Dillon Progressive Press Question?

[5.56Geo]

Newbie question here so be nice!

Say I buy a Dillon 650. At what point in time do I trim the case if I am reloading .223 and it needs to be trimmed?

I currently have a Redding T7 Turret press.

Thanks.

[drdarrin@sbcglobal.net]

Before you start the actual reloading process. First you prep your cases. E.g. Resize, decap, swage, trim.


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[buruli]

Welcome to relaoding with a 650

I use two tool heads. One for case prep and the other for the actual reloading.

First I tumble clean.

I then use the first tool head which has sizing/decapper in station 1, Dillon electric trimmer in station 3, and neck expander (required for bullet feeder) in station 5.

I then swage using a semi-automatic pneumatic swager I came up with which is based on the Dillon swager

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqNz1bc5zFM

Then lightly tumble clean to remove any lube. I do thousands like this and store them in 5 gallon pails them for later reloading. They are all ready to load with no lube, decapping, trimming or resizing.

To reload I use the second toolhead -- universal decapper in station 1 (just to be sure primer hole is not obstructed), powder fill/primer in station 2, bullet feed in station 3, bullet seat in station 4, and crimp in station 5. No cleaning required since no lube required in this process since the brass is already sized.

[kpdiamond54]

Clean brass. De-prime, then size/trim your .223. After trimming, prime and load. I load .223 on a 550b. I setup a depriming die to do specifically that.Then size/trim and slightly bevel brass for bullet. Then set new primer and complete the load process. Different than handgun rounds. Once you get a rythem going its not bad. I found videos that helped me on YouTube.com. Be patient. Good luck.

[Eljay]

You'll see lots of variations on that theme. If you're not buying the (expensive) Dillon trimmer your workflow might look something like.

1. Do a quick tumble to make sure there's no actual grit on the brass.
2. Size all the cases, using your case feeder and a toolhead with just a sizing die on it. If you have a swager you can do this now too.
3. Trim using a drill or whatever it is you're doing now.
4. Do your for real tumble.
5. Save your prepped brass aside in a container labeled "ready to go"

Then on some other day you just fire up the 650 and use the ready to go brass just like it had never needed to be trimmed in the first place.

[5.56Geo]

Thanks guys!

I just could see any other way than trimming the case as a separate step and not a part of the progression stages.