Progressive reloading rifle calibers?

[3DGearGuy]

Just wondering how many of you use a progressive press to reload rifle calibers and if you do, what do you use to trim cases? I'm trying to wrap my head around trimming on the fly on a progressive and it sounds like big bucks but it would pay off in the long run....so my question, how do you do it? Pics would be awesome if you have them!

[Rock6.3]

I process all my brass (decap, tumble, trim) before I get to my progressive press.

[Mot Mi]

Your best bet is to buy a giraud or any power trimmer. There really isn't any easier way to do it besides the method I've suggested. You get what you pay for, so buy once cry once. Also, the thing about power trimmers is it makes trimming alot faster like having a progressive press with the case feeder.

Although, they do have trimming dies, IIRC, they just don't do the job correctly and it's still not as efficient as a power trimmer like giraud, dillons 1200, or rcbs power trimmer. Now, if you wanna go cheap just get the 3-way cutter chuck it onto a dril. It will trim, chamfer, and debur all in one step. There is a thread with a review of one and another of a group buy for the one that has a review.

[JTROKS]

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What Rock6.3 said.

It would be nice to have everything automated, but you'll need more than 5 stages to have a setup that will have additional stations to deprime, trim then deburr, swage pocket primer.

[BigBronco]

I send my 223/556 pinking bras to calgunner finish-it for processing then to the LNL for the rest. At $35.00 per K, just not worth my time to do it myself.

[Dark Mod]

I have a Dillon 650 toolhead set up to prep some rifle brass. The Dillon 1200 trimmer has been by far the best trimming investment ive ever made, I bought it over a Giraud because the 1200 allows me to never have to touch the brass.

Prep goes like this:

Dump a bucket of brass in the casefeeder, station 1 lubes the brass, station 2 resizes and decaps, station 3 resizes and trims.

Then I dump the bucket of prepped brass in the tumbler for a bit to deburr and remove the lube.

Once it comes out of the tumbler I dump the bucket of brass into the casefeeder for my 1050, and ive replaced the resizing die with a universal decapper to punch out any media in the flash holes.

Super easy.

That's only for .223, all other rifle cartridges get loaded on a single stage using either a possum hollow, WFT, or in an emergency, the Lee trimmer.

heres a picture of my setup:


And for what its worth I think the 1200 trimmer does a great job. Ive found if I hold the handle in the down position for 5 seconds I don't need to deburr, not a big deal since I tumble the brass after trimming anyway.

[RayB]

I have a Dillon 650 toolhead set up to prep some rifle brass. The Dillon 1200 trimmer has been by far the best trimming investment ive ever made, I bought it over a Giraud because the 1200 allows me to never have to touch the brass.

Prep goes like this:

Dump a bucket of brass in the casefeeder, station 1 lubes the brass, station 2 resizes and decaps, station 3 resizes and trims.

Then I dump the bucket of prepped brass in the tumbler for a bit to deburr and remove the lube.

Once it comes out of the tumbler I dump the bucket of brass into the casefeeder for my 1050, and ive replaced the resizing die with a universal decapper to punch out any media in the flash holes.

Super easy.

That's only for .223, all other rifle cartridges get loaded on a single stage using either a possum hollow, WFT, or in an emergency, the Lee trimmer.

heres a picture of my setup:


And for what its worth I think the 1200 trimmer does a great job. Ive found if I hold the handle in the down position for 5 seconds I don't need to deburr, not a big deal since I tumble the brass after trimming anyway.

+1

Although I don't own a 650, I have multiple tool heads for a 1050.

I wouldn't reload mass quantities of rifle any other way.....

[popeye4]

I have a Dillon XL650. I don't load bottleneck rifle cartridges on it. Most of the time needed is for case prep, which in my opinion is best done off the press. So I clean, size/deprime, clean again (to remove lube), trim (on a Giraud), clean primer pocket (I load for gas guns), prime. Now it's ready for the press. I use a Harrell's powder measure and a Reddiing Competition seating die on a RCBS Rock Chucker and charge/seat simultaneously. I can do it every bit as fast with the Harrell's/RC as I can on the Dillon and I don't need to clean the loaded rounds. To me, the Dillon shines for straight wall pistol cartridges. Can you load bottleneck cartridges on the Dillon? Sure. But I don't see why one would.

Since I load for highpower, I am loading several hundred rounds for a season. I often do my brass processing separately from the charging/seating session. I don't like doing brass prep so it is easier to suck it up and get a bunch done all at once, especially during the rainy evenings in the winter.

[Rbutler]

lee just made a powered zip trim you can attach a lite powered screwdriver on top and hit it or just zip tie the trigger down.

[Waldog]

I have a Dillon XL650. I don't load bottleneck rifle cartridges on it. Most of the time needed is for case prep, which in my opinion is best done off the press. So I clean, size/deprime, clean again (to remove lube), trim (on a Giraud), clean primer pocket (I load for gas guns), prime. Now it's ready for the press. I use a Harrell's powder measure and a Reddiing Competition seating die on a RCBS Rock Chucker and charge/seat simultaneously. I can do it every bit as fast with the Harrell's/RC as I can on the Dillon and I don't need to clean the loaded rounds. To me, the Dillon shines for straight wall pistol cartridges. Can you load bottleneck cartridges on the Dillon? Sure. But I don't see why one would.

Since I load for highpower, I am loading several hundred rounds for a season. I often do my brass processing separately from the charging/seating session. I don't like doing brass prep so it is easier to suck it up and get a bunch done all at once, especially during the rainy evenings in the winter.

I have to agree with popeye4. I have a Giraud trimmer that was one of the best shooting investments I ever made. Love that thing. I especially like that it trims/deburrs/chamfers in one step. The Dillon only trims. I guess, after using the Dillion 1200 trimmer, if you tumble your brass it will nock off the sharp edges on the case neck and will work just fine. Many do it that way.
I have loaded 223 on my LNL press a few times and it works well. While loading rifle ammo, I generally only load 100 rounds at a time. I usually load my precision rifle rounds on a single stage Rock Chucker. From my limited experiments, I get more consistent and more accurate loads on the single stage press over a progressive press. I do know that many shooters want volume over precision and a progressive press is just the trick. I do think it is best to process the brass before loading. But, that may been from me loading the old fashioned way for so many years.