Amateur reloading question(s)

[damon32382]

Just got a Dillon XL750. I'm all setup for 9mm. Fired 10 test loads with success. Loaded up another 500 rounds afterwards. Lol!!
Anyway, was wondering if anyone that has a similar press experience the cases sticking on the powder charge/flaring(or belling stage)?? It's manageable to work through, but wonder what kind I'm missing here to remedy this. Case lube? My dies are carbide though..??

Next one is for loading bottleneck rounds...223/5.56, and .308 will be in my near future.
I may be blowing this up in my brain, but it seems like there's a hell of a lot more steps to case prep. Lubing, swaging, trimming. Can anyone explain like I'm 5 years old what I'm going to be up against? Particularly in a progressive press like I mentioned above^

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[robertvarner]

This is why I started with a Lee Classic Turret Press. I wanted to enjoy my reloading hobby, and not get wrapped around the axle with it (which is what I would do, by the way).

 

[DizzyJ]

1st off, congrats on the awesome press!
I've had similar "sticking" issues with my 650, but not bad enough to cause any issues.

My rifle loads all get done one by one on a single stage because I want them to be as precision as possible. That doesn't mean you can't make accurate rifle ammo on a progressive, because many seem to be able to do it. I tend to take my precision loads to the "nth" degree though, and I don't use much ball powder with them. Which, is another thing to consider. What type of powder will you be using? Because stick (extruded) powders often don't throw worth a damn.

What is your goal for your rifle ammunition? Precision, or bulk/plinking where you're willing to sacrifice a little precision?

 

[CLT65]

Anyway, was wondering if anyone that has a similar press experience the cases sticking on the powder charge/flaring(or belling stage)?? It's manageable to work through, but wonder what kind I'm missing here to remedy this. Case lube? My dies are carbide though..??

Are you using wet-tumbled brass by any chance? I had this problem when I first started wet tumbling with stainless steel pins. The super-clean , burnished brass would tend to gall on the expander drop tube and stick pretty bad.

I found that if I rinsed the clean brass in some car wash-and-wax after tumbling, that when dry it has an imperceptible wax finish at the microscopic level, just enough to keep it from sticking. And no, it has no effect on the gunpowder.

 

[BrandonQuixote]

If you're belling/flaring the mouth of the pistol brass you could be doing so TOO MUCH and your sticking sensation could be dry die on dry brass. Carbides may not need lube but theyre still going to give you resistance when youre literally stretching the case mouth open. Ive found working pistol brass mouths as little as possible is best for neck tension and brass life.
As for case prep- rifle/bottle necked cartridges are at least double the prep work. If youre swaging, trimming and chamfering/deburring it can get tedious. If your case prep is taking a long time- you're probably doing it right, for what its worth.

 

[gmerkt]

Next one is for loading bottleneck rounds...223/5.56, and .308 will be in my near future.
I may be blowing this up in my brain, but it seems like there's a hell of a lot more steps to case prep. Lubing, swaging, trimming.

You're not "blowing it up in your brain." Rifle case prep is more involved and my view is that loading rifle on Dillon progressive presents some challenges over just cranking out pistol ammo. I have the Dillon 550, only has four stations. The 550 is great for pistol cartridges, but when I do rifle (.223 and 7.62mm NATO "bulk ammo") I do all case prep. work before it gets to the 550. I'm pretty fast with the Lee Bench Auto Prime, and prefer to do priming that way rather than on the Dillon. So basically for rifle I use the Dillon 550 to drop powder, seat and slightly taper crimp the bullet.

I've been curious as to how rifle is done on the fancier Dillon models, like the 650 and 750 which I believe are similar. From what I can tell, there's no way to do rifle A to Z on one tool head. You have to set up two tool heads. One for prepping the brass, the second for loading it. Lube is the issue. Even trimming can be done on the progressive with the fancy Dillon trimmer motor.

When loading rifle cartridges on the Dillon I've found it's better to use ball powder rather than stick. Your charge accuracy will be better. When loading 7.62 NATO single stage, I've always used IMR 4895. But I had to buy an 8 pound jug of BLC-2 when loading same on the Dillon.

Oh, one other piece of advice. When you do your loading on the Dillon, lock the door and use ear plugs. Don't let yourself get interrupted. I've found that is where stupid stuff happens, when your concentration gets interrupted.

 

[Helocat]

Sticking cases at powder drop and flare:
Option A. Put your 9mm in a plastic bin, give them a shake so most are mouth up. Hit them with a quick blast of case lube. Put the lid on and shake. Lid off and blast again, sake and repeat one last time. It will no longer stick.
Option B. Toss your wet cleaned brass into a vibratory cleaner with corncob or walnut media. Run it for 10 min and it will "dust up" the brass where it does not stick.

Rifle brass:
Precision .308 I prep on my progressive press, de-prime, swage, resize/trim. Then I throw each powder charge with twin RCBS Charge masters. I then use my old trusty 550B to seat and light crimp my loads.

For 300BLK I don't trim and run them all through the progressive press.

For .223 I do the case prep as one run using the case feeder, de-prim, swage, trim/size. I hand debur then clean with stainless media in a wet tumbler. THEN run though and load on the progressive.

 

[WoodsPlinker]

About the only thing I can add to what's been said is don't neck size, full length size.

I wasted a lot of time neck sizing 223 only to have a dangerous situation where the bullets moved when loaded.

The only other thing is I got this thing off eBay for case trimming my rifle rounds, similar to this:

223/5.56 Case trimmer HMR "WCT" - World's Cheapest Trimmer | eBay

Standard High Speed Steel end mill allows smooth and even cutting without wearing quickly. (The faster the rotational speed, the better). - Can account for custom trim lengths, trim length can be customized to your liking.

www.ebay.com

So glad I did, the trimming part is super fast and much cheaper than alternatives.

 

[BrandonQuixote]

About the only thing I can add to what's been said is don't neck size, full length size.

I wasted a lot of time neck sizing 223 only to have a dangerous situation where the bullets moved when loaded.

The only other thing is I got this thing off eBay for case trimming my rifle rounds, similar to this:

223/5.56 Case trimmer HMR "WCT" - World's Cheapest Trimmer | eBay

Standard High Speed Steel end mill allows smooth and even cutting without wearing quickly. (The faster the rotational speed, the better). - Can account for custom trim lengths, trim length can be customized to your liking.

www.ebay.com

So glad I did, the trimming part is super fast and much cheaper than alternatives.

Ive got two WFT world's Finest Trimmer...but id be willing to try these out. Thanks for the post.
x2 on this info. Unless youre getting into long range surgical shooting, full length resize. Neck tension is important- dont be afraid to crimp rifle and high-recoiling pistol rounds.

 

[RogerJ]

When I purchased my Dillon 650 9 years ago I did so over the phone. The man taking the order inquired about the powder intended for use. I don't recall what I said but he responded that Winchester 231 measured very accurately and reliably. Been using it ever since with good results.

 

[gunrnr]

I built a 7mm-08 in an AR-10, I load on my dillon 550. There is a lot of case prep. I use 308 winchester brass, after cleaning them I size and decap them in my 308 carbide die, with a light coat of wd-40 then I neck size to 7mm and trim them,then I weigh them on my digital scale and reject any that are too heavy or too light. case capacity variations can affect accuracy more than variations in powder weight. If you pull the bullets on factory ammo, 30-06 or larger, you can have powder variations of up to a full grain. after trying a number of powders and different bullets my rifle told me it likes 41.5 grains of 4320 and a 140 grain nossler bullet. I load these on my dillon and crimp them in the last position, the stick powder seems to feed ok but the 4320 is a little smaller stick than 4831, or 4350. after they are loaded I pull the decapping pin on my .308 die and run the loaded rounds through it to make sure there is no shoulder bulge from crimping. It is a lot of work but I can produce a 5 round group you can cover with a quarter with 3 of them touching and no feeding problems. I have been loading for over 60 years, I love my dillon

 

[damon32382]

1st off, congrats on the awesome press!
I've had similar "sticking" issues with my 650, but not bad enough to cause any issues.

My rifle loads all get done one by one on a single stage because I want them to be as precision as possible. That doesn't mean you can't make accurate rifle ammo on a progressive, because many seem to be able to do it. I tend to take my precision loads to the "nth" degree though, and I don't use much ball powder with them. Which, is another thing to consider. What type of powder will you be using? Because stick (extruded) powders often don't throw worth a damn.

What is your goal for your rifle ammunition? Precision, or bulk/plinking where you're willing to sacrifice a little precision?

First, thank you for all the info! To answer your question, I'm not looking for match grade ammo. I will eventually get in to that I'm sure, but for now, I'll be just making AR10 ammo for plinking

 

[damon32382]

About the only thing I can add to what's been said is don't neck size, full length size.

I wasted a lot of time neck sizing 223 only to have a dangerous situation where the bullets moved when loaded.

The only other thing is I got this thing off eBay for case trimming my rifle rounds, similar to this:

223/5.56 Case trimmer HMR "WCT" - World's Cheapest Trimmer | eBay

Standard High Speed Steel end mill allows smooth and even cutting without wearing quickly. (The faster the rotational speed, the better). - Can account for custom trim lengths, trim length can be customized to your liking.

www.ebay.com

So glad I did, the trimming part is super fast and much cheaper than alternatives.

Awesome, thank you so much!!

 

[damon32382]

Sticking cases at powder drop and flare:
Option A. Put your 9mm in a plastic bin, give them a shake so most are mouth up. Hit them with a quick blast of case lube. Put the lid on and shake. Lid off and blast again, sake and repeat one last time. It will no longer stick.
Option B. Toss your wet cleaned brass into a vibratory cleaner with corncob or walnut media. Run it for 10 min and it will "dust up" the brass where it does not stick.

Rifle brass:
Precision .308 I prep on my progressive press, de-prime, swage, resize/trim. Then I throw each powder charge with twin RCBS Charge masters. I then use my old trusty 550B to seat and light crimp my loads.

For 300BLK I don't trim and run them all through the progressive press.

For .223 I do the case prep as one run using the case feeder, de-prim, swage, trim/size. I hand debur then clean with stainless media in a wet tumbler. THEN run though and load on the progressive.

Thank you man, really appreciate the info!!

 

[damon32382]

If you're belling/flaring the mouth of the pistol brass you could be doing so TOO MUCH and your sticking sensation could be dry die on dry brass. Carbides may not need lube but theyre still going to give you resistance when youre literally stretching the case mouth open. Ive found working pistol brass mouths as little as possible is best for neck tension and brass life.
As for case prep- rifle/bottle necked cartridges are at least double the prep work. If youre swaging, trimming and chamfering/deburring it can get tedious. If your case prep is taking a long time- you're probably doing it right, for what its worth.

Thank you!! I'm definitely picking up some case lube then. Still a little ways out from buying rifle dies, but good to know

 

[olyroller]

Just got a Dillon XL750. I'm all setup for 9mm. Fired 10 test loads with success. Loaded up another 500 rounds afterwards. Lol!!
Anyway, was wondering if anyone that has a similar press experience the cases sticking on the powder charge/flaring(or belling stage)?? It's manageable to work through, but wonder what kind I'm missing here to remedy this. Case lube? My dies are carbide though..??

Next one is for loading bottleneck rounds...223/5.56, and .308 will be in my near future.
I may be blowing this up in my brain, but it seems like there's a hell of a lot more steps to case prep. Lubing, swaging, trimming. Can anyone explain like I'm 5 years old what I'm going to be up against? Particularly in a progressive press like I mentioned above^

I get the same sticking effect on my Dillon 550. Unless I am wrong, I think that is normal.

 

[Tilos]

The case sticking on the expander is by design, via the rough finish on the expander(it's NOT carbide).
It shakes/thumps the powder measure/drop to loosen/drop any remaining powder in the drop tube.

Polishing the expander will reduce it as well as lubing the case insides.
There are many ways to do this mentioned here, my choice is to add a liberal amount of an auto wash/wax product to the final rinse after wet tumbling.
just my opinion,

 

[Legion489]

I was going to say "lube up your cases" too. 1) 9mm brass is tapered. Yes, really. Not a lot but some. This puts a bit of pressure on the case/die interface and they catch. Yes, even in carbide dies. Regular 9mm steel dies are actually tapered, all carbide pistol dies are straight. You are going from a tapered case to a straight carbide die, so the case is swagged down to the diameter of the case mouth. It smoothing things up a LOT! I lube every third or fifth .45 case too and it is amazing how much easier it is to size them in a carbide die. Also helps the carbide dies last longer. Yes I have worn out carbide dies. The cases come out with slightly "egg" shaped mouths. For 98.7% of the shooters out there would not notice the drop off of accuracy, but it is there. I use them to resize/deprime cases.

Carbide RIFLE dies will lock up tighter then a fishes rear end (that is water tight!) if you do not lube the cases! Carbide is brittle and will break if stressed, so even if you send your carbide RIFLE die back they might break the carbide insert.

2) Don't over expand the case mouths.

 

[ageingstudent]

The case sticking on the expander is by design, via the rough finish on the expander(it's NOT carbide).
It shakes/thumps the powder measure/drop to loosen/drop any remaining powder in the drop tube.

Polishing the expander will reduce it as well as lubing the case insides.
There are many ways to do this mentioned here, my choice is to add a liberal amount of an auto wash/wax product to the final rinse after wet tumbling.
just my opinion,

Yes clean and polish the expander and die it really helps. I like to use flitz. And don't over-expand because the case-mouth will hang up more on the way out.

 

[Mikej]

And, just an FYI, you can "multi-quote" by hitting the "quote " button, lower right, left of the "Reply" button and have all the posts you'd like to respond to in ONE post. That's easier for ME, your mileage may vary (YMMV).

First, thank you for all the info! To answer your question, I'm not looking for match grade ammo. I will eventually get in to that I'm sure, but for now, I'll be just making AR10 ammo for plinking

Awesome, thank you so much!!

Thank you man, really appreciate the info!!

Thank you!! I'm definitely picking up some case lube then. Still a little ways out from buying rifle dies, but good to know

And welcome to the forum. New blood is good blood !