Proposed .223 Reloading Setup

[djslik]

I'm looking for a good setup for reloading .223 Remington. I already have a case tumbler, primers, bullets, brass, and powder, bullet puller, RCBS primer tray, Lee scale. I'm not too worried about changing setups for now since I already have another turret press that is set up for my .45 acp. This is my first time reloading rifle and I'm not sure if I'm missing anything or if you have any tips for case prep because I'm not looking forward to lubing every single case before loading. I'm going to check out the harbor freight for a caliper set.

Dillon Case Lube $8.00
Lee Case Trimmer .223 $3.99
Lee Cutter and Lock Stud $4.99
Hornady Lock and Load AP $379.99
Hornady Shell Plate #16 Rem 223 $26.99
Hornady 223 Custom Grade Die Set $29.99
Hornady Handbook 7th Edition $28.99

[Full Clip]

Lubing each case is an other opportunity to inspect your brass. When you catch that hairline split in a neck that could have become a rupture that could wreck your rifle (or more), you'll be thankful.

[djslik]

I guess that brings me to another point. Is the Hornady LNL Progressive worth it for Rifle loading. I want to be able to load up a couple hundred rounds the night before I shoot since I'm always so busy I would rather a couple hundred at a time. But if rifle loading is going to be slow in general then I might as well stick to the turret auto indexer that I have already.

[ar15barrels]

Size your rifle brass on a single stage.
It's a lot of force on a progressive press to size rifle cases.
You also have the trimming problem and needing to get rid of the sizing lube.

Progressives are mainly targeted towards pistol ammo.
Use a progressive press to prime, charge and seat rifle ammo.

Dillon 550 is a better choice than a Hornady LNL at a simililar price.
Dillon 650 is even better again.

[rayra]

sorry, but ar15barrels is talking nonsense about (not) processing rifle brass on a progressive.
Dillon makes their Square Deal progressives for pistols only, as an affordable press.
But their 550 and higher product lines are specifically engineered to accomodate the full range of reloading needs for rifle brass, in all the major north american hunting and european calibers.
I've been full-length resizing .30-06, .308, .270, .223 on my 550B for nearly 20yrs with ZERO problems in the area of his statement. And have done so without special exception or repetitive seperate procedures for sizing.
As have tens of thousands of other progressive users.

[rayra]

A tip for the new rifle reloader, re lubing.

I'll lay out a section of newspaper and line up my clean/tumbled brass as if it were machinegun belts, in two or three rows, case mouths facing away from me, with the mouths of one row tight up to the case heads of the other row.
Give the dillon pump-spray lube a good shake, then pump a light coat on the casings, spraying from teh case head side with case mouths facing away from you.
Give a few minutes to air-dry, or fan them dry, then with your fingertips roll the rows a half turn in either direction, then repeat the spray.

When they've dried sufficiently, you can pick up the corners of the newprint and pour the lubed brass into whatever sort of holding container / bin you are using.

Just start out with a wetter / heavier coat until you develop a feel for how much is too much or enough. Last thing you want to do is use to little and stick a case in your sizing die -

And that reminds me, you might want to lay in a stuck-case removal tool. It will save you a great deal of inconvenience later.

--
And when you are done with the loading process you can put your loaded rounds back in the tumbler to strip the remaining lube.

[22popnsplat]

I myself use Hornday one shot case lube , its easy and you cant over do it . I would also swap the hornady dies for Redding as I think they are better . I also prefer to hand prime my cases , I use the Lee Hand primer (one of the few lee items I use) .

[slappomatt]

And when you are done with the loading process you can put your loaded rounds back in the tumbler to strip the remaining lube

bad idea. I would recommend against tumbling loaded ammo. it messes with the coatings on the powder changing the burn rates of the powder.

[Army GI]

A tip for the new rifle reloader, re lubing.

Besides the fact that I needed money at the time, that's why I got out of reloading and sold all of my equipment. The lubing/trimming got to me after a while especially trying to do it all on a single stage press.

So you're saying we don't need seperate presses for rifle resizing? How exactly does the process go? Do you just set the progressive in "single stage mode" as it were and size, then tumble, trim, then set the progressive in .... progressive mode and go to town?

[djslik]

I pulled the trigger on the kit and I had free shipping from Cabelas and 1100 free hornady bullets which actually makes this a screaming deal. I plan on using the Lee turret press to do two things:
1. Swage the primer pockets from once fired military brass
2. Dedicated sizing die so that I can size all of my brass and then tumble them and leave them ready to be loaded.

I figure that way I can have a stash of ready to be loaded already sized brass so that when I get to the progressive I can actually just prime, load, powder check with powder cop, seat, possbily crimp. We'll see how this goes but, either way it is a lifetime buy and will hopefully result in tight groups for my varmint AR and future varmint 700. I agree on the case puller but I haven't figured which one yet.