223/55.6 on a Lee 100?

[oldyeller]

Anyone load 223 on a progressive Lee 1000 press? How is it working for ya?

[Goesfaster]

I love it. I use it more like a turret for 223/556. Station 1 resize and deprime only. After all my brass prep(sizing,primer pocket, clean off excess lube) then I remove the case ejector pin and swap dies in station 1 from sizing to crimp die. Insert case on the upstroke between station 1 and reprime.. Reprime on completed downstroke station 2 powder station 3 seats bullet THEN station 1 crimps. Remove completed case between stroke as I said earlier and a new case goes in the shell holder on the way to reprime and repeat. I have not tried it as a true progressive only because I like to trim my brass and remove primer pocket crimps before trying to reload.

[jimmythebrain]

There is a lot of play (variance) in the final upward position of the shell carrier plate on a Lee 1000. It would probably be fine for plinking and short range target ammo but the AOL and seating depth to oglive on the bullet will vary too much for precision ammo.

So the answer depends on what purpose the ammo will be used for.

I have had no success priming on Lee 1000 during progressive reloading. As a result, I always hand primed as a separate step. I only load Rifle cartridges on a single stage press. Even though I now have a Hornady progressive press.

[Nirrad]

I just stared doing 223 on the Pro 1000 and it works great and is fast!

I use the Pacesetter 3-die set and added the rifle charging die to enable use of the auto disk measure. I don't bother with the crimp die.

I also do the separate reisize/deprime process - then remove that 1st station die to run 2 station progressive mode with primer seating, powder dump, and bullet seating.

Just resized/deprimed a couple hundred last night. Dump into the case feeder and just crank the handle as fast as you can. Makes it quick and easy!

[johnny1290]

I had primed and had no difficulties that I can recall.

I didn't need the dual disk powder dispenser either, I think I used the largest hole in the disk and got a good size charge, above min. for H335

[oldyeller]

Thanks for the info guys

[Nirrad]

I just loaded about 150 rounds the other night until I ran out of powder.

Had about 2-3 primers that got crushed in sideways, using Tula KVM223.

I'm reaming rather than swaging, so maybe that has something to do with it?

[Cowboy T]

It also might be a good idea to go through my "Quicker Cleaning Procedure" for the Lee 1000 (see my sig for link). Any time I start seeing sideways primers, it's because the primer feed assembly just needs some cleaning.

The Tula primers are good primers, though they are just an eensy-bit bigger than, say, Federals. They feel a lot like CCI primers, actually. I'm swaging and occasionally I'll have what feels like a tight primer pocket, but they always do go in.