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Lloyd Smale
12-23-2011, 12:24 PM
started the reloading process for the .223 i blasted this summer. Ive got the lnl set up with a sb die in the first station priming in the second and my dillon case trimmer on the third. I gone through about half the brass now and have used 1600 primers. Ill probaly do the next bunch over two days as its a boring job and i cant take it for more then a hour or two. Then i have to turn around and run them through again to charge and seat bullets. tell you what though it would sure be an overwelming task without a progressive with a case feeder and a dillion power trimmer!!

warf73
12-24-2011, 10:33 AM
Lloyd please tell me your shooting an AR and not a bolt gun lol.

The last time I sat down and did a loading stretch like that I was getting ready for a P dog hunt. In 3 days I loaded up 1500 .308, 1000 .223, 1000 .22-250 and 1000 .204. Glad I had the 550 it made it easy on for sure.

Mk42gunner
12-24-2011, 11:19 AM
Lloyd,

Why prime before trimming? Not saying it is wrong, but it makes more sense to me to trim then prime.

Robert

Lloyd Smale
12-24-2011, 06:14 PM
because i can set my hornady press up to size on the first station prime on the second and trim on the third with my dillon trimmer. The second stage of the hornady is strickly for seating a primer so i cant see not doing it because i can lube them run them through and tumble off the lube without getting media in the flasholes. . tell you what though im about to toss those hornady case feeders in the garbage. Its such a balancing act to keep those 223s going into the shell plate staight and not tipping. You get it right and think your good to go and 15 rounds later its tipping again. Sure wish i would have went with 650s!

rodsvet
12-24-2011, 07:47 PM
The cast aluminum piece on the 650 that the case slides on as it goes into the shell plate has a groove to allow high primers to not interfer with the sliding action. On my 650, I filled the groove in with JB weld and filed it flat. The reason is that some times the case will tilt into the groove causing it to not feed but rather catch and then "slingshot" across the room. So you are not alone. All progressive machines have their little quirks. Rod

uscra112
12-24-2011, 11:26 PM
I've observed that cases run thru a tumbler after priming get bits of corncob in the flash-holes anyway. Can't think that these would do any good for consistency of ignition. Much as I hate clearing flash-holes, I put up with it now. (If $$ allows, once the Christmas bills are paid, I'd sure like to afford a barrel and some of those stainless steel pins. ( Yikes! they're spendy! ) But the pickup needs a muffler, and the tractor needs a rear tire, and/and/and.....

Lloyd Smale
12-25-2011, 08:51 AM
ive primed before tumbling for about 30 years now and have never seen any inconsitancys that possibly could be caused by pour ignition because of it. Not just in 223 but all my rifle loading. Personaly i think any problem with a missfire or squib would come from the flashole being plugged from the primer side. Any media plugging it from the inside would easily be dislodged by the primer ignition. Ive done this for years and ive chronographed thousands of rounds and have never noticed any problems what so ever doing it this way.

W.R.Buchanan
12-27-2011, 07:43 PM
Some of you guys might remember the post where I showed the bowling ball cannon earlier this year? Well that guy also has a real live Gatling Gun.. He brings it every year to our cannon shoot.

This guy actually loads 2000 rounds of 45-70 ammo for the Gatling on a Rockchucker press!

He is very concerned about double charging a case and blowing up his $100,000+ gun.

He runs 25 gr of XMR5744 so I don't think you can double charge a case but he refuses all help, so he does what he does anyway.

It takes him 2 full weeks to load all that ammo!!! and they shoot it up in less than 2 hours! He gets $2 per shot, and usually has a line 25 deep waiting until he runs out of ammo.

All funds get donated to the shoot and the club.

The Gatling is on wheels to the right of the cannon

Randy

DukeInFlorida
01-01-2012, 10:29 AM
I have a slidefire stock on one of my AR's, and get a rate of fire at about 720 rounds per minute. It empties a 30 round mag in 2.5 seconds.

I set out on a serious reloading project to build up some inventory to feed the thing.

I'm 5,000 rounds to the good at the moment, and only my move to FL is stopping the presses from rolling. In fact, my entire reloading room is currently packed in crates.

I run my production on a Dillon 550b, and use a super swage to decrimp. I'm using a Giraud trimmer to trim every part. I'm spraying my own alcohol/lanolin lube onto piles of brass inside a trash bag, and then tossing them around to spread the lube. My batches go into 2.5 gallon buckets. And from there onto striper clips. The Strip-Lula is the fast way to load a magazine for the set up I use. I can load a 30 round mag in about 20 seconds.

The slidefire is a fun game. I'll be needing a new barrel right soon, I reckon.

W.R.Buchanan
01-01-2012, 02:03 PM
Strip Lulu good! I have two and would not leave home without them.

What is the ratio of the Alc/lanolin mix? I see no need to keep buying it from Dillon.

Randy

Lloyd Smale
01-01-2012, 03:12 PM
what i do to lube is fill a box with about 3-400 rounds of brass. take some anyhydros lanolin an heat it in a microwave. Then i put a puddle of it in my palm and work it between my hands. Then i just stick my hands in the box and give the brass a good working. Ive yet to have a case stick like this and it usually puts just enough on the case where i dont get wrinkles. Duke i put mine on a stag. they have a lifetime warantee on everything and if the barrel is shot out they will replace it free.

Jailer
01-01-2012, 05:28 PM
I'd love to have a 650 with 2 tool heads set up for 223. One for case prep and one for loading.

Now I do all my case prep manually. The only thing I need to improve is trimming since my last batch of around 3600 took FOREVER on the RCBS trim pro. It does a great job with the 3 way cutter but man is it slowwwww.

I also use the alcohol/lanolin mix in a ziplock bag to lube. Once deprimed and sized, primer pockets swaged and brass trimmed they go in corncob to remove lube.

I load all mine on my Classic Turret. I run a rifle decapping die in the first hole to remove stuck media. I can load around 200 per hour at a nice even pace. Loaded up 1200 last week and I'll probably get at least that many done this week. Gives me something to occupy my time over the winter.

W.R.Buchanan
01-01-2012, 05:40 PM
Jailer: I have gotten RCBS "X dies" for .308,.30-06, and .223. Once you trim the cases you use the X dies for sizing and the cases don't grow like they do with a nromal sizing die.

Having to trim 3000 of anything one at a time would get old real fast. Since you already have the RCBS three way cuttter a more efficient way of hold the brass would do wonders for you.

I use a simple Dead length Collet Closer, with a 5C collet cut to the diameter rim I am trimming. I use it on my manual mill, but it would work on a drill press just as well.

You can easily do 8-10 cases a minute with this setup.

Randy

Jailer
01-01-2012, 06:14 PM
I've got the X die for 223 as well so hopefully I'll only have to trim them once. I still have another 4K or so to prep but I have all winter.

I'd love to try something like you posted above but I have no idea what that is and I don't have a drill press. Well I did, but the high moisture level in my unheated garage destroyed it and I'm not going to get another one until I have my pole barn done.

Lloyd Smale
01-01-2012, 07:05 PM
couple years ago i processed about 10k of 223 brass. Wore out my rcbs power trimer and used 3 cutters doing it. I switched to the dillon press mounted trimmer and would never look back. Nothings as fast. you trim as fast as your can pull the handle on a progressive press and it vaccums up the mess as you go. Just wish i had a 1050 to put it on so i could swadge at the same time but anymore i have a pile of brass with the pockets swaged so its no big deal. Thats the only job worse then trimming.
I'd love to have a 650 with 2 tool heads set up for 223. One for case prep and one for loading.

Now I do all my case prep manually. The only thing I need to improve is trimming since my last batch of around 3600 took FOREVER on the RCBS trim pro. It does a great job with the 3 way cutter but man is it slowwwww.

I also use the alcohol/lanolin mix in a ziplock bag to lube. Once deprimed and sized, primer pockets swaged and brass trimmed they go in corncob to remove lube.

I load all mine on my Classic Turret. I run a rifle decapping die in the first hole to remove stuck media. I can load around 200 per hour at a nice even pace. Loaded up 1200 last week and I'll probably get at least that many done this week. Gives me something to occupy my time over the winter.

Jailer
01-01-2012, 07:47 PM
I started with a RCBS primer pocket swager and gave up on that. I actually just gave it away to someone who wanted it.

Picked up the Dillon Super Swage 600 and haven't looked back. I have it mounted on a board and use 2 C-clamps to mount it to my desk. When I want to swage I throw a movie in my computer and watch as I swage.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b180/Jailer/posting%20pics/SuperSwage.jpg

I swaged all these in a couple hours.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b180/Jailer/posting%20pics/finished223brass.jpg

Lloyd Smale
01-01-2012, 09:50 PM
looks like alot of work! Ive got a dillion swager too and anymore i wouldnt tackle a pile like that in one day!!

W.R.Buchanan
01-01-2012, 10:39 PM
I have the RCBS version and gave up on it as well.

Was thinking about buying a Dillon one, but I just converted to chamfering the crimp off the primer pockets. I do those on my drill press, and it goes pretty fast, with a 6 flute countersink it takes about 2 revolutions to remove the burr from the crimp.

When you think about it, the fastest way to do any of this stuff is on a Dillon 1050 that can do everything to each round as it passes thru the machine. The thing about a progressive machine is that once all the stations have a cartridge under them, every pull poops out a finished round. The 1050 just has enough stations to do everything in one handling.

All of this comes under the heading of what I do in the machine shop with a turret lathe, or an automatic machine running "production parts" where you are making hundreds or even thousands of parts for one order..

The one thing that kills you when doing this kind of work is the number of times you have to "handle" the part. We always go to extra lengths to get those types of parts to run complete off the machine. When you have to do a second operation to a part when you have 3000 of them to do, means you have to handle those parts 3000 more times! This gets old really fast, and I usually "HIRE" somebody to handle those parts.

Obviously we don't hire people to do our hobbies for us, we buy more and better tools to have more fun!

I believe if I were trying to feed guns like you guys have I'd be looking to sell a bunch of my other stuff to buy a 1050.

I just got a Spolar Shotgun Shell loader before Christmas, and let me tell you what,,, That thing can make some shotshells! I just started and I can easily do 10 a minute complete, and once I get my bench made for it so the finished shells drop into a bucket below the table I will be able to do 15 a minute, that's 900 per hour which sounds like what you guys need for the .223's

Randy

Lloyd Smale
01-02-2012, 07:40 AM
only downfall to a 1050 other then the price is there isnt room to mount the trimmer on it and trim while your loading. The second stage is used for swadging. My buddy has two of them and had to set up a lnl just for trimming. If you could fit the trimmer and do it all at the same time id probably have to buck up and at least buy one for 223 and maybe another for 308s. Its ok though as the way i do it with the lnl is vasting faster then any other way ive done it in the past. The one thing about the dillon trimmer that bugs me is that you can buy dies for about any rifle caliber to convert it with the exception of 762x39, to do them you have to buy a entire unit specific to the caliber. 200 bucks is just to much for me to spend to do one caliber. I have to do them on my drill press.

Lloyd Smale
01-02-2012, 07:46 AM
"I just got a Spolar Shotgun Shell loader before Christmas, and let me tell you what,,, That thing can make some shotshells! I just started and I can easily do 10 a minute complete, and once I get my bench made for it so the finished shells drop into a bucket below the table I will be able to do 15 a minute, that's 900 per hour which sounds like what you guys need for the .223's"

I may have to get one of those. Im seriously contiplating picking up a siaga 12 guage now that they make a bump fire stock for them. By the way thanks guys for the heads up on the Strip-Lula. Id never seen one before and ordered 3 of them.

mstarling
01-03-2012, 04:15 PM
Have loaded 5.56 on a 1050 to feed an M16. Started years ago with a taper crimp. Went to a Lee FCD. Is a GREAT press.

Tend to use AA2200 through 62 gr projectiles. Only shortcoming is the lack of flash deterrent in that powder.

Usually run the brass 3 times and then put it in the pile for the bolt rifle. Registered receiver is too valuable to risk a case failure.