I have been loading now for about 15 years. I have thousands or rifle and pistol rounds and under my belt loading on a cheap LEE starter kit press and then a Rockchucker. I upgraded to a Dillon 550B about 6 years ago and love this machine. I had been sitting on a decent pile of 223 reloads and I'm not a high volume consumer of the round. I maybe burn up 400 each year. I can prove my abilities and get enough practice with maybe 20 to 60 rounds per range trip.
I am now at a point where i need to reload and I am buying the conversion kit and tool head to put my die set into. What i am curious about regarding guys shooting in volume and therefor reloading in said volume, using AR15s what are your practices and concerns in regards to the brass?
I anticipate the process to be better in some respects using the progressive, but I can see the time spent lubing cases feeling much more laborious in preparation for a session at the bench.
I am now at a point where i need to reload and I am buying the conversion kit and tool head to put my die set into. What i am curious about regarding guys shooting in volume and therefor reloading in said volume, using AR15s what are your practices and concerns in regards to the brass?
- I already sort my brass between commercial and military. I typically de-prime my brass on the Rockchucker down in my garage, and sort before running them through the wet tumbler. My primary reason for this is to know what I need to come back and swage primer pockets and what can go straight to the press. So I don't intend to change this process.
- Checking length and trimming... this is where my instruction and my assumptions begin to conflict. I loath trimming cases. I used to check the length of each case to ensure it was within range before I would batch brass for reloading. I tossed the shorties into scrap and set the long ones aside and on a rainy weekend. I would run them through a redding trim die that required the use of a file to trim the brass to length.
I no longer have a bolt gun, and my chambers on my AR rifles are all either 556 or 223 Wylde. Can I get away with not trimming brass with these? Ideally, I would love to be able to be done with the trimming altogether for this cartridge going through these guns.I anticipate the process to be better in some respects using the progressive, but I can see the time spent lubing cases feeling much more laborious in preparation for a session at the bench.