Which .223 dies... specifically for semi-auto

[herd48]

I have been using the Xdie with great success for the past few months. You have to do an initial resizing of brass. And trim. Then reset the X die to the new trim length. After that, you are good to go. So what I do is. First I resize and deprime with a Lee full length resizing die. Two reasons. 1) Much of the brass I deprime initially is crimped. The Lee decapping pin is stronger than the X dies. 2) It allows my X die to stay adjusted for the trimmed to length brass. This is much more convenient. I'm very happy with the results of the X die.

[mattj]

I have been using the Xdie with great success for the past few months. You have to do an initial resizing of brass. And trim. Then reset the X die to the new trim length. After that, you are good to go. So what I do is. First I resize and deprime with a Lee full length resizing die. Two reasons. 1) Much of the brass I deprime initially is crimped. The Lee decapping pin is stronger than the X dies. 2) It allows my X die to stay adjusted for the trimmed to length brass. This is much more convenient. I'm very happy with the results of the X die.

Thanks!

[jmart]

I'm having a problem with my Lee Resizing die for .223. It isn't giving me a full neck re-size, causing my weapon not to close the bolt completely. The forward assist doesn't aide in the full closure. Once I have a misfire, I try to rack the round out of the chamber, but it takes Charles Atlas to pull the charging handle. I have to Take to weapon apart, manually cock the hammer, then reassemble and fire the jammed round.

My caliber is showing me that towards the bottom of the neck, it is a few hundredths or thousandths off while the top of the neck is re-sized correctly.

I've been running this through a Dillion 650 (The Big One) until I have noticed that the casing wasn't fully closing in the die. So I put the die and a casing through my rock-chucker, and it will not ascend the casing any further than 1/8th an inch that is required to complete a full re-size. It took a blow torch and a lot of blaspheme to pull the .223 case out. This was after using a lot of case lube prior to the incident. And after the case holder ripped the rim off.

I'm realizing that I'm going to have to get a new resizing die, but just to be safe, is there something I am doing wrong?

Return it and ask for a new one.

[Rude Robert]

I have a small base die on order, it looks like there are problem with chambering and extracting with even some colts from what I have found. It can possible be the dies being off somehow by a few thousandths but, i'd rather be safe then sorry.

[rojocorsa]

I need a set of .223 dies for my new Dillon.

Should I just get their Dillon dies and buy once cry once too?

Do I want/need the two or three set? I see a lot of controversy over the crimping thing. I don't understand since I am new at this.

[RearwardAssist]

I need a set of .223 dies for my new Dillon.

Should I just get their Dillon dies and buy once cry once too?

Do I want/need the two or three set? I see a lot of controversy over the crimping thing. I don't understand since I am new at this.

I have the dillon die set and have been happy with them, like its been said in this thread crimping is really a personal prefrence. I prefer a crimp and like its also been said on this thread if your dealing with a progressive it is not any extra work.

[lunchbox]

I like to crimp, but I think its up to you and your desired purpose for ammo. One way to see if getting proper neck tension is; load up mag, shoot some, then measure/compare OAL of remaining rounds to if set back is occurring. I also like to use Wilson case check gage (easy to use gage that tells if ammo is in SAMMI spec), big fan of that.

[Eric D.]

IIRC, your machine comes with a caliber conversion kit which includes the powder die. If you want to crimp I recommend the Lee factory crimp die. This leaves you only needing two other dies, resizing and bullet seating, and you can get them both from Dillon individually. I recommend you ante up for the carbide sizing die. That's what I did and I don't regret it. Dillon dies are worth it.

I've crimped all of the last 3k or so rounds I've loaded with the Lee fcd and that's how I plan to keep doing it. The only reason people are leary of crimping, assuming the crimp isn't extreme, is because its believed to reduce accuracy. I don't do any precision shooting but all my crimped loads shoot just as well, if not more accurately than factory ammo. On the other hand, the benefits of crimping include less bullet setback, less bullet jump upon chambering, and, overall, a more secure and robust package. I'm sure some loads don't need a crimp and accuracy can be increased by not crimping but there's no science to when a crimp will or won't improve accuracy.

I need a set of .223 dies for my new Dillon.

Should I just get their Dillon dies and buy once cry once too?

Do I want/need the two or three set? I see a lot of controversy over the crimping thing. I don't understand since I am new at this.

[shootist~]

I need a set of .223 dies for my new Dillon.

Should I just get their Dillon dies and buy once cry once too?

Do I want/need the two or three set? I see a lot of controversy over the crimping thing. I don't understand since I am new at this.

If you will be sizing on the Dillon, then yes - you are well advised to go with Dillon Dies. They are built from the ground up to work on Dillon machines. (Sizer die does not have to ram up against the shell plate.)

Crimping is debatable, but I quit some time ago. If you have a rifle that is prone to setting back the bullet, I seriously doubt that pinching in the end of the brass neck is going to make a difference. If loading heavier/longer bullets (>55 grains), I'll test for setback by loading several dummies and hard cycling through the rifle several times. COL should not change more than a few thousandths.

[rojocorsa]

All I know is that I want to load for my and my friend's AR-15s in order to go take classes and be able to practice our marksmanship more often.

It's not like I'm going to load some 77 SMKs up any time soon.


But I notice that the Dillon die comes with the crimping tool, so should I do it anyway? Again, I just want to have cheaper general purpose ammo.