Question for You Progressive (Dillon) Loaders

[goodlookin1]

I am still tossing around the idea of investing a lot of money into a progressive loader. It basically will put me back $1500 to get everything that I'm looking to get in a Dillon 650. But I had a question for you guys: I hear how guys are resizing, priming, seating and crimping all in the same pass.....how does this work exactly? If I am loading .223, I'd have to grease up the brass and deprime/resize and then toss all the brass in my walnut mix. Does lubing the brass in the hopper and chute gunk it all up and require constant cleaning? And then how do you clean the final round....tumble it?

Just curious because I am all for shortening the amount of steps and brass prep to speed up loading, but not at the expense of a sticky, messy final product and a dirty press....

Maybe I am missing something?

[joelogic]

Most people load .223 in 2 runs.
Process and then load.

If you dont have to trim you could load in 1 run. I spray lube into the hopper. Yes it does gunk up. Yes you have to clean it. Yes you can tumble after loading.

[EWILKE]

If you use the dillon lube you can lay the cases down in a shallow box like a shoe box lid and spray the case not much gets in the case. but you will have to start with cases that do not need to be trimmed. I run mine in two steps. I size decap and trim then I load.

[problemchild]

Tumbling loaded rounds sounds like a bad idea to me.

2 passes are needed on a 650.

Tool head 1 for brass prep
Tool head 2 for brass/bullet loading

*tumble off lube*

Tool head 1=
Carbide sizer -neck ball sizer
Dillon 1200 trimmer (make loading 223 simpler and install die lock ring UNDER shell plate on bottom of die instead of top--Per Dillon tech support)
Lee M die to size neck and remove burs from trimming

Tool head 2=
Generic decapper to remove stuck walnut shell in flash hole
Powder measure polished shiny in the funnel cone to throw the same charge every time
Powder check w/alarm
bullet seater
Bullet crimper (just a kiss of crimp maybe .0005 to tighten the neck flush) *optional

[bruceflinch]

Send the brass out to a custom processor & then just load, load, load....

[Horton Fenty]

I don't do 223 but I do other rifle. I don't deprime before tumbling. Cases are only trimmed when they need it, and primer pockets get cleaned then. So it's pretty much tumble, lube, load. Yes lube gets on stuff and you'll have to clean things once and a while. To clean off loaded ammo I spread it all out on a linen towel and spray with a bit of brake clean. Pick up the corners of the towel and roll the rounds around to clean.

[RandyD]

Occasionally, I too reload in stages. I will deprime and resize pistol brass, then tumble them clean and prime the cases with a Lee Priming Tool and later run them through to charge the cases with powder and seat a bullet.

[lazuris]

I have a 650 for prep work. Re-size and trim work. I load with the 1050. Why...

It allows me to have uniform OAL prior to loading. Also it allows me to tumble after re-sizing as to keep the lube off the loading dies.
The 1050 is super fast and i use the bullet feeder and case feeder to increase output. However, when the 1050 goes down it goes down hard. The trick is to use batch processing have enough trimmed and prepped brass on hand to crank out a couple thousand at a time.

[NiteQwill]

Tumbling loaded rounds sounds like a bad idea to me.

Curious? Why not?

I've been tumbling loaded ammo for a long time and the same is done at factories (Hornady is well documented to tumble all their ammo before shipment and will tell you on the phone). You need to get the lube off somehow... moreso for pistol calibers since loading is done in one pass.

There has been no evidence to suggest bullet setback, primers ignition (how, when tumbled brass is not even dented from tumbling alone or primers shipping in trucks, overseas, etc), powder degradation, etc.

10 minutes in the tumbler to remove lube will not hurt anything.

[NiteQwill]

Here is some extensive information on tumbled ammo:

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/989047_Tumble_live_ammo_Tumbler_Oandapos__thruth_EXTREME_edition__200hour_torture_test__UPDATE__fired_rounds_in_OP.html

Sorry, off-topic OP...



Yes, 2 passes on rifle loaded. Prep and load...

[problemchild]

Wow! Nice work up and nice to know. Now that's proof I can believe unlike someone saying and not proving they can load crimped brass without swagging.

Thanks

Curious? Why not?

I've been tumbling loaded ammo for a long time and the same is done at factories (Hornady is well documented to tumble all their ammo before shipment and will tell you on the phone). You need to get the lube off somehow... moreso for pistol calibers since loading is done in one pass.

There has been no evidence to suggest bullet setback, primers ignition (how, when tumbled brass is not even dented from tumbling alone or primers shipping in trucks, overseas, etc), powder degradation, etc.

10 minutes in the tumbler to remove lube will not hurt anything.

[Rareform]

Goodlooking1
I to have been doing some thinking on a dillon 650 press but not being able to put a bullet in with my left hand then pull the lever with my right I would need a bullet feeder. I should mention I have cerebral palsy so I don't have control in my left hand. So with the 650 is there a enough stations to run a bullet feeder or should I order the 1050? I will be loading 45 and 5.56 to start

[RayB]

You can add a bullet feeder in place of the powder check station to the 650/1050.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YlKORASFqw

[Mac Attack]

I prep my brass before I load including tumbling. When I load I do it all on one swoop - lube, size/deprime, prime/add powder, check powder, seat bullet/crimp. I don't see why you would want to run it on 2 different passes?

[CSACANNONEER]

For .223/5.56, I decap/FL size on a single stage, trim with a Giraurd, either swage with my Dillion swager or use a drill press and a bevelled crimp removing cutter. Then, I run them through my 550 to load. Personally, I prefer the 550 to the 650 so much that I traded my 650 off and kept the 550. It's far more versatile (many more caliber conversions are offer for a 550) and conversion changes are quicker and cheaper.