How are people able to reload .223 on a progressive press? I see the videos and people are just marching the cases through, depriming and repriming cleaned brass as part of a 5 station process. There is no measuring or trimming of the brass. How can that work?
I have to deprime, full length size and then measure and potentially trim the case as it's own operation. THEN it could be put on a turret or progressive press to prime, charge, seat and crimp.
Not to mention removing the lube from completed rounds....??
Sent from my LG-H820 using Tapatalk
I dont know. I have to lube mine, size/deprime. Than tumble clean. Many cases need trimmed, primmer pockets swaged and hand primed.
Maybe the (*gasp*) are buying new commercial brass for the video?
I too wondered about how that worked, I use a turret but take the index rod out and single stage sizing/primer removal because I have a bunch of stuff to do in the way of brass prep.
The other thing I would wonder about the video is are they actually doing the sizing/de-priming, maybe that die is backed off since that step and brass prep has already taken place. Not sure a progressive has any way to not move the brass through the station so if brass was already prepped backing off or removing die to avoid overworking brass would be my next guess. Just a guess though, don't have a progressive.
I have considered removing the sizing die from turret and adding a powder dispenser instead since I do that sizing die operation separate before prep of brass in other steps off press. Use 4 holes as Expander, Powder, Seat, and Crimp and just use the single stage for the sizing/de-priming. That way I would not have to "skip" a die as turret goes around. Side rabbit trail. Back to the OP.
I do accumulate prepped and ready to reload .223 brass so maybe the video was shot with something such as that.
Scrap.... because all the really pithy and emphatic four letter words were taken and we had to describe this source of casting material somehow so we added an "S" to what non casters and wives call what we collect.
Kind of hard to claim to love America while one is hating half the Americans that disagree with you. One nation indivisible requires work.
Feedback page http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...light=RogerDat
Do all your brass prep on a single stage and off press. This way you only run clean, ready to prime/powder, brass through your progressive press.
I do it in 3 steps. First one is case prep on a 650 - deprime/size/trim/neck expansion (after Dillon trimmer neck gets too small) with a single pull of a handle then it goes for lube cleanup/polish then back to press to prime/charge/bullet seat/crimp; so progressive is working fine for me
I deprime and size clean lubed brass on a 650, then clean again, trim and swage primer pockets if needed. Back to the 650 to finish the process.
When I am processing range brass for the first time. I clean them in stainless pins before they ever touch any of my presses just long enough to get any crud off of the outside. Maybe 30 min.
When processing my fired brass. step 1 deprime and size in 2 stations on my Lee 1000. I don't have to use sizing greases because I use a Lee collet sizer. No lube needed. Step 2 Clean brass in stainless pins then tumble them in Walnut shells to make sure they are dry and slightly lubed from car polish in the walnut media. Step 3 reprime at my leasure. Step 4 Do all of the loading steps on my Lee 1000. A. powder drop B. bullet seat C. Crimp
You can determine how short to trim your unsized brass. Check to see how much your brass lengthens when sized. Then trim to the proper length minus the stretch length. I use an M type die to minimize the stretch length and make the machine operation smoother. The ball in the size die will be replaced with just a deprime pin. The M die will open the case mouth.
Brass length should be checked each time you load bottle neck cases, IMHO.
Not a chance I'm doing that. I'm not playing with some math guessing game about case stretch. I will full length size the minimal amount necessary to not overbump the shoulder back, confirm the setup in a case gauge and then trim brass after it has been full length sized. I absolutely agree that the brass needs to be checked each time which is why I'm wondering how guys are reloading .223 on 5 hole progressives from depriming all the way through and never removing the case to measure or trim.Originally Posted by ironhead7544
I load rifle on a single stage press. There is little need for quantity production of rifle ammo in my world. If I needed to load rifle ammo in quantity, it would be for the AR's and this is what I would do.
Set up the 1050 with one of the Dillon powdered case trimmers and purchase a set of their carbide .223 dies. The 1050 handles primer pocket swaging automatically. But I do no shoot enough .223 to justify it even though I already have the 1050. It is dedicated to pistol ammo production.
I do it in two passes. The first pass sizes/deprimed and trims any case that needs it.
Then they go to the loading press that also swages as part of the process.
Before I bought the 1050 I just swapped out the tool head on the 650 for the loading pass but it's nice to not have to sort for crimped cases. With the process above most of the brass is never touched by my hands until I do my final inspection/casegauge the finished product.
Last edited by jmorris; 08-02-2016 at 10:19 AM.
they done their brass prep already.
I don't trim my AR brass every time.
if you measure a chamber it has enough room for the .50 length to be a long way from the end of the chamber.
trimming and minimum sizing it the second/third/fourth time just shortens case life.
when I do an initial run of LC type brass there is a lot of off press prep work done that does include a trim through the Dillon size/trim die and pocket swaging.
then I back the size die off in the machine to just open the case necks and run them through to load the case.
one other thing they might be doing is to tumble the lube off the loaded rounds [yeah, yeah I know]
but a lot of loaders tumble loaded rounds and so do many factory's.
Yup, prep work done prior to mass reloading. I deprime with Harvey Deprimer, SS clean, then size, trim, pocket swage, etc.. You are probably seeing what happens after all that.
No, I clearly understand what I am seeing and hearing in reference to depriming and repriming. Here is just one of the videos....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO64tPakN8Y
How does minimal sizing and trimming shorten case life? I thought the whole idea of going easy on the sizing was to not bump the shoulder back any farther than necessary.
When I loaded on the dillon 650 ( .223, 243, 308) I sized deprimed on a single stage pressDid all the prep work here and then cleaned the brass. After it was cleaned it went into the dillons case feeder and was loaded. I had a harrels mounted above the powder drop die that had to be manualy operated but I wanted the better charges it threw. I also replaced the acro bin with a sheet meatal chute to allopw rounds to slide down into a ammo can with a towel cushion. The little spent primer catcher was modified to hold a tube running down into a empty 8 lb powder can under the bench. It does work and match grade ammo can be loaded with a little thought. I normally diodnt load for a match but for the season. with 3 of us competing it took alot of ammo. LOL. One plus to the seperate sizing prep is inspection of the brass can be done easier. On the quick side in these videos some of the new lubes claim they dont need to be removed. I believe the lee water based sizing lube is one. Alot dont worry about removing lube either. or they remove it after the round is loaded. wiping with a rag
Looks like he is just hoping they work, as you can hear the decapping pin acting like a tuning fork as the primer is being pushed out. If you load like that, you will have problems at some point. Likely sooner than later.No, I clearly understand what I am seeing and hearing in reference to depriming and repriming. Here is just one of the videos....
If your lucky it just won't chamber if your not you will be able to see how much pressure can be created by running the case neck into the lead.
3rd photo
You might give this a quick read.
http://www.hornady.com/ballistics-resource/internal
Last edited by jmorris; 08-02-2016 at 12:23 PM.
Guess I should have mentioned I'm loading for an AR so I full length size.
My process is this:
Resize and deprime on my Rockchucker. I use a Wilson case gauge to set the die. That way I'm not pushing the shoulder too far back.
Trim it in my RCBS trimmer using the three way cutter head. I've got the trimmer shaft chucked in my cordless drill.
If the primer pockets are crimped, I'll put my primer pocket reamer in the chuck of my South Bend lathe. Just a little touch and the crimp is gone. I've found it to be much faster with more uniform results than swaging.
Back in the tumbler again to remove the case lube.
For the main event I set up my 550 with a Lee universal decap die, powder measure, seat die, crimp die.
Posting Permissions
| BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
| BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
| BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
| C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
| HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
| PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
| LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
| GC | Gas Check |
Reply With Quote
