Quote:
Originally Posted by swamprat View Post
One does not need carbide dies to reload .223, or any other rifle caliber for that matter. Carbide dies are available, but you will still need to lubricate the cases.

Like others have stated, the 550 is likely the best bang for your buck.

And exactly how do you clean the lube off in a progressive?
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No you dont need carbide dies for the bottle neck cases. Even with carbide you need to use lube or it will stick, trust me

How ever you dont need to use a roll pad or a similar thing. I use Hornady one shot. Its a spray can just spray some into the bin or cases, shake it spray a bit more. Let them dry for like five min. Dump them in to the case feeder and start loading. It does not need to be removed, you can give a wipe after its loaded but I dont feel it on the brass.

Depending on the brass being used my procedure changes to omit steps not needed. Lets go worst case, range pick up military brass.

1)Examine for damage
2)tumble for an hour or so
3)Lube as above
4) set up press to almost fully size and deprime. If case needs length to be trimmed, set up trimmer in press at this time.
5) dump shells in to case feed and cycle press till complete. Not much thinking here, just be sure to give full strokes of the lever
6) Use swage to remove primer crimp, inspect close at this time (boring)
7) Tumble another hour or two till they look like new brass
8) set up press with powder and loading dies. Be sure case is resized to gauge.
9) load shells in hopper and make bullets

with an auto primer filler, boat tail bullets and the press set up right, I can do well over 700 an hour from step nine till complete.

If I just did the 223 stuff, Id get the Dillon 1050, it can swage the primer pockets in the press. That saves a lot of time.

I load for more than just myself, my shooting friend gets half or more of the rounds generally.


added
its not hard to do load development on the press at all. I made some new 357 mags today. Six with 12.5g of 2400 and six with 13.5 of 2400. Its not hard. Just remove the primer feed cam, one screw. They you can cycle the press one round at a time if you want. Just manually index the primer when you want one.