Originally Posted by
jasonh
Okay, so how much prep is MANDATORY?
On my 9mm reloads, I run the cases through the cleaner, separate the media and dump the cases into the hooper on my case feeder. I have a progressive press with a case feeder and a Dillion RF100 primer loader. I can run the press at about 800-1000 rounds per hour. I have a RCBS Powder Lock-Out die and have not had any quality control issues since installing it and running at that speed. Even with sorting the cases and all the other little prep steps with confirming powder load and depth of seat, I'm still looking at 500 rounds per man hour.
But it looks like a pain to do .223/5.56... Maybe 100 rounds an hour if I'm lucky. From what I've seen on the wonder that is You Tube, the steps go something like this... Tumble, separate, lube, de-prime/resize, clean the primer pocket, trim to length, tumble again and separate and then reload the perfected brass.
Do all these steps really need to be done for ammo that's being shot at a max of 100 yards, but most likely is 50 and less yards? Or are all these steps for the guys that want to punch a single whole in paper at 2-300 yard or kill gophers at 400 yards?
Some one give me some real would info on what I'm getting into before I drop the $600 on the reloading equipment I'm going to need to do all the rifle case prep, rifle dies, shell plate, case feeder plate and so on...
Thanks, Jason
OK, this is how I do it. I do it in two passes. Unless you are running a press with a swage device in it like the Dillon Super 1050, this assumes you are only using brass that does not have a primer crimp or is already swaged.
I clean, lube, dump into case feeder. I run through the first pass, which is as fast as I can pull the handle. This pass does a decap, then a size/trim with the Dillon trimmer, then a slight neck expansion using a Lyman M die adjusted to just enter the case mouth a small amount.
Then a 20 min tumble to get rid of the lube. Dump into the case feed and go. The next pass (on a 1050) does swaging, but with the assumption above lets say it just primes, charges powder, seats and crimps bullet, and done.
That is how I can do it now. Others will have variations on the above. I don't clean primer pockets or any other voodoo.
I do not know the actual throughput but it is in the 500-800 an hour range using man hours and both passes.
I use a Dillon 650 for pass one and a Dillon 1050 for pass 2. When doing heavier grain bullets I use a 650 for both passes (using only swaged brass).
I have in fact taken to doing my 9mm as well in 2 passes. Pass one strictly deprimes, then pass 2 is the normal pass. I do it like this since the 9mm is a relatively short case with wide mouth and the powder I use (so-called Russian Unique) fills it relatively up and I was getting powder spill from depriming if there was any sort of pressure needed and then the primer gave and a slight jerk of the press would happen. This was not often but once in a while. The Dillon sizing die decapping pin is spring loaded so that jerk on tough to decap cases was causing a problem. But since I am only doing that one step I can do over a 1000 an hour on the 650 when just depriming so it is not that big of a deal.
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