My Auto Breech Lock Pro journey - Part 4

So before I strip the carrier I decided to run an experiment. How fast can this press work without the Safety Prime?

This meant I had to buy something I said I will never buy…a hand primer.

I started off with taking all the other dies off the press, which is super easy with the Breech Lock bushings. Station 1 only had my resizing die. As you can see on the below video, this was a very quick process.

One thing to note is that the spent primer catch tube does fill up quickly. I started noticing spent primers falling out of station 2 and on further investigation found that he spent primer catcher was full. I am sure if I did not notice this, the timing of the carrier would have been affected.  This problem can be fixed by running the tube into a bucket to catch the spent primers.

Then it was on to the hand primer. I got myself the new Auto Prime from Lee. This hand primer has been through a few upgrades and I am happy to report that it is now a worthy addition to my reloading tools. It is comfortable as it now includes the comfort grip and the whole tool is supplied in a nifty box with space for the tool, large and small priming parts and shell holders.  Best part is Lee dropped that silly plastic spring that kept on breaking.

I resized 500 9mmp cases on the press and then hand primed them. The primers were all seated to perfection and the process to hand prime took me about an hour while watching some Youtube videos.

I have never been a fan of the hand or bench primers as I have always primed on my presses but can now see why so many choose this route.

Then it was back to the press, now with all the other dies and accessories fitted except the sizing die in station 1. With the bullet feeder and case feeder this was done very quickly. 40minutes and 500 rounds were done and dusted. This includes refilling the bullet feeder and case feeder. With the sizing out of the picture the reloading portion was very easy on the press.

As will happen when you are loading at a fast pace, you can forget to turn the case feeder when a tube runs empty. My normal procedure is then to just take a case from my pile and insert it in station 1 manually. Well, the case I inserted was not primed so I had powder spillage for the first time on the press. Disaster I thought but it was also a good time to test something.

As you know powder spillage on a Pro 1000 will play havoc on the timing and most times bring your reloading session to an end. Not with the Auto Breech Lock Pro! It just carried on indexing without a hitch. This happened on the first 100 cases and low and behold 500 cases later the press was running just as smooth as when it was new.

This press is impressing me more and more.

Now back to stripping the carrier…