g56

The first thing I would try is changing the seating depth, this could make all the difference in the world, but you never know till you try it. I have a Kimber Custom Target, I've had it for about 15 years or so, it has fed everything I've thrown at it, but I've never really pushed it hard, my competition days are in the past now.

That's one of the reasons I always recommend Dillon dies, I've loaded thousands of 223 loads and never stuck one, but I know its there just in case!

Keep in mind that when you tighten the set screw, it seems to tighten the center screw as well, so you need to balance the 2 screws to get it just right. Its not hard to do, set the center screw then tighten the set screw, then rotate the shell plate at least a couple of full rotations, if its binding go back and do it again till you find the sweet spot.

The NuFinish probably leaves a little bit of an invisible film behind that discourages corrosion, its probably an acrylic finish and that would do it.

I'm getting to around 10,000 rounds of 223/5.56 loaded on a Dillon RL550 using standard Dillon dies, absolutely no problems at all using the Dillon dies. If you are using Dillon dies, small base dies just aren't necessary. I run all my cases through my Giraud trimmer every time after sizing, it takes less time to run them through the Giraud than it does to measure them. All my loads are run through AR15's, I don't own a 223 bolt action at all.

I'm using AA2460, works great and meters perfectly, I tried the extruded powders but they were a pain in the butt to use, very poor metering, with no advantage in accuracy or anything else.

I loaded a few hundred rounds of 40 using Blue Dot, it metered just fine, no problems at all. I was using 165 grain plated bullets with Blue Dot, one day I was shooting at the range with a white painted bench in front of me, after firing 30-40 rounds I found a huge amount of unburned powder on the white bench in front of me, there was so much you could write your name in the unburned powder. I'm using WW231 or Unique when I load 40 now, it works much better for me. 10/5/2006 75 degrees 8.0 gr Blue Dot 165 gr Berrys Plated 1 909.4 Win primer 2 958.3 3 926.2 4 984.5 5 975 6 964.7 7 957.6 8 921.3 9 969.9 10 967.4 11 894 12 915.5 13 961 14 907.9 15 980.9 Average 946.2 High 984.5 Low 894 ES 90.5 SD 30.3 AD 27.1

I've reloaded well over 100,000 rounds of pistol ammo on my RL550 without using a drop of lube on the cases, it just isn't needed in most calibers. A year or so back I got into 44 magnum, here is the exception to the rule, the 44 magnum cases do need to be lubed, I don't know why, 45 acp doesn't, but 44 magnum cases require a huge amount of effort to size, and some lube brings the effort to a reasonable level.

Its a good idea to test links in the preview screen before posting, it helps you avoid posting broken links, like the one to Xtreme Bullets above. Corrected url: Xtreme Bullets

That is an old wives tale when you are talking about 223/5.56 ONLY. I researched this personally, I picked out 50 pieces of assorted brands of 223/5.56 brass, military and commercial, a check of weight found only one type was different, PMP headstamp is South African, PMP brass was significantly heavier than any of the other cases. Another guy went even further, he checked the water capacity of a large variety of 223/5.56 cases, weighing the water the case can hold tells you the true capacity (interior volume) of the case, and again, on 223/5.56 cases ONLY, PMP South African were the only cases that had less capacity, all the rest, military and commercial were essentially the same. Although I haven't personally researched 308 Win/7.62 NATO, I understand that there is a substantial difference between military and commercial cases in that caliber.

Why are you lubing pistol brass? Most likely you have carbide dies, which don't normally need any lube, in my 40+ years of reloading the ONLY pistol caliber I've found that needs any lube is 44 magnum, for some reason my 44 mag cases do need to be lubed. To remove lube from cases I just put them in the tumbler with walnut media for 15-20 minutes. Never use Brasso in your tumbler, the ammonia in it attacks the brass. There are lots of polishes made for reloading that are suitable, but when you are removing lube you really don't want any additives in the media.

No contest, the Giraud!

This is a 5 shot group at 100 yards using mixed military brass, Hornady 55 gr spire point bullet, loaded on a Dillon RL550 using Dillon dies:

I was looking at the Bayou Bullets, when I Googled them I found this demo video, they show a huge reduction in smoke compared to cast bullets, very impressive!

Spread the unidentified, or any suspect powder on your lawn, its a decent fertilizer.

Something that is handy, add a knob to the bolt on the powder bar, then think of it like an old fashioned volume control, turn right to make it louder (increase powder charge), and turn left to turn down the volume (decrease powder charge). The knobs are in the Nuts and Bolts isle of Home Depot in the specialty area where all the Specialty cap screws and such are in the pull out box drawers. These knobs are above the drawers in little plastic drop down pull boxes. There are several shapes and colors. The package calls them KNOB_TEE 5/16"...UPC # 0 3069978178 2. There are also round knobs in various colors. SKU # 562-514 The knobs will press fit right on the head of the adjustment bolt.

If you look closely at crimped brass you should notice that a lot of the crimps are not exactly centered, so when they are swaged the swaging isn't always uniform. One thing I have been doing when seating primers, when you run into that "wall" of solid metal, you can feel it easily, rotate the case as you apply slight pressure to the loading lever, you will be able to feel when you get to an area where it goes in. Something I am just starting to try out, when I'm swaging I will turn the case on the mandrel and hit it again, seems to work well so far, the intent is to get a more uniform swage since the factory crimp isn't always even all the way around. I tried this on 150 cases last week, I did this "multi swage" technique, and when I ran them through and reloaded them I ran into very few where I hit that wall.

"We have confirmed is a double-base extruded powder" Most people lose interest as soon as they see that its an extruded powder and not a ball powder, if you are bulk loading its just too much of a hassle to use an extruded powder.

Recycling? To some extent...I have an old WW231 can, I think its a 5 lb can, full of used primers. My main rifle powder I buy in 8 lb bottles, I fill an empty 1 lb container with the same powder, and use that in my powder measure, and pour the powder back into the smaller container when I'm through for the day, always the same powder though. All the rest of the 1 lb containers get pitched.

Its not blasphemy, but the Dillon powder measure works great, extremely consistent.

You should have a seating stem for SWC bullets and round nose bullets, be sure you are using the SWC bullet seater.

Yep, just pull the two pins, remove the toolhead and pour it back into the powder container, using a funnel of course, then I put the toolhead back on and an empty case in the powder die position and crank it a couple of times to get the last of the powder out.

About cleaning primer pockets, I quit cleaning them 26 years ago, cleaning primer pockets doesn't seem to have any effect on accuracy at all. This 5 shot group is from an AR-15 at 100 yards without cleaning primer pockets:

Here's the steps I use on 223/5.56 There's a couple of different ways to size, I do it on my old Rock Chucker press, if someone doesn't have an old single stage, or would rather use the Dillon, get an extra toolhead and put the sizing die in station 1. Any extra case prep, such as swaging primer pockets is done after sizing. Clean brass Size and decap Tumble to remove case lube Trim Cases boxed as ready to load When I need to load I have a universal decapping die in station 1 Run through the rest of the reloading cycle as normal Seat primer Charge powder Seat bullet Crimp

Its really a problem of media size, not the material, bigger media sticks in the holes, smaller media doesn't.