Arbor press

[stagpanther]

UPS and fedex apparently have an agreement with the local USPS that they will hand-off "regular ground" to them, though they don't always, it's really a crap shoot whether they do or not. The shipping costs skyrocket fast when you select something faster, and in general it isn't going to be delivered any faster anyway where I live in the boondocks; so it's wasted money. The danger is when the scan-in/scan out loses track between centers--especially if the package gets bumped backed to a regional hub center, where it can be lost in mass of packages in purgatory. Happens to me once every few years. If the package is still in the area at one of the post offices (that's my hope, they often leave the package at the wrong post office) then the odds go up I'll be able to find it.

I live on a private road (which is a fancy way of saying my town will not provide any services even though I pay the same taxes as everyone in the heart of town). I've noticed over the years that many e-cart applications perform their shipping costs calculations based on accessing the USPS's address database. If your physical address is not in their system as a location they deliver to--odds go up that goofs like this can happen.

[hounddawg]

That sucks. I'll gladly, well not gladly, but I will pay a few bucks to avoid the hassle of a lost package. I just went to Midway and the UPS/USPS option was $12.14 for 500 bullets, the UPS ground was $12.69. Even if that surepost had been free, I would have still doled out $12.69 to avoid USPS from sending it to their private black hole. That is just me though, depends on your tolerance for BS level I reckon. The older I get the lower that bar gets

[stagpanther]

That is just me though, depends on your tolerance for BS level I reckon. The older I get the lower that bar gets

You're probably right. I've paid for 2 and 3 day express delivery in the past--and it still can take almost a week to get anything here.

[BumbleBug]

I load 6mm PPC seating bullets with a Wilson die using the drill press next to my loading bench as an arbor press. No problems or complaints.

[hounddawg]

Oh, I don't do the 2 and 3 day stuff . Just regular old ground UPS or FedEx get's most stuff here, southeast coast, in 2 -3 days. I try and minimize shipping by ordering quantities of consumables 8 pounders of powder, 500 - 1000 bullets, bricks of primers on free hazmat days

I like UPS but FedEx has a easy to use ap to have them hold stuff at various offices and retail stores around the area. When Fedex is a option for regular shipping I'll use them just in case I am not going to be home when it is delivered.

Anyway good luck, I have had stuff disappear off tracking for two days and had a neighbor deliver it once before

[USPSUSMC]

Originally Posted by hounddawg

That sucks. I'll gladly, well not gladly, but I will pay a few bucks to avoid the hassle of a lost package. I just went to Midway and the UPS/USPS option was $12.14 for 500 bullets, the UPS ground was $12.69. Even if that surepost had been free, I would have still doled out $12.69 to avoid USPS from sending it to their private black hole. That is just me though, depends on your tolerance for BS level I reckon. The older I get the lower that bar gets

Private black hole? Come on guys, very few packages are ever truly lost by any of the delivery companies. Sometimes mistakes happen but in the 33 years I spent there as Manager in several operations there was hardly ever a “lost” item that didn’t turn up somewhere. These threads always seem to have people piling on with total BS like this. For example, I had a single bottle of CLP ordered from Amazon. It was “lost” and they sent me another bottle. 3 weeks later it was delivered by UPS. That is a rarity. Even if they are late by any of the companies it is seldom more than a day or 2. All we ever want to gripe about is the occasional exception instead of the 98% on time or early.


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[stagpanther]

there was hardly ever a “lost” item that didn’t turn up somewhere.

That's true--vanished from the face of the earth not--but nonetheless going off the tracking radar does happen--and then it becomes the recipient's problem to unravel where it went.

I went to my local PO on Saturday--there was no package there and no notice of attempted delivery. Because this has happened before, I figure the odds are high that it's at the wrong post office. However, the PO may not hold onto the package, so it becomes a race against time to track it down before they return to sender, and the risks go up even higher then. No offense, but it happens.

[hounddawg]

Private black hole? Come on guys, very few packages are ever truly lost by any of the delivery companies.

oh I am sure most are delivered somewhere, just sometimes not to the right address. It probably depends on the post office and delivery person, just like other professions some will be better than others. I know I had a hard time finding good workers when I was in the workforce, in today's job market it is probably worse.

In the last 20 years I had some steel bar from McMaster delivered to neighbor on next street over, neighbor found it and returned it, same with a package from Midway. I have done the same for a couple of neighbors on at least two occasions. Over half the streets in my subdivision end in "dale" so it is understandable.

When I returned my Labradar to Brownells it made it to the town where Brownells is located and went into a black hole. Three days after it hit the local post office and not to Brownells receiving desk Brownells declared it formally lost and returned my money, no idea if it ever made it's way out of the black hole. Got to love Brownells

Overall percentage is probably less than a half a percent but all it takes is once to ruin your day

[stagpanther]

BTW--I used to work at the Postal Service headquarters on L'Enfant Plaza in DC--the stories I could tell ya (but can't).

[stagpanther]

UPS just delivered the dies from Wilson--they were actually far more expensive than the press itself. Whew. : )

[Bart B.]

I've tried all types of seating dies. If case necks are aligned straight on the case, any seater does a good job keeping bullets well aligned with the case axis.

Even if the seater bullet guide diameter is a few thousandths inch bigger than bullet diameter. Here's my seater diameters:

Wilson BR chamber type .308, circa 1966;.3105"
RCBS standard .308, circa 1966; . . . . . . . .3100"
RCBS standard .308, circa 1979; . . . . . . . .3115"
RCBS competition .308, circa 1980's; . . . .3107"
RCBS standard .300 Win Mag, circa 1999, .3104"
RCBS standard .30-.338, circa 1967, . . . . .3102"
Bonanza BR .30-.338, circa 1980; . . . . . . . .3093"

30 caliber bullet diameters I've measured go from .3070" to .3092".

[stagpanther]

I assure you I'm more than capable of getting a bullet seated non-concentrically.

[USPSUSMC]

Originally Posted by stagpanther

BTW--I used to work at the Postal Service headquarters on L'Enfant Plaza in DC--the stories I could tell ya (but can't).

Impossible. No one “works” at USPS HQ. They do like to schedule a lot of telecoms to make themselves feel important though. I forgot more about delivery in the last 5 minutes than any of them will ever know.


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[USPSUSMC]

Originally Posted by hounddawg

oh I am sure most are delivered somewhere, just sometimes not to the right address. It probably depends on the post office and delivery person, just like other professions some will be better than others. I know I had a hard time finding good workers when I was in the workforce, in today's job market it is probably worse.



In the last 20 years I had some steel bar from McMaster delivered to neighbor on next street over, neighbor found it and returned it, same with a package from Midway. I have done the same for a couple of neighbors on at least two occasions. Over half the streets in my subdivision end in "dale" so it is understandable.



When I returned my Labradar to Brownells it made it to the town where Brownells is located and went into a black hole. Three days after it hit the local post office and not to Brownells receiving desk Brownells declared it formally lost and returned my money, no idea if it ever made it's way out of the black hole. Got to love Brownells



Overall percentage is probably less than a half a percent but all it takes is once to ruin your day

Your private black hole is now half a percent?


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[stagpanther]

Impossible. No one “works” at USPS HQ. They do like to schedule a lot of telecoms to make themselves feel important though.

How did you know? When I was there it seemed to me the only thing anyone seemed to care about was getting to GS16 and retiring as quick as they could. I was there when the PG apparently cooked the books to the tune of billions of dollars--the USPS came very close to totally collapsing.

[hounddawg]

Your private black hole is now half a percent

so if only one out of every 200 packages gets misdelivered it is a good day. Bet you would feel differently if it was your item that was the one

@ Stagpanther I am glad you got your dies at least, maybe the press will find it's way home also

[stagpanther]

@ Stagpanther I am glad you got your dies at least, maybe the press will find it's way home also

Actually, I just heard from Anderson that my uppers were also registered as "delivered" by the PO last Friday. I never got them either. Here's what I think might have happened. Being a holiday weekend, the post office staff (often just one or two people where I live) decided to make a vacation of it and took off, leaving other less-experienced people to fill in. Rather than check all the packages in properly, they might have simply said "screw this, beer's a-callin and the regular folks can deal with the pile when they get back." The "delivered" status was exactly the same 9:20 am Friday morning as the arbor press from Midway.

[stagpanther]

All's well that ends well : )

I just got back from the local PO, and my guess was pretty close, apparently a substitute person had checked in 3 packages for me but only "delivered" one. The explanation was a bit fuzzy in that it didn't account for the over 24 hours between the time the packages were "delivered" Friday morning to when I went to the post office right before they closed Saturday and still weren't in my box, but I decided discretion was the better part of valor and didn't press the issue any further, the stuff is here and that's what counts.

[hounddawg]

good deal, let us know how it works out for you

[stagpanther]

I think what really attracts me the most is the ability to take this to the range and adjust loads on the fly--I'll see if that actually works out--though I'm not tempted to do that in the middle of the winter.