When you make an investment in a premium piece of gear like a Mr. Bullet Feeder, it’s good to know that you can use it for more than one application! In this video and article, I’ll walk through what’s included in the Mr. Bullet Feeder caliber conversion kits, and walk through the process of converting the Mr. Bullet Feeder over from 9mm to 45 ACP!
What’s Included in the Caliber Conversion Kit
The Mr. Bullet Feeder caliber conversion kit comes with the following as pictured above:
- Complete bullet dropper assembly with shutoff switch
- Powder-thru expander (for Dillon powder measures, special profile)
- Bullet feed plate
Performing the Caliber Conversion
For this story, we’re using the Dillon XL-750 as the demonstration press, but know that the process will be nearly identical for most presses, except in some cases you won’t need to combine the seating and crimping stations (more on that in the following process overview).
Installing Double Alpha Extra-Short Powder Bar (XL-750 only)
In my last post/video, I covered the Double Alpha Alpha Academy Extra-Short Powder Bar which is a solution to the “station #4 issue” on the Dillon XL-750. You can read more about that HERE.
Combining Seating and Crimping
For the XL-750 specifically, we will use the following die stations for the Mr. Bullet Feeder setup:
- Station 1: Case insertion, sizing, de-priming
- Station 2: Priming, charging/expanding
- Station 3: Powder check
- Station 4: Bullet drop die
- Station 5: Bullet seating and crimping
Because of our station #5 setup, we’ll need to pull the bullet seater and crimpers from stations #4 and #5 we used on our previous setup:
This is followed by installing and adjusting a combined seater/crimper die. Since Dillon doesn’t offer a combined seater/crimper, I opted to install an RCBS seater/crimper for 45 ACP in station #5:
Now we have two open stations: #3 (for the magnetic powder check), and #4 (for the bullet drop die).
Installing the Magnetic Powder Check
For this setup, I’m using the Double Alpha Magnetic powder check, which I showed to to install and adjust in my previous story using Mr. Bullet Feeder.
Swapping out the Powder-Thru Expander
The Mr. Bullet Feeder comes with a modified version of Dillon’s powder-thru expander. This helps with bullet drop and retention. First, you’ll need to remove the powder measure hopper, then either flip out the old expander (I tapped it from the bottom), or remove the toolhead and tilt the unit to slide out the old part.
Here you can see the Dillon expander flying upwards:
After removing the old expander, you can simply drop in the new one, and re-install the powder measure hopper.
Installing the Bullet Dropper
The bullet dropper install is VERY EASY! Here’s what you do:
- Install flared case in bullet drop station, raise ram to top
- Screw in bullet dropper a few turns
- Drop in a stack of bullets (so visible in clear window tube)
- Screw in die until stack of bullets drops one bullet height
- Screw in the the 1/4 – 1/2 additional turn
- Lock the lock ring
You may need to make fine tuning adjustments, but after that you’ll be set!
Preparing and Adjusting the Bullet Collator
The first part of preparing the bullet collator is to swap the bullet feed plates. Then, you’ll perform the following:
- Hang the bullet collator on the case feed bowl, tighten screws
- Adjust tilt angle to about 45 degrees
- Hook up power connection (to variable speed control)
- Adjust nose guide and flip ramp
Here’s a picture showing the areas of adjustment:
Above we have:
- Nose guide in-out sliding motion, secured by screw under unit
- Nose guide plates, adjust so that nose-down bullet has base just below flush with feed plate top surface
- Flip ramp
- Tilt angle (part of mounting bracket arrangement)
After this, it’s just a matter of hooking up the drop tube and spring, and shortening the spring if needed.
This concludes the caliber conversion process for the Mr. Bullet feeder. Now you can load at high efficiency!
Get Yours
You can order caliber conversion kits directly from Double Alpha Academy:
And here’s the Mr. Bullet Feeder from Double Alpha if you need the entire kit:
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Thanks,
Gavin