How I load "Battle Rifle" Ammo!

[seagiant]

Hi,
Thought I would take a few pics to show how I load battle rifle ammo. I usually load mil surplus for my Fals and M-14's but this is some federal cases that I bought for my DPMS AR-308 rifle. If it was mil surp brass there would be one more step and that would be cutting out the crimp on the primer pocket. I use a Wilson Case trimmer and it has a crimp remover addition that takes the place of the cutter handle. It is my opinion that the Wilson along with the case holders is the best HAND OPERATED trimmer out there!

Ok, starting out I resize,deprime, at the press then I move to my work bench and put the case trimmer in the bench vise and get ready to prep cases. I take a Sinclair Primer squaring tool and ream the primer pocket. This wil square the bottom and allow the primer to seat better AND more uniform case to case. Then I take a K&M primer hole tool and cut out the flashing inside the case where they punched the primer hole. This will keep the ignition of the powder unobstructed and more uniform.

I then trim to length and take a finish tool and bevel the inside and outside. As a note I use the Wilson case holder to hold the case as I do all these operations! So the case goes into the holder first thing until I'm finished. Here are some pics.

[seagiant]

Hi,
Ok after the case prep I go back to the press,in my case a PW MetII with a Hollywood powder measure and finish loading. I use the primer on the press and just move the casing where I need it. Here are some more pics.

[Love Life]

I do mine much the same way minus uniforming primer pockets and flash hole deburring. After completely prepped it is off to the Dillon 550 to make magic. For loading my rifle ammo I put the Lee universal decapper in station one to knock out all the corn cob from the flash holes. With the powder funnel polished, and a baffle, I throw very consistant charges of benchmark. Then all loaded ammo gets tossed unceremoniously into an ammo can for the Mrs. to shoot up.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Greg: was waiting for this thread!

Here's how I do it, note: similarity to your setup.:veryconfu

Randy

[W.R.Buchanan]

I do resize and deprime in the right station.
prime and charge in the second station with the Dillon PM.
Seat the bullet in the third station and,
Crimp in the forth.

25gr of BLC-2 with 55gr recycled bullets.

Wonder where that Metalmatic II came from?

I do my .308's on my C&H on which you must move the cartridge from station to station, but works much the same way.

Randy

[L1A1Rocker]

very nice! I've been partial to the BL2(C) (or is that BLC(2) I forget) powder for the progressive reloaders. It meters very well.

[seagiant]

Wonder where that Metalmatic II came from?
Randy

Hi Randy,
Why do I always feel like the poor cousin that came to dinner! Ha! Very nice set up you have there! Aren't these PW Met II's a gas to load on! I enjoy using it for rifle as much as for pistol. I've got to get going on the 5.56 for the new AR-15 as soon as I get some surplus pulled bullets! You did not tell me what your opinion was on the primer pocket squaring and the deburring of the flashhole? I just put in an order with Sinclair for those tools to do the .223 with. I think it makes for more consistant (sp) ammo and feel it is worth it. If you get that deburring tool and see how much junk is left around that hole inside the case, you will see what I mean!

[Dobetown]

The P W set up is great, thanks for posting.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Greg: I use a small 1/4' dia three flute countersink in a cordless drill to remove any primer crimp. I have an RCBS Primer pocket swager which I don't use anymore as it is too much work. I can do 20 or so a minute with the drill and it takes very little effort. I have also used the countersink in a drill press. It is about the same as the cordless drill it's just that I can sit at a bench with the drill so I have everything right in front of me.

I do my .308 cases the same way.

AS you know I use recycled bullets for all my non cast .308 & .30-06 loads. I also use them for .223. I've got a bunch of 55 gr ones now and as soon as they are shot up I will be converting to 62 gr bullets for my standard .223 load.

For my intended usage a trouble free standardized load is more important than guilt edge accuracy load. Once I get something that works well I just lock everything down and pull the handle. All of my auto pistol, shotgun, and mil caliber rifle shooting is more about quantity than quality, however It should be noted that my quantity loads are better than most quality loads, simply because I go the extra mile to insure consistancy.

My .308 loads using 45 gr of IMR4895 with recycled M80 ball bullets is a sub 1" load in my Gunsite rifle. With the Leupold 3x9 VX-R scope that should be here in the next day or so I bet that those groups will shrink even smaller. It works so well there is just no good reason to change it.

That old Dillon measure was given to me by a guy here at the site, and it meters BLC2 to <.1 gr every shot. I am about to buy an 8lb jug of WC846 which is surplus BLC2. The PW MMII press I got from you seats primers perfectly everytime. I just need to create a way to load the dillon primer tubes fast so I can dump them into the PW rimer tube.

The RCBS comp seating die works really well and I even got a Lee Factory crimp die which works really well for that operation. I was previously using an RCBS seating die to crimp but case length irregularities forced a change to the Lee Collet style crimp die which is not contingent on case length to deliver a consistant crimp. I crimp all my .223 and .308 and .30-06's cast boolits or Jacketed bullets.

Making good quality ammo is much like doing production machine work. Once you get the setup refined to where you are producing a good product you just lock everything down and pull on the handles and make parts. With ammo the key is in the details and executing those details in a production like manner. QC kind of has to be there too. So frequent checks are necessary.

Using good machinery makes this process both enjoyable and it delivers the quality and consistancy you want as well.

I have never deburred flash holes. With the .223 ammo I will probably only get to reload them once as they go flying when ejected from the gun and I usually can't find them again. I've got plenty of long center drills I could do it with, just never could see the need on one time use cases. This is no big deal as there are plenty more where they came from. I can't believe how much OF brass is left at our range in Ojai. Seldom do I go there that I don't come back with 100+ empties that were picked off the firing line or from the brass buckets.

I got my Kel-Tec Sub 2000 coming today. I have to get the SDB down and load a bunch of .40 S&W to squirt thru that gun. It's going to take a lot of ammo to keep it up and running.

Randy

[seagiant]

Hi Randy,
Glad the PW Met II is working well. Something that I did so you know is that I pulled the bushing that holds the primers on the swingarm and I put a small bevel/polish on the bottom inside edge to help the primers drop into the primer seater cup. Seemed to help with consistancy! It is a pretty good system out of the box and the primer seater is just like my RCBS bench primer!

I have just started to reload 5.56/223 and found out real quick it is a little different than .308, I have dispensed with reaming the flash holes on 223 as I get hardly anything out, unlike 308 brass. I have used the Wilson Trimmer for cutting back OAL and cleaning crimps out, that I will probably keep using it. I have got a drill down where I put the case in the Wilson holder and do everything to that case while in the holder and it seems to work for me. I fix a cup of cafe con leche and turn on my SSB radio and listen to the HAM's and load ammo. I'd rather do that than watch the useless junk they have on TV and enjoy being in my shop! I'm not in a hurry anymore.

Like you,I want to go to the surplus 62gr. bullets as I have a 1:7 twist barrel and they should work better. Even though I've never owned a 223 before I always collected and saved any new once fired brass that I saw at the range so have a good supply of that. The only powder I have now is IMR-4895 and that is not going to work as it bridges so bad with me in the 223 so will have to get some of the pulled powder that is used for the 223 by the military,WC844, it is available and should be at the gun shows. Thanks for the info, insight and thoughts on this, you always mention or suggest another way to skin a cat that I hadn't considered!

[W.R.Buchanan]

Greg: Chris Costas is definately a proficient shooter. The other guy is no slouch either. The guy who puts on our IDPA events in Santa Barbara just went to one of their carbine courses a few weeks ago and came back pretty amazed at what he could do with just 3 days of intensive training.

WC844 is H335 powder and WC846 is BLC2 Either is a good choice for the .223. H335 is also good for upper end .45-70 loads. IMR 4895 will work but it is a pain to meter. When I load my .308's I use my DPS electronic measure to drop charges of 4895 as I have nothing else that will do it consistantly.

The primer drop on the Met II works very well and is one of the few press mounted systems I have had good luck with.

Still have to confirm my load then I will start loading .223 in ernest.

One word of caution. If you get a case that won't go into the resizing die like the rest do. Don't force it. The case has a small flash hole ( I have found 3 the hard way) And will break the decap pin if you force it. Just introduce it to your scrap bucket.

Randy

[W.R.Buchanan]

turns out My buddy went to the Travis Haley school in now him and Chris Costas have split up and are doing their own things.

He fired 1200 rounds of pistol ammo in 2 days!!!!! another 400 carbine rounds. They had them shooting thru car windshields like you would in a road block situation. The guy said is was the most intense 2 days of his life.

I really want to go to one of these schools, but I don't know if I could keep up with the kids. Might have to drop about 25 lbs before I really consider it seriously.

It was $800 for the two days which if you shop around is a decent price for the level of training you can get out of the experience.

I do know one thing. If I saw Costas or Haley get out of the truck with guns and looking at me, I wouldn't be going for my gun, i'd be running like hell in the hopes that the sparks flying out of my **** would blind them!

Those guys are probably some of the most proficient trained killers there are on this planet. And they teach just like they run. If you've watched those Magpul videos of them in action you'll certainly agree.

Randy

[jmorris]

The Dillon trimmer on one machine and a 1050 to swage the primer pockets does a goo job of keeping a hungry gun well fed.

http://i664.photobucket.com/albums/vv5/qvideo/gn/1919.jpg

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o213/jmorrismetal/trimmer.jpg

click photo for video.
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o213/jmorrismetal/th_1050.jpg (http://s121.photobucket.com/albums/o213/jmorrismetal/?action=view&current=1050.mp4)

[W.R.Buchanan]

OK Morris: Bringing out the machine guns is just plain unfair.

We just can't compete with that level of ammo consumption.

Randy