9 MM: I got the press in the winter of 1992, and I originally used it to load 9x19 caliber ammunition, because that's the caliber of the gun I was currently using for IPSC competition, in my S&W 659 "Crunch&ticker". I had paid $700 for the gun. I had paid about $450 for the press, plus another $150 or so for the Casefeed Assembly option.
I was shooting in "D" class at the time . . . there was only one Division back then ... and it took me until 1995 to work myself up to "C" class.
.45 acp:In 1997, I realized that the targets were all being scored 'minor power'. While I had originally bought the 659 for the magazine capacity (14-15 rounds, rather than the 7 or 8 rounds availble for the most common 1911 in .45acp), I was not a good enough shot, or a good enough competitor, to get decent scores. So I researched the latest guns on the market, and decided to buy a Kimber custom in .45acp. I couldn't afford more, and by shopping around I got mine for $234.
They didn't look as good in 1997 as they do now ... the trigger was different, for one thing. But I could buy it for less than the Springfield, and the Cold 1991A1 looked like crap. Besides, Kimber already included as 'standard equipment the features which were 'options' from anybody else: Commander-style hammer, extended beavertail, adjustable trigger. Sure, it had fixed sights, but I didn't think it would be a problem, and it wasn't. The only disappointment was that there were TWO Kimber Customs in the shop, and I only bought one. I've been kicking myself for that bad decision for eight years, so don't feel obligated to tell me what a dummy I was. Oh geez, I had the money in my pocket . . . who knew it would turn out to be so good that I would forever refer to it as "The Beloved Kimber"?
The only thing I changed was to buy a Smith & Alexander extended magwell adapter, with the arched mainspring housing, in stainless steel. It not only dressed up the gun (as much as you can do with a pistol which is obviously a 'working gun', but it (a) allowed me to make magazine changes faster, and the arched mainspring housingmade the skinny grip fit my large hands much better.
(Other than buying new recoil springs, barrel bushings, grip screws and a lot of guide-rod bushings, I've not spent another penny on the gun itself. However, the new holster, magazines and magazine carriers cost me almost as much as the pistol!)
That meant I had to change from loading .9mm to .45acp. I realized that I would probably STILL want to load for the 9x19, so I not only bought a caliber conversion kit but I also bought a new powder measure assembly, a set of Large Primer feed tubes, new toolhead, Large Primer priming system, a Large Pistol Casefeed Plate, and a toolhead stand. I figured this would make it easy to switch between calibers, and I was right. I can't tell you how much it cost me to gear up for the new caliber, but the cost of the new Dillon XL650 components was about what I paid for the pistol alone. I didn't NEED the toolhead stand, toolhead and powder feed assembly, but the difference in time and effort to switch between calibers was worth a lot more to me than the cost of the components.
I was soon competing in "C-Stock", as there were now TWO divisions in IPSC -- Open and "Limited". (Originally, "Limited" was designated as "Stock" Division, but that changed about the time I bought The Beloved Kimber.)
In 1999 I went to my first IPSC Nationals, in Las Vegas, with The Beloved Kimber, shooting Limited. I was competing against the latest round of hi-cap (.40 S&W) Limited pistols. My limited magazine capacity was working against me, and so was my ammunition load.
I had gone to the Area 1 match in Reno a couple of months earlier, and there I was using Unique powder at the time, and it was such a large granule size that it wouldn't charge consistently. I was down to my last bullet before I got enough rounds at high velocity to make Major Power (then, 175pf.) Like Scarlet O'Hara, I swore that I would "never be poor again", and I changed my powder measure. At Las Vegas I was shooting a 196pf, and The Beloved Kimber kicked like a mule. I had the distinct impression that I was overpowered, and started looking for another answer --- preferably, one that would include a higher magazine capacity.
10mm: I had been corresponding with Dave Skinner, of STI, for a while, and I told him that I was in desperate need of a hi-cap Limited pistol. I didn't like the round-count of the .45 acp, but there were so many accounts of the "Ka-BOOM!" incident with the new .40 S&W round, I didn't trust it for safety's sake. I wanted a 10mm, and preferably in the Edge.
In 2000, Dave sent me an email announcing that the STI Edge in 10mm had just been approved in Limited Division. By return mail, I sent him an order for a pistol with the custom serial number which he had suggested: Geek2011. I paid $1650 for the gun, another $150 for a holster (you couldn't find many holsters for an extended-dust-cover 1911 at the time), extra magazines and Safariiland magazine carriers. As long as I was at it, I bought a Safariiland inner/outer Velcro belt system, too. Total cost for accessories was about $500, which was largely accounted for by the high cost of 140mm 18-round magazine tubes under the Brady Bill.
As far as I know, I was the first person to order an Edge in 10mm for IPSC competition. Probably the last, too.The standard 10mm load, as the FBI had already learned, is WAY too heavy for normal shooting. You only want to use the full-bore 10mm if you want to kill a bear.
Since 10mm ammunition cost something like $25 a box of 50, I started looking for ammunition. A few folks in the Columbia Cascade Section ("Tom the Gadget" and Everett, the then-Section Coordinator) had 10mm ammunition that they didn't particularly need, and they donated the loaded ammuntion so I could break in the gun.
The first part that got 'broke in" was the tungsten guide rod. It had been designed for the .40S&W, and I was shooting about 200+ power factor.
I immediately ordered some 10mm brass from Dillon (exorbitant price), adn went to my local range to find more USED brass. This was generally priced low, but mostly it was 10mm which had been shot in a Glock, which meant that all of the cases were bulged. Taking a hint from a friend, I bought a Lee sizing die, which is one one-thousandth of an inches tighter, and used it on an old Lee press to pre-size the cases. I also de-tempered a new RCBS case holder, ground it down as short as I could, and re-tempered it so I could get the sizing die down as far as possible on the cases.
Shortly after this I found a new source of 10mm brass. A friend knew a guy who was a janitor at the FBI firing range in Portland. He got the brass for me at $50/k, deprimed and sized it, and tumbled the brass in a solvent which left the entire case, including primer pocket, as clean as brand new brass.
One of the advantages of the 10mm was that the case was MUCH stronger than the .40S&W brass, and could handle heavier loads. Another was that it used the Large primer (as did the .45 acp) rather than the Small primer (as did the 9mm). I had already found that the Large primer fed more reliable through the Dillon XL650, so that would have been worth the effort of choosing the 1omm even though the brass was much more expensive and harder to find, harder to work with. I had some terribly heavy charges go through the 10mm in following years, but they never caused me any problems except for the heavier recoil. A good choice, and if I had to do it all over again I would still choose the 10mm over the .40 S&W.
For the XL650, I already had the Large primer system, the Large Pistol casefeed plate, so I only had to buy the caliber conversion kit, the dies, the toolhead and the powder assembly. Of course, I also bought a toolhead stand so I could keep it upright on the bench when I was loading a caliber. Surprising to me, the updates to the Dillon XL650 cost less than the new holster, magazine carriers and Safariiland belt assembly. In fact, it cost about what two new 140mm magazines cost me, including tube, follower, spring and basepad.
This will be continued in the next post, "XL650: .38 Super"
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