, and some "tamp" is necessary even with the spiffy new expanders. The advantage over the old one is less bell is required, and that's always been a sore spot for me and the current crop of bullet feeders except GSI's. The GSI might as well be the holy grail for Hornady, and Pro 2000 users.

Still takes the powder check spot, so I'm not interested for pistol. The mount is a lot better than the old KISS style big PVC pipe stand. You must be living right, GSI won't sell their tool head separately anymore. What about the 6 station 1050? Still takes the powder check spot?

I thought about mounting off the case feeder but I still have a tightwad bone in my body so I move case feeders around, using them on different machines. So I mounted my collator off the post right where the case feeder stops.

LOL! I didn't realize you had one of those bones.

Dillon wants nothing to do with bullet feeders. That would put them as a defensive article and subject to ITAR registration. Currently, they are not under ITAR for their machines. Adding a bullet feeder would do so.

And ITAR registration is a bad thing, if you can increase profits? Educate us! Also, how is a case feeder different?

 

[RhinoDefense]

ITAR is a $2500-ish annual fee plus a butt ton of paperwork for EACH shipment overseas because it requires State Department approval.

There comes a time when regulations negate the drive for profit.

 

[jmorris]

You must be living right, GSI won't sell their tool head separately anymore. What about the 6 station 1050? Still takes the powder check spot?

I'd try again if I were you, I just orderd my 1050 feeder a month or so ago. I told them I already had a collator and only needed the tool head. The reason the GSI is the only one that lets you seat/crimp in two stages and keeps powder check with the bullet feeder is feed and seats at the same time.

The 650 has the powder check at #3, feed/seat at #4 and crimp at 5. The 1050 has the powder check at #6, feed/seat at #7 and crimp at #8.



Don't have any good photos of the 1050 one but you can see where I wired into it here.