RELOADING .223 (Video Tutorial)

[joelogic]

Well, by process of elimination it must be a 1" joint. If in the next week or so if anyone wants to try to process .223 on a fully loaded XL650 shoot me a PM. Thinking about buying a Dillon give one a test spin. If you use a single stage, try a progressive. Please have clean brass ready if you want to use your own brass.

Disclaimer: I am not interested in letting you process 1000 cases but if you want to try one out for 20 mins no prob. Dont ask to load on my press, I am not interested in the liability. But if you want to watch me load maybe that could be done. Must meet a minimum post count or itrader feedback rating. Minimum level determined on a case by case basis.

[RaymondMillbrae]

Joe,

I am positive it is a 1 1/4" inch coupler I have. That is the INSIDE diameter. (See my attached picture above).

The coupler is actually too large for the vacuum hose and the blue Dillon connector. I had to wrap a few coils of black electrical tape around the pieces for them to fit snugly within the coupler.

Now, if the coupler is too small...well...that's a different story.

Pretty cool to let a fellow shooter prep brass at your place. Just be careful about opening-up your place to strangers...or letting your trimmer overheat.

Remember...a 1/2 hour of continual use will have your trimmer motor pretty h-o-t.

In Christ: Raymond.

UPDATE: Just wanted to warn some of you guys about adding too many bends and curves on your hose connections. Not only is the "ribbed hose" a horrible disrupter of air flow (causes massive air turbulence, which equates to less suction), but too many bends will also DRAMATICALLY effect air flow/suction.

[joelogic]

Yea the ID 1 1/4" coupler takes pipe that has an OD of 1 1/4" which would have an ID of 1". Hence 1" pipe, AFAIK.

Edit: Strangers...fixed.

[damilfman]

If you are talking about tumbling completed PISTOL rounds for 20 to 30 minutes...nope.

I was also in those camps - thinking that tumbling completed rounds would break down the powder, hence changing it's burn characteristics. But there have been a few folks who have experimented with this theory. They left the rounds tumbling for hours, and even for a few days, and then chronographed them with non-tumbled rounds (sans lube) - and they were pretty much identicle.

So, "NO" it will not harm the powder if you tumble completed PISTOL rounds for 20 minutes to remove the lube.

But if you are talking abour RIFLE brass...well...it is not charged when the lube needs to be removed.

In Christ: Raymond

thank you sir

[RaymondMillbrae]

Yea the ID 1 1/4" coupler takes pipe that has an OD of 1 1/4" which would have an ID of 1". Hence 1" pipe, AFAIK.

Joe,

It sounds like you have the correct part. Just wrap some tape around the end of the hose, and around the end of the Dillon thingy, and fit the coupler on.

Like I said, the 1 1/4" PVC coupler is going to be a bit too large for the connections...so tape will be needed around the other "male ends" for them to fit.

Let us know how it worked for you.

If you're in the Millbrae area, drop me a line if you want to swing by and pick-up a DVD.


Damilfman,

you are more than welcome, shooter!

In Christ: Raymond
415 377.8042

[Rusty413]

Dude thank you sooooo much for taking the time and doing this. Very helpful

I vote to sticky this

[GutPunch]

Raymond,

What powder do you use? You recommended spherical powders. Do you use the same powder on different weights of bullets?

[high_revs]

Thanks Raymond (and for answering some questions in the past).

$20 donation sent to Calguns. Not sure I'm going to need the dvd's yet but will ping you offline if I want a copy. My inlaws are in Burlingame and when I visit and if you're up to it, Starbucks or Peets on me man! That way I can repay you a little for the questions you answered for me in the past.

[RaymondMillbrae]

GutPunch (Cool username),

I am using Hodgden H335 powder. It is a nice burning powder and has worked really nice for me. I have also used Varget, but I like the H335 better. The BLC2 is also nice...but once again, I liked the H335 powder better.

Let me say that I am currenty looking at the brand new IMR 8208 XBR powder. There have been some very favorable reviews on this powder, and it has left a very good impression on my mind. (Click HERE for one article).

One of the things that really caught my eye about the IMR 8208 XBR powder, was it's temperature range. It works between -46-degrees to 165-degrees with almost nil variances. And being a California native, the temperature ranges here are note-worthy. It could be 65-degree one day, and 104-degrees the next. So if I am shooting a hot load at 65-degrees, that's one thing. But that same hot load in 104-degrees is something else. (Which is a reason folks keep their rounds out of the sun...or sometimes place them in the sun on purpose). Varget is similar...but methinks this IMR 8208 may be better.

Sorry, I guess I side-tracked. To answer your question, I am predominantly shooting .223 cal/55-grainers, as us Nor Cal shooters don't really shoot over 300-yards in multi-gun matches.



High_Revs,

you should be a CGN Contributor so your username (next to your avitar) will be in gold. (Bling Bling). As for Starbucks, drop me a line if'n you're in the area. You are welcome to bring a few .223 rounds over if you want to prep them. (Not to be corn-fused with reloading them). We can shoot the bull for an hour or so if my schedule permits. 415 377.8042

By the way, I just got off the phone with Lee (from Unique-Tek), and he has some good stuff in the works. Keep an eye-out for some of their new upcoming products!! ("No"...I am not affiliated with them. But I do recognize good products when I see them) Oh yea...I shoud also have mentioned their POWDER BAFFLE in the video tutorial.

Thanks, guys.

In Christ: Raymond

[savasyn]

Raymond,
Thanks for the videos! I just started loading .223 myself so it was good to see another person's method of doing it.

One thing you could add to your walnut media, as you said you didn't like having the dust on your cases from tumbling, is a used dryer sheet. It does a great job of keeping the brass more or less dust-free and it collects a lot of the junk from the tumble so it doesn't stay with the media.

I just grab all the used ones out of the laundry and run them with a pile of brass in the tumbler. They are pretty nasty after one go so I only use them once.

[RaymondMillbrae]

Thanks, Savasyn.

I have tried the sheets before...but didn't like them.

I tried complete sheets, stripped sheets, quartered sheets - but they still bothered me when they got soft and tangled-up with the media and brass - and I didn't see too much of an improvement when using them.

No biggie. If it works for some of yall, that is what is important.

I tumble outside on my patio, so the dust is not really a factor for me. And even when I seperate the media from the brass, I stay upwind of it, and it only takes me a minute or two to seperate them anyways. (No long term exposure).

Thank you for mentioning the tip, as some shooters may not have heard of using dryer sheets before.

In Christ: Raymond

[Butthead]

Raymond, really nice work. Thank you and curse you. Now I need to buy more stuff (love the new tool head idea). JK You really did a fine job on those videos.

A question for you. My left brain thinking is confused about the floating bullet seating die. You lock down the tool head to prevent slop but make the seating die float. The left part of my brain is telling me you are adding some slop to it. I am in no way doubting you and that you are making better ammo but why is this not adding slop since it is moving? I would think that the OAL would have greater spreads. Again I do not doubt your methods but I really want to understand.

Another question. I am pretty new to reloading smaller calibers but I have been reloading .50DTC rounds for a few years now. I was taught to look for certain signs that might tell me a case is getting ready to or close to failing. Things like small hairline cracks or discolorations in the body or neck. A shiny ring near the base. These are signs that tell me it's time to cull this case. Are there similar signs or other things to be on the lookout for when reloading .223? You mentioned bulges and splits during the swaging section and that you are always looking for them but since swaging is only done once where does this happen after that? Do you ever just examine each piece of brass looking for trouble? Is it even necessary? How bad is it when a .223 round fails? I know it's bad when .50 cal round fails or at least it can be. Were talking about a lot of powder and a lot of pressure but .223 is a much smaller round. I always inspect each piece of brass before every reloading (,50 cal) but I am only talking about 50 to 75 rounds at most per session. Not the 1000 - 2000 rounds you are doing at a time. Sorry for all the questions but I just want to be safe.

Thanks again for the videos, I have already watched them all twice and learned a lot from them and I am sure many others will as well. Thank you for your service to our community.

[RaymondMillbrae]

Butthead (geesh, it felt weird typing-in your username) ,

I can only tell you that I measured a bunch of rounds (from the ogive) AFTER installing this set-up, and the finished rounds were much more consistent. It was something that immediately caught my attention. (In a good way).

Below is an email I received form John Whiddon. Maybe ths will give you a better understanding behind his concept:



QUOTE: Raymond,

The most important thing about our toolhead vs. the Dillon is that our die threads are absolutely straight and perpendicular to the flange around the toolhead. The location of the tapped holes and the squareness of the whole toolhead is far superior.

What we can't account for is if the shellplate is as exact. Should the spacing be off or uneven on the shellplate we would still need correction. There is float in either our or the Dillon toolhead fit in the frame. but this is different. The difference is that in a floating toolhead each of the dies can individually move to make up for whatever differences there are in the system.

We are very confident that our toolhead is superior and will gladly offer an unconditional satisfaction guarantee to any purchaser. They will be welcome to test it for themselves.

Again, I appreciate your endorsement of our products! It is a pleasure to hear from you. - John Whidden



As for looking for defects in the brass, I pretty much boil it down to splits, bulges, and basic overpressure signs. Same as what you mentioned. If anyone wants to chime in on other signs to look for, I am sure everyone would benefit from this info. (Me included).

As for swaging - I am almost always loading once fired LC brass. Not all the time, but most of the time. In the past, I have gone to the range with twice-shot brass. (No further swaging was needed). But after shooting and policing-up my brass, I found a bunch of once fired LC brass (from someone else) in my batch. This caused a big slow-down at the final reloading process, as I had to remove all the brass and re-swage the whole batch.

So now, just to be on the safe side, I swage all my brass before reloading it. Like I said, it is also an excuse to physically touch all my brass one more quick time.

I have also received feedback about my comment on "crimping" the case mouth at the last station.

I do hear yall!

So I just wanted to add that it is a very small, slightly touched, crimp that I use. Some say that .223 ammo is PRECISION ammo, and should only be friction-fitted. (No crimp at all). And that NATO rounds (5.56) are OK to crimp, as they are more military style rounds, suited for blazing away downrange with less needed accuracy. They've even gone as far as telling me to change my title to "Reloading 5.56". (Geesh...talk about nit-picking. This was only intended to get someone started, and not as an award-winning video for the History or Discovery channel)!

But I have to agree about the .223 crimping aspect.. (For precision .223 bolt-action rounds). To be totally honest, maybe my "slight crimp" may be effecting my accuracy. I am willing to check it out. But for the meantime, I am leaning towards RELIABILITY, so the slight crimp will stay on my reloading process for the moment. Did I mention that it is a super slight crimp? (.002" inch).

As a side note: If you are loading for .45 ACP, and are using PLATED BULLETS, you also want to use a SUPER MINIMAL CRIMP. It was pointed out to me that any deformation of the .45 ACP bullet will cause it to tumble, and can be seen by the "key hole shape" it leaves on paper targets. I use .45 ACP SWC boolits, and when loaded correctly will leave purdy round holes. But when crimped too much, you can definitely see that the holes are NOT round and symetrical. This was something I learned when I started shooting pistol matches. (Thanks, Dan C ,and Chris S).

And lastly, in regards to a .223 round exploding from a defeciency...nope...I never "physically" saw one. But HERE is a YouTube video clip of one. (Click on the link).

Thanks.

In Christ: Raymond

[Nessal]

That's an interesting way to lube the brass. I was taught to never lube the neck and shoulder. Seems like this method would get lube on there?

[ddindetroit]

Terrific Video

Raymond you are again my hero.

I got a chance to visit with you and handle your POF. I decided to buy more LWRC's ... REPR.

However, you are the man with this reloading. I could not get to your level and still single staging my rifle rounds.

Love to come over and 'shoot the breeze' with you while trimming some 223 brass on that fancy machine of yours!

Take care and always a pleasure meeting you and doing business with you.

ddindetroit