cheap .223/5.56 reloading?

[chadbag]

Measure twice, drill once.

Sorry I cannot be of more assistance. I have never played around with a Hornady press outside of a SHOT Show booth demo.

If you get it working maybe do a write-up on it for us.

And maybe try Google or Bing to see if someone else has already written up the details.

Good luck!

[R1pper]

For the past two or so years I have been doing my reloading on a single stage.

They way I do my process is, tumble, seperate mil/com, trim to length, decap/resize, prime, charge, seat bullet.

After reading this thread it has me wondering should I be trimming after I decap/resize?

[epete]

They way I do my process is, tumble, seperate mil/com, trim to length, decap/resize, prime, charge, seat bullet.

After reading this thread it has me wondering should I be trimming after I decap/resize?

I've always trimmed after sizing because that is how the ABCs of Reloading said to do it. If you are full length resizing, I would definitely trim afterwards.

[chadbag]

If the cases stretch past their max length (see your book) then they should be trimmed.

[mizer67]

You should definately resize before trimming, particularly if using standard dies (i.e. not RCBS X-die or similar that are meant to limit case length growth).

I've found the cases will grow the most during resizing when the expander ball is pulled back through the case neck.

If you're trimming before resizing, you'll get some inconsisencies in your trim-to length.

[jnicita]

I don't mind drilling a hole in the top of the press, I just wasn't sure that would work. Thanks for the tip and I'll head that way.

I was doing some searches for blue powder alarms on Hornady LNL's since like you, I was planning on using the RCBS lock out and realized just before purchasing it that "n/a" on rifle cartridges. I am very curious about where you are at, and what results you have. I unlike most people, have a primary need to reload .223 3x as much as handgun. Just the wife shoots .40cal S&W, I am a new reloader, just fresh off the NRA Metallic Rifle reloaders 10 hour class, but have little progressive press experience beyond that. (And unfortunately, the NRA class taught progressive, but .45 colt ammo was reloaded on the blue 650).

Anyways, I have to buy everything a little slower than most, almost always low on funds. Sorry to thread jack, but I am really interested in any info you get or have, or learn with respect to the audible Dillion powder alarm on a Hornady Lock And Load progressive.

Thanks

[Fried Chicken Blowout]

I was doing some searches for blue powder alarms on Hornady LNL's since like you, I was planning on using the RCBS lock out and realized just before purchasing it that "n/a" on rifle cartridges. I am very curious about where you are at, and what results you have. I unlike most people, have a primary need to reload .223 3x as much as handgun. Just the wife shoots .40cal S&W, I am a new reloader, just fresh off the NRA Metallic Rifle reloaders 10 hour class, but have little progressive press experience beyond that. (And unfortunately, the NRA class taught progressive, but .45 colt ammo was reloaded on the blue 650).

Anyways, I have to buy everything a little slower than most, almost always low on funds. Sorry to thread jack, but I am really interested in any info you get or have, or learn with respect to the audible Dillion powder alarm on a Hornady Lock And Load progressive.

Thanks

The Dillon Powder Check works perfect. I love it and have stuck with it even for pistol reloading. No issues getting it to work with the LNL. BUT if you're just now getting into a progressive, I would stick with Dillon. The 650 XL is already made for this tool and should be hassle free. We've pretty much worked the bugs out of the LNL and had an okay time loading 12k rounds of .223 over the last few months. Then we were able to switch back to 9mm without much issue, but we did have to obtain some parts through warrantee service that we either wore out or had to modify during the .223 reloading. We're going to be moving on to reload 6.5 Grendel with it. That should be entertaining. Only about 100-200 per sitting so not as painful as the .223 pace we were at.

Here's a video of the LNL working with the Powder Check that I made.

If the link doesn't work, let me know.

[jnicita]

Should have stated that I already have a LNL, with the case loader and a RCBS bullet feed, but no other tooling or dies other than the new dimension dies in .223. I havent chosen a powder cop, which is why I started like you looking at the RCBS and now know the Hornady is both pistol/rifle or the Dillion, just read that you had to drill on the lnl so was asking about that. I learned in my NRA class on the 650 (did about 2000 pistol rounds on a 650XL on a Saturday following up the 10 hour "book work" and did about 200 on a rock chucker in clean, de-primer, clean primer hole, size, trim, powder, press scenario the next day. Just now starting at home with my own gear, and shoot 75:1 .223 to .40 S&W.

Thanks

[boltcatch]

The 4 things that save me a lot of time and hassle reloading .223 -

Imperial Sizing Die Wax
Possum Hollow quick case trimmer chucked in my hand drill or drill press
RCBS case mate prep center
Hand priming the brass while watching a movie with my Peltors on.

I do my prep in batches of about 200-300 and spread it out over a few days, and take my time.

My procedure;

- tumble brass
- resize, operating press handle with one hand and lubing with die wax and moving brass with the other. piece of cake.
- tumble brass again
- run all brass through Possum Hollow trimmer
- pick up brass, feel inside with bent paperclip for incipient separation, use same paperclip to poke corncob media out of the flash hole, use rotary stations on Casemate prep center to clean primer pocket, chamfer, and deburr. sounds like a lot but it's fast and easy.
- prime brass with hand-primer
- check press calibration
- charge, seat, and crimp on press
- shake every round to make sure it has a charge

There really isn't any frustration or drama in there anywhere.

I also have several sets of brass that I use as range or plinking brass that I don't even trim... I use my RCBS X-die with them. Some of them I'm on the 8th reloading with no problems. Setting up the X-die goes faster if you use a reference case to set it.

[Matthewe Gordon]

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