DL-300 Refurb!

[seagiant]

Hi,
Thought I would start this thread as I have a DL-300 Shotshell Loader that I am working on.

These loaders come with the DL insignia and the Pacific or "P" on the front.

I'm going to stick my neck out and say they were actually made by Harley Bair? (Pressman????)

Anyway this loader was the first progressive that Bob Deitemeyer invented/produced.

As you can see from the pics this loader was USED by someone and I would suspect it has loaded THOUSANDS of shotshells in it life.

This is one of my favorite loaders and I even prefer it over it's grandson the Hornady 366!!!

[MarkP]

The story I always heard was that Harley Bair machined the castings and other components for Pacific when they were located in Lincoln NE. All of a sudden Bair loaders appeared and were identical to the Pacific loaders.

[Sam Casey]

Now that's a heavy duty shot shell reloader. Like to see it when you are finished.

[44Vaquero]

It will look like it's brand new when Seagiant finishes his work! Looking forward to seeing the finished product in operation.

[seagiant]

Hi,
Thanks Mark, You are probably right, but I don't know how the work was split up!

Bob Dietemeyer was suppose to be a character, which a few of the people involved in different areas of the "arms industry" were!

Thanks 44, I am doing this one at work so don't have everything like my shop at home but hope to make it better than it was.

Will have to wait to make the powder/shot tubes and hardware later.

Will probably make another bronze powder/shot bar like my other also!

This will of course be made to take the Hornady powder bushings!

This loader came with a number "2" powder/shot bar.

The OEM bars came with fixed powder and shot cavities from what I can tell!

[seagiant]

Hi,
Found this Russian site with a LOT of refurbished Pacific/Bair Shotshell reloaders!

Be patiant and give the page time to load, a lot of pics!

http://guns.allzip.org/topic/329/1167325.html

[W.R.Buchanan]

Bronze is nice,,, I used Blue UHMW Plastic for mine on my DL266. I need to make another one soon for my .410 DL266 as the stock one leaks H110 everywhere. The plastic bar works so much better than the Cast Aluminum one it is criminal. Nice smooth feel moving in and out.

I made a fixture plate to hold the bar while machining the angles on the sides. That's where the critical fit is, and if you get them right the rubber seals keep the powder in the hole and not all over the charge bar like the stock one does.

They sent me the production drawings and then I made my own just so I could be clear on what needed to happen. Much easier to make parts off a drawing than freehand. That way you can plan your sequence of events so you don't make mistakes.

Randy

[seagiant]

Hi Randy,
Been waiting on a Shot Show review from you!

On the charge bar you lost me with the "angles on the side"!

If there is a trick while machining the charge bar, that will help powder spillage, I'm all ears!

I used bronze because a buddy of mine gave me a 5' peice about 20 years ago!

Admittedly my bar does not leak but I'm using "fluffy" powder!

A pic learning to use my boring head!

[Skunk1]

Here is the Harley Bair version. The Polar Bear 600. When I get some new tubes it pretty much be new with a little wear where the hull gets sized. Have a few Bair and Pacific products and parts around. They were manufactured close and yes they all had a hand in each other's business at one time or another. Harley just passed a few years ago and my daughter has played softball a few times on a field named after his wife.




(Sorry for the mess, trying to thin my hoard)

[seagiant]

Here is the Harley Bair version. The Polar Bear 600. When I get some new tubes it pretty much be new with a little wear where the hull gets sized. Have a few Bair and Pacific products and parts around. They were manufactured close and yes they all had a hand in each other's business at one time or another. Harley just passed a few years ago and my daughter has played softball a few times on a field named after his wife.




(Sorry for the mess, trying to thin my hoard)

Hi,
Nice press, but not the same.

Yours has a primer feed and a swing out wad guide.

I think Bob Dietemeyer was a champion shotgun shooter and figured he could make a better loader...which he did.

As far as a businessman/boss, maybe not that good.

Heard he would come in to work after a "hard" night and fire everybody!

Then later in the day realize his mistake and hire everybody back!

Sounds like my kind of guy!

Heres a press like yours off that Russian site I linked to above!

Looks like they do good work!

Notice the custom made shovel handle!

[Skunk1]

The only difference I see between the Pacific and Bair are the bases and maybe wad guide. The 600 I have does not look like the above. First difference is the 600 sizes inside the guide rods for the plate assembly. I have seen that one before but the model/maker are not coming to me right now. Maybe an early version.

Once again excuse my mess but here is an early Bair. I thought was a Hornady prototype but a local gun shop owner turned one up and gave me the long story of Bair/Dietemeyer/Pacific story. He insisted its an early Bair. He's more knowledgeable than I.

[Skunk1]

Looked at the site. This is closest to mine.

[Skunk1]

Lol. After closer inspection it's a Bair 600. Sizes on the inside with the swing out wad guide.

The dl300 has no primer tube/assembly.

Polar Bair 600/Pacific 366 included the auto primer.

Along came hornady with bought them all and added the auto indexing she'll plate.

[seagiant]

Hi,
I like that early Bair, reminds me of the Pacific-266!

Here are some pics of my press clean up in progress.

Most of what was chromed, the chrome just flaked off when I went to remove the rust.

I guess they had to build these to a price point, but the early DL branded are what...55 years old or more???

For those interested to get the finish on the bright parts, I started with 100grit, then 220, then 320 and finally 0000 steel wool to get a matt type finish.

I guess to do this completely right you would rechrome everything then have the casting powder coated.

Actually IMO I think the loader is worth that, as it really is a tank and a pleasure to use!!!

[varmintpopper]

Attachment 159171I Have a Bair 600, Haven't used it in years, Still have the operators manual and all the parts that go with it.

[Skunk1]

The Bairs are nice machines. I've had pacific and Bairs of all kinds. This is the only one mounted to my bench. Would like to find another some day but there getting harder to find, even on eBay.

[seagiant]

Hi,
You guys might of seen this before, this is my other DL-300.

It has the upgraded shot/powder tubes, with the 1/8" thick tube walls instead of the OEM 1/16" tubes.

You can also see the custom bronze charge bar, that has minimal clearance and runs smooth as silk!

I need to break this one down and re do it all the way.

The idiot that put it on Ebay put the bright work on a quickie wire brush wheel to make it look better to sale it.

No permanent damage, but that is not the way you do it!!!

Admittedly I'd rather use a DL-300 than even a brand new Hornady 366 (auto)!

[W.R.Buchanan]

Greg: The charge bar on a DL266 is tapered on both sides to fit the Powder/Shot assembly casting. There are two rubber washers that look like garden hose gaskets in counterbores in the underside of the casting that ride directly on top of the charge bar and seal it so that the powder doesn't leak out. With fine grained powders like H110 this can be a problem as it gets everywhere and jams up the works.

The bar needs to be .998-1.000 thick which is the length of the bushings. The depth of the slot the bar rides in is a little deeper than 1.000 and that's where the hose gaskets come in. They take up the slack. The gaskets push the whole bar assembly down into contact with the bottom of the assembly.

On my machines the charge bar is tapered on the sides. It looks like a trapezoid from the ends. The actual dimensions are,,, the base leg is 1.270 and the top leg is 1.200,,, sides are @2 degrees. (I bought a tapered end mill form MSC) Getting the thing to fit in the hole as tight as possible and still be able to move freely is where it is at. I made a fixture to hole the Bar while I milled the tapers on the sides. I did one side and then crept up on the width from the other side, and the fixture allowed me to remove the part from the mill to test it and then put it back in the same place.
It's just a piece of barstock that has a step milled on it. I chuck it in the vise and then clamp the plastic to it with clamps on either end. Simple, easy.

If you measure the groove where the bar fits, and make the bar a few thou smaller. It doesn't sound like your machines have a tapered cavity for the charge bar to sit in, so you'd just do the same thing with a rectangle and fit the bar to the groove.

I made mine out of that plastic because a buddy gave me the chunk. I had to fly to Denver to see him recently and I made sure I got another chunk from him for my other machine. This type of stuff always gets made from stuff laying around the shop.

Nice boring head!

Randy

[DonMountain]

Wow! What a job you guys are doing. I have a collection of Bair and Pacific shotshell presses including a DL-120, DL-150, DL-260 (Bair version) and a DL-350. It would be nice if I could restore them like your presses, but I bought them to use. As I prefer the non-automatic priming on all of the older presses. I loaded 150 12 gauge shells on that Bair DL-260 last night. The question I have is, the DL-120 I bought recently to have as a representative sample of each of the shotshell presses that Pacific shows in their 1964 catalog, was missing the powder/shot tubes and the blue colored tube caps. Does anybody know where I may purchase a set of these tube caps and the tubes? I know the other tubes off my more modern Hornady powder measures also take the same tubes, so I suppose I could buy one of the 24" long 366 tubes and cut it in half. But I am still missing the caps?

[Skunk1]

I have found some rigid tubing that is the right size on eBay I'm going to buy. It's 6' long so I'll have left over for future projects. I know I have a set of pacific caps but they are black not blue. That would probably be the easiest place to find. I need to find a primer tube for a 155 I have. Garage sale/flea market/auction time of year is coming around here, probably find a few more this year..

Wow! What a job you guys are doing. I have a collection of Bair and Pacific shotshell presses including a DL-120, DL-150, DL-260 (Bair version) and a DL-350. It would be nice if I could restore them like your presses, but I bought them to use. As I prefer the non-automatic priming on all of the older presses. I loaded 150 12 gauge shells on that Bair DL-260 last night. The question I have is, the DL-120 I bought recently to have as a representative sample of each of the shotshell presses that Pacific shows in their 1964 catalog, was missing the powder/shot tubes and the blue colored tube caps. Does anybody know where I may purchase a set of these tube caps and the tubes? I know the other tubes off my more modern Hornady powder measures also take the same tubes, so I suppose I could buy one of the 24" long 366 tubes and cut it in half. But I am still missing the caps?