What did you do at your reloading bench today?

Red Eye · Sep 29, 2021

Loaded up some 375 Win. for the Marlin. 36 gr. of Reloader 7 under a 220gr. Hornady interlock bullet. Have to make sure I've got enough for the up coming deer hunting season since MD. went straight walled cartridge.
Finally get to use my Marlin 375 again, it sat in the safe for a long time since I was in a shotgun only zone.

Squaregrouper · Sep 29, 2021

ToolAA said:
Finished up 60 rounds of 6.5cm. Ready to send them down range soon.

fidelity said:
Looking good (and looking forward to joining you and the others)

I need to load up more rounds myself. I tuned my new Grendel load with 123gr ELD-M, just need to press a hundred or so.
I started to get some chrono data, but my buddy ended up shooting it before I finished. Guess who has a new chrono on the way.

trickg · Sep 29, 2021

I'm in the process of tumbling a bunch of 556/223.

ToolAA · Sep 29, 2021

trickg said:
I'm in the process of tumbling a bunch of 556/223.

Tumbling is the easy part. Deprime and primer pocket reaming is what kills me.

pop-gunner · Sep 29, 2021

I did about 800 556/223 today and I'm happy to be almost halfway done with those components.
Try as I might I couldn't get the Dillon 550 Primer mechanism to line up and seat them. I would either get high primers, or they'd start to crush. After destroying 30 or so primers I loaded what brass I had primed already and stopped. I'll try hand priming but if that doesn't get any easier someone is getting a good deal of cleaned, de-primed, trimmed, and swaged brass.

ToolAA · Sep 29, 2021

squaregrouper said:
I need to load up more rounds myself. I tuned my new Grendel load with 123gr ELD-M, just need to press a hundred or so.
I started to get some chrono data, but my buddy ended up shooting it before I finished. Guess who has a new chrono on the way.

With all that OT you’ve been working did you opt for the Lab Radar?

trickg · Sep 30, 2021

I was working tonight to decap the 223 I'd cleaned, and I somehow managed to bend/break the pin on my Lee universal decapping die. I figured, no sweat - I'll just order a replacement.

Apparently that's not so easy. I see multi-packs, "upgrades," etc. is there any advantage to getting an off-brand decapping pin, or should I just replace it with an OEM part and be done with it?

Interesting - in all my time reloading, this is the first time I've ever broken a decapping pin.

John from MD · Sep 30, 2021

trickg said:
I was working tonight to decap the 223 I'd cleaned, and I somehow managed to bend/break the pin on my Lee universal decapping die. I figured, no sweat - I'll just order a replacement.

Apparently that's not so easy. I see multi-packs, "upgrades," etc. is there any advantage to getting an off-brand decapping pin, or should I just replace it with an OEM part and be done with it?

Interesting - in all my time reloading, this is the first time I've ever broken a decapping pin.

Consider it a rite of passage. :lol:

Unlike some size dies that have decapping pins, the Lee pin is one piece with the decapping rod. I don't think you can purchase another make part for that die. Even with RCBS and Redding, it many cases their pins are a different diameter.

Here is one that is available.

https://www.amazon.com/Lee-Precision-90783-Universal-Decapping/dp/B00162ULZ0

GunBum · Sep 30, 2021

John from MD said:
Consider it a rite of passage.

Unlike some size dies that have decapping pins, the Lee pin is one piece with the decapping rod. I don't think you can purchase another make part for that die. Even with RCBS and Redding, it many cases their pins are a different diameter.

Here is one that is available.

https://www.amazon.com/Lee-Precision-90783-Universal-Decapping/dp/B00162ULZ0

Here is the part direct from Lee. It says $3, but when you add to the cart, it’s free and they just charge for shipping.
https://leeprecision.com/univ-decap-pin-90292.html

GunBum · Sep 30, 2021

pop-gunner said:
I did about 800 556/223 today and I'm happy to be almost halfway done with those components.
Try as I might I couldn't get the Dillon 550 Primer mechanism to line up and seat them. I would either get high primers, or they'd start to crush. After destroying 30 or so primers I loaded what brass I had primed already and stopped. I'll try hand priming but if that doesn't get any easier someone is getting a good deal of cleaned, de-primed, trimmed, and swaged brass.

Sounds like they are not swaged enough to remove the crimp. Either that, or you have the large primer seating arm in the press.

Harrys · Sep 30, 2021

Made 50 rounds of 380 gr. HCBFN of .500 S&W mags with Titegroup and 50 rounds of 350 gr. HCBFN 45/70 with IMR 4198

Squaregrouper · Sep 30, 2021

ToolAA said:
With all that OT you’ve been working did you opt for the Lab Radar?

He bought me a matching replacement.
.
Last night I loaded 50 match 6.5 Grendels. Tonight I will load some 6.5 man buns.

trickg · Sep 30, 2021

John from MD said:
Consider it a rite of passage.

Unlike some size dies that have decapping pins, the Lee pin is one piece with the decapping rod. I don't think you can purchase another make part for that die. Even with RCBS and Redding, it many cases their pins are a different diameter.

Here is one that is available.

https://www.amazon.com/Lee-Precision-90783-Universal-Decapping/dp/B00162ULZ0

I went ahead and got the genuine Lee part, and I ordered from Midway USA. I bought 3 of them. If I'd had the part last night I'd have swapped in a replacement and kept on going. I'm still not sure what screwed it up because I don't think it was Berdan primed, and I haven't had an issue punching out crimped primers before. Then again, I've only done 9mm with my Lee APP.

I'm dead in the water for now, but I'll be back in business in a few days.

guzma393 · Sep 30, 2021

FL sized and primed 500 223 cases. Gauged and trimmed ones that exceeded max case length, which were a few since this brass has been processed before.

Had a hold-up when a neck was completely ripped out of the case. Luckily, it was just stuck on the expander ball so it was easily fixed. Probably caused from a lack of applied lube in and out of the case neck.

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

trickg · Sep 30, 2021

Here's a question - has anyone ever used these as a means to help set their swaging tooling? It looks like it would be a neat tool that could take the guesswork out of getting a proper swage with crimped primer pockets on military brass.

https://www.ammobrass.com/product-page/ammobrass-swage-setter

They're only about $13 per set of 3.

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60e257_4c8f8ffd79244c288fdbfc68532cb4fb~mv2_d_1748_1666_s_2.webp

60e257_6239aa55d5b34d52b3478d69b49dd601~mv2_d_1438_1920_s_2.webp

trickg · Sep 30, 2021

Dupe - won't let me delete.

pop-gunner · Sep 30, 2021

GunBum said:
Sounds like they are not swaged enough to remove the crimp. Either that, or you have the large primer seating arm in the press.

They may not be swaged enough. I think the problem may lay in the alignment due to the shell plate possibly being looser than it should be.

John from MD · Sep 30, 2021

guzma393 said:
FL sized and primed 500 223 cases. Gauged and trimmed ones that exceeded max case length, which were a few since this brass has been processed before.

Had a hold-up when a neck was completely ripped out of the case. Luckily, it was just stuck on the expander ball so it was easily fixed. Probably caused from a lack of applied lube in and out of the case neck.

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

Correct.

erwos · Oct 6, 2021

Finally living the dream: prepping 223 brass on press, and then loading it there. Just did the first batch tonight. Need to get a vacuum set up for the brass trimmer, but my initial run of 223 is looking very promising. Not quite as fast as loading 9mm, but now it's not horribly slower, either.

GuitarmanNick · Oct 7, 2021

Just got a Lee Ram Swage tool last week. Did a few hundred 5.56 cases in short order and was very pleased with the results. Removing the crimps is easier on my hands, way faster, and primers seat perfectly.

Took a few tries to get it adjusted just right.

What did you do at your reloading bench today?

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