dirtdarte

The interesting thing to me about this discussion is the OP's desire to produce zero runout to increase accuracy. The assumption being that a perfectly strait cartridge will sit in the chamber perfectly strait. This revels a fundamental misunderstanding of what the actual mechanism is that allows alignment of the cartridge in the chamber to the bore of the rifle. Sure, a zero runout round of ammunition will contribute to accuracy, however, that goal should be considered a secondary priority to the fundamental imperative of proper sizing to allow proper alignment to begin with. The case headspace's off the shoulder. A properly sized case will naturally align in the chamber provided the case isn't over-sized (shoulder pushed back too far) and the bolt can close on the cartridge. As long as your rifle is built correctly (strait, square etc) alignment problems wont be a problem. With a gas gun (semi-auto) it is necessary to size to factory spec (or close to it) to allow feeding/chambering. A major limiting factor with a gas gun. You must work within the limitations of your platform. A progressive press is a ammunition assembly machine. If you move the precision reloading steps off the progressive press and use it (the progressive press) as a assembly tool, you can assemble extremely accurate ammunition. 550...650...both are great. As far as powder and a progressive... in most cases it's simply not going to matter if you use a powder that flows well. The benchrest guys load by VOLUME not weight,... and frequently load at the shooting bench during the match... that should send a message. A smooth flowing powder through the powder measure will give you very good consistency. If you find you need more, you wont be using a progressive press anyway... you'll be further down the road at that point.

LOL.... yes.. that is correct.... somehow in my geriatric fog I confused bullets with presses. Thanks for the correction. It could be worse though... we could be discussing toothbrushes and toilet brushes,

If you want "zero" runout, the two steps you need to consider are sizing and seating. Don't pull your cases through a sizing die button and fully support the bullet while seating in a floating type setup so the bullet and case can align during the seating process. Neck turning is about neck tension and not about alignment. If your weapon is a gas gun/AR platform, the act of feeding can cause some alignment issues but it is unlikely that bullet alignment is that big of a deal. Anneal your brass for neck tension... play with seating depth... don't try to push the load too hard and use a powder measure like a redding master for more consistent powder throws. The 650 is a perfectly good press for alignment 99% of the time. If your going for real precision then loose the AR/gas gun platform and use a Forster A-Max, don't full length resize and weigh everything out individually. Precision is about preparation not assembly. You wont achieve zero runout consistently on a progressive press ever. A few rounds here or there... yes... every time ? No way.

Yup... BIG waste of time ... money... for nothing. Maybe the next tool of improvement we should be discussing should be what tweezers and razor works best for trimming powder grains...

I bought a large through Brian a couple of months ago... It came with the brass roller. I don't know why Dillon would tell you that they aren't shipping the large yet.... They did in my case... and I didn't even ask for it.

Of course you can.... Just trim to minimum length... Your rifle won't blow up like a grenade and you will be within specs even after resizing. No big deal at all. Often, when I am forming cases from one caliber to another.. (.22 hornet to .17 hornet or .204 Ruger to .17 Remington) I trim the formed case a little short before fireforming so that after fireforming the cases will be at the correct length.

I cast and coat my own. I use Hi-tek coating in the powder form and add Acetone then coat and bake. I am very happy with the results. I can realize significant cost savings and achieve better results than purchasing plated bullets. Even buying the lead I can cast 4000 bullets and coat them for about $120. Pretty good savings.... if you have the time to do it yourself... I do.

Ya... you'd be set with what you listed.... One suggestion.... get the AT 1500 instead of the 1200B. Just a little more money for a more powerful trimmer that offer more options. (Im thinking 300 BLK trimming) 3 years down the road and you may want the option.... Super swage 600 is great.... You won't need the low version of the case prep toolhead if you are working .223. Just get an extra toolhead and stand if you want it. You will gain more options as you will have 5 threaded holes in the toolhead that are pretty much usable. One other suggestion.... Get an M die to knock any burrs off the neck and expand the mouth of the case after passing through the trim/size die. I use a Lyman M die. If you decide to use the swager that mounts to your 650.... it's my understanding that Dillon wont honor your warranty and I've heard reports that it doesn't really work all that well anyway. Stick with the Super Swage 600.

I'm with jmorris... ALWAYS clean rifle brass first thing. If you want clean primer pockets... for instance your going to wet tumble the cases... run the brass through a universal deprimer die to knock out the primers... them clean the brass. Dirty brass and resizing dies don't play well together.

Ive ordered a lot of stuff... A LOT.....lol. I always receive all the packages on the same day... without fail. BUT... I order through Brian and I live in Utah.... so there's that factor... adjacent state. Must make a difference.

From the sounds of it, you are producing really good ammo. If it meets your needs.... and it sounds like it does... great. This whole handloading process and pursuit of accuracy is half the fun of firearms and shooting for me. It can be a real challenge to squeeze a little more accuracy from a firearm and improve it's performance. I'll stick my neck out and suggest that if you were to experiment with a different bullet or three your accuracy will improve. Once you really drink he Kool aid and start driving for higher levels of consistency, the FMJ will just hold you back.... provided you have a rifle capable of sub MOA accuracy. Bullets matter, and the Hornady FMJ.... while a good bullet... with excellent performance within its design and purpose... isn't a target bullet... or a particularly consistent or accurate bullet. I use them for blasting. I like to do my accuracy testing at 200 yards at the minimum. 100 yds is ok for chrono work.... not accuracy. It takes a little distance for a bullet to settle down. It is not uncommon to fire a 1 moa group at 100 yds and then fire a sub moa group at 200 using the same load.... consistently.

Here are my thoughts.... Unless you are sorting brass by weight or volume.... neck turning.... neck sizing etc.... don't get wrapped around the axle over spreads up to and a bit beyond 50 fps. Actually, 50fps is pretty good. We're talking extreme spreads here in a sample of 10 or so rounds. The temp of the barrel and the rate of fire will have an effect this measurement. The pace of your shot string... the temperature... the volume of powder in the case and the position of the powder... lots of variables. Your loading bulk in a progressive machine and dispensing powder by volume. Your doing very well to get those spreads considering all the balls in the air that are out of your control. If you don't feel confident that you are producing pretty good ammo... try this experiment. Load up 20 or so rounds... and measure the powder by weight. Intentionally vary the load by a few 10ths every other round or so... of course be safe... don't conduct this experiment on the edge of max charge. Now on a nice day... go the range and set up a target at 300 yards or so. Set up you chrono and fire your test rounds. Go down range and police up your target. You will feel pretty confident then. Incidentally, I feel like I've hit on a pretty good load when I can get SD's in the 10-11 or less range. That however doesn't mean that you have an accurate load for that rifle.... not by a long shot. You need to fire the loads AT DISTANCE in good conditions. Look up latter testing. It's a process that will teach you what you need to know in order to produce the best ammunition for that particular rifle. Targets don't lie. Ill edit this in... When you begin to get serious about producing accurate rifle ammunition, you have to realize that it's a whole new game with regard to handloading. I would bet that at least 90% of all handloaders of rifle ammunition either never produce ammunition any better than off the shelf bulk stuff or get real lucky and fall into a load that surprises them. The trick is to understand that you have to build the ammo for the rifle.... and if your lucky, it will work well for another rifle too. The experiment I suggested was intended to demonstrate how little some of the elements (like powder charge or SD's) have any real effect on accuracy up to about 300-400 yards. They don't matter much. Finding the node of your rifle will be FAR ,FAR AND AWAY more valuable to increasing your accuracy. This is the secret that will allow you to produce the most accurate ammo for your rifle and will show you the potential accuracy of the rifle itself. Don't fall into the 100 yard groups for accuracy mindset or the magic number on the chrono crowd.

I use a Mr. Bullet in .223 on my 1050. Works great....no problems. Buy with confidence.

I bought 8 lbs. This stuff is good. It's slower than titegroup... by just a little. No smoke... VERY CLEAN. I'm not loading hot... but found it easy to make PF with a .40 and no pressure signs. SD's in the single digits. I'm happy with it. ANd it meters very well in the DIllon PD's.

I use the large bins from harbor freight... They are actually LARGER than the Dillon 1050 AKRO bins... and cost $2 bucks... they aren't as pretty though.