That sucks
I just read a review, on another forum, by a guy who is still breaking primer slides on his chucker 7.
He's in Europe and says RCBS will only send him 2 replacement slides at a time, so when he hears the "snap" using his last one, it's 2 weeks before he gets to prime on the press again.
I'm not sure why he does not mention priming off the press as a alternative, but I believe that's what others are doing.
He even asked RCBS for a price for 100 primer slides but they never responded.
It's odd to me, how no owner/user has come up with a work-around or mod or new slide design to fix this problem.
I've searched YouTube and found nothing, just replacing the slide spring with a rubber band.
I can see someone making/selling a 3D printed primer slide that doesn't break that would sell.
Yes, I hear these stories and this is what I think.....take it with a grain of salt if you want.
There are those who break anything and everything they touch. I have a brother-in-law who I think has the world record in returning stuff....from pencil sharpeners to brand new automobiles. You've heard of a "bull in a china closet"? That's him. He lacks patience, he cannot pay attention to details, he won't read instructions because he has no patience to follow them. The fellow in Europe may be a relative.
I was training an employee on how to lay circular glass block one time....we had two such wall to lay up on either side of a big garden jacuzzi. One a shower, the other around a commode/bidet. I was doing one side...he was to as I did and lay up the other. How did it turn out? After 3 hours he had to take his down twice and start over.....why? Because he couldn't get it through his head that we weren't racing each other.....and would not pay attention to details.....little things...like laying the courses plumb and straight. He gave up and said he couldn't do it....it was the crappy block.
I think RCBS has a two-fold problem....too many impatient customers expecting perfection, and very little Dillon-like experience in dealing with them. Not all customers are so impatient.
I went looking a day or two ago on You Tube for what you were looking for......I found this one. (the guy is obviously a mechanic....notice his "metallic" stained hands.
A good mechanic and patience goes hand in hand.
.......That's too bad.
I hate back ordering things as it seems to be like playing the lottery at times. (A year or so ago, I ordered on pre-delivery an item that the company has now decided to not produce after all. I got a full refund, but...).
What's weird is the supply of P.C.7's are rarer than hens teeth.......except for old ones being sold for $850 or $900 on ebay. Grafs and Midway are out of stock....at Grafs you can't even back-order.
Based on Midway's short sale where even the PC7 was included made me think
a new run of presses (improved model?) was imminent. Especially since their combo shell plate/powder measure product can now be bought separately.
Having a production engineer email acquaintance gave me a unique opportunity to argue my case vs their thinking on die plates for this press. Their thinking was that 7 stations put the dies so close together that they couldn't see an answer beyond having each plate permanently mated to its own powder measure.
My argument was that they didn't need that, if only they would produce powder dies separate from their powder measure! (like Hornady already did). He went...."you may be right!" That was 6 months ago.
Today you can order just such a powder die...
and it is now in stock! and guess what! It fits my Pro 2000 just as well.
Look at the picture below, and the link is here:
https://www.midwayusa.com/s?userSearchQuery=rcbs+pro+chucker&userItemsPerPage=48
The separate PC7 die head is listed on that page too.........as"coming" Finally.....
I'm just bummed that their sale must have been a mistake......the prices were all
way more reasonable (more Hornadyish)
......It'll take a while to get over that.