g56

I tumble rifle brass after resizing to remove lube, when I used corn cobb it would stick in the primer flash hole, and in the primer pocket itself, sometimes I would find 5-6 grains stuck together lodged in the primer pocket. I cured that by getting some walnut shell that was a finer (smaller) size, no more problems with that, plus I use a universal decapping die in station one just to be sure the flash hole is open.

I've loaded over 100,000 rounds on a Dillon RL550 and I've never had to readjust the little clip. Its purpose is to slip out of the way so you can insert a new case, and then merely retain the case once the round is inserted, it isn't really something that's hard to adjust or need a lot of fussing with.

The most common cause of varying OAL is caused by the bullets not being consistent in shape. Most bullets contact point on the bullet seating stem is not the tip, its on the side of the bullet, most bullets are fairly consistent in shape, but they are never exact, and slight differences in shape will change the OAL measurements.

OK, here's the skinny on that kind of brass prep, I'm a Master Class PPC shooter, we shoot out to 50 yards in matches, the ONLY special thing I did on match loads was to use only one brand of brass. For practice I used mixed brass, but for match use the brass was inspected a little more carefully, and I only used Remington brass. There is a 99.9% chance that your pistol can shoot better than you can possibly perform as a shooter, so extreme efforts in brass processing will gain you absolutely nothing on the target. Make your loads as reliable as possible, but things like uniforming primer pockets to supposedly gain a tiny amount of accuracy are a waste of time and effort.

I haven't seen a lot of it, but I do have some military 38 special cases in my brass stock, since the 38 special rounds aren't crimped I just treated them the same as the rest of my 38 special brass, of course I'm not loading anywhere near max charges, most of my loads are mid range level.

I've been doing that for 26 years, it doesn't get any easier than that.

Brass prep? No sweat, its easy with the right tools.

I found a picture, 2006 on the left, and 1985 on the right, the 1985 version powder measure has the safety rod modification that came out a couple of years after I got it. Its sitting on the old style stand with a wood base.

My very first venture into reloading was with a Lee Loader for 30 carbine, that thing was so hard to do anything with, I don't think I was ever able to even load one cartridge with it, it was so discouraging I almost dropped the idea of reloading completely, but I read the magazines and saw people doing it successfully, so I tried again, ordered a Lyman C press and dies and finally was able to actually reload. As I went on I saw the spring in the press that goes with open face C presses, and in 1970 I got a Rock Chucker, and eventually in 1985 I got into competing seriously in PPC, and got the Dillon, the Dillon allowed me to reload in enough quantity to properly practice, and ensured the success I experienced in PPC competition. I started out reloading in a closet, I eventually moved to a nice bench, and then a few years ago I built a new heavier bench with more storage, and found my original "bench" in the basement, here's the original bench which was attached to a shelf inside a closet. It was a sheet of 3/4 plywood with 2x4 legs. Here's my current bench, my Giraud trimmer on the far left, then the Dillon RL550, the old Rock Chucker in the center, and the old Lyman press on the right, a couple of years ago I removed the old Lyman and installed a MEC shotgun loader in its place.

I noticed that recently, I've got one Dillon powder measure that dates back to 1985, and some others at various dates, I always thought they were the same, with the exception of the evolving throw levers and safety returns. The main calibers I reload have their own dedicated powder measure, but I've got 3 or 4 other calibers mounted in toolheads that don't have their own powder measure. A week or so back I needed to load up some in a caliber that is used less often, so I took a powder measure off another one and was very surprised that this powder measure must be different internally since the powder through expansion die setting was WAY OFF, I ruined the first case I expanded with it, so I had to readjust the powder measure die for a completely different length.

I've got a couple of the wood bases on the left side, and 3 of the blue ones on the right.

Sometimes adding a bit more crimp can improve consistency on velocity, but an extreme spread of 40 fps isn't really bad. 9/28/2006 70 degrees Fed primer 5.0 gr WW231 230 gr Lead Round Nose 2 sets of data 1 750.2- 760.8 2 764.4- 799.5 3 802.1- 779.7 4 744.2- 787.4 5 806.9- 753.3 6 772.2- 763.2 7 780.9- 769.8 8 756.1- 765.5 9 802.0- 754.9 10 758.1- 756.7 Average 773.0- 769.1 High 806.9- 799.5 Low 744.2- 753.3 ES 62.7- 46.2 SD 23.2- 15.3 AD 19.4- 12.0 10/5/2006 75 degrees Fed primer 5.0 gr WW231 200 gr Lead SWC 1 766.4 2 748.8 3 787.3 4 775.7 5 787.5 6 785.2 7 767.3 8 775.9 9 780.3 10 790.1 Average 781.5 High 798.8 Low 766.4 ES 31.4 SD 10.2 AD 8.3

I can tell you I got some Redding dies a couple of years ago and it puts those linear scratches on the case necks, the next die set I bought was an RCBS and it did the same thing! They just don't polish the inside of them like they used to, NONE of my older dies do that! Both those previous sets were for calibers that I don't intend to reload in quantity, but a couple of years ago I decided to load 223/5.56 in quantity on my Dillon RL550, so I got the Dillon dies, the Dillon dies don't do that, so at least at that point Dillon was still polishing dies nicely, while Redding and RCBS had both cut back on their polishing of the dies, a distinct lowering of the quality standards for both companies.

They are pretty loud out of a pistol, didn't measure it but it sounded almost like a 22 going off.

When I started reloading back in 1968 the internet was in the very distant future. In 1985 when I got my Dillon RL550 it was still in the distance, if someone had used the word "internet" nobody would know what the heck they were talking about.

Rice has been tried, it really doesn't work well, you just need to get some smaller media. From your description it sounds like you are using pet litter, and the main problem with those is exactly what you have experienced, its too big, get some fine cut walnut or corn cobb and you will be set. On the subject of rice as a media, just wait for a good humid day and it sticks to your brass, after you spend several hours trying to get it off you will be adverse to the very thought of using a food product as a media.

I get exceptional accuracy out of Hornady 55 gr spire points with cannelure, they are cheap and accurate. I am loading them with 25.0 gr AA2460 with a Winchester primer, shot out of an AR-15 with a 24" bull barrel 1/8 twist. I buy them in bulk, along with primers and powder, they really do a good job on prairie dogs and coyotes. BTW, these are loaded on a Dillon RL550 I've had since 1985, and I'm using Dillon dies!

I've bought cases a number of times from Brassman, they are good to go.

Back in the 80's the tool head stands had a wood base with an aluminum shaft, later ones are cast aluminum.

Order a Dillon stainless case gauge for 223/5.56, that's the best way to make sure the cases are sized properly. I originally bought a Wilson case gauge, they are plain steel, that thing rusted if you even looked at it crooked! Finally ordered the stainless case gauge from Dillon, that's what I should have gotten in the first place!

Sometimes I have a problem with the primer slide sticking, its usually caused by debris from the primer pockets getting onto the sliding surface, most of the time I can just blow on it and clean it out, if it continues I'll usually have to take it apart and clean the sliding surfaces with rubbing alcohol, that pretty well takes care of it. I might mention I don't have to clean it with alcohol very often. This is a RL550 I bought in 1985, its had a lot of rounds reloaded on it!

The worst brass by far is Amerc, its junk, not worth fooling with, just toss it.

Commercial brass in 45 acp is usually not crimped, it is easy to load, military brass is always crimped, and then you have to deal with the crimp, a Dillon Super Swage can be helpful with military brass but its still a hassle to deal with. I tend to move military brass to the back when reloading, commercial brass is just so much easier to work with. If you ever get into reloading 5.56 mm virtually all of it is crimped, so you don't have a choice with that, but pistol calibers are easy to reload.

Its a lot cheaper to buy a quality product the first time, when you buy a cheap product you will invariably replace it later with a better one, and spend a lot more money in the process.

If you want to reload on a Dillon, I would recommend the Dillon dies, they are designed for the heavier use typical of most of us who use Dillon's, and they are designed to work with a progressive press, other brands are designed to work on single stage presses. Dillon dies in bottleneck rifle calibers come standard with a carbide expander button, so you don't need to lubricate the inside of the neck of the case. You don't need the carbide dies by Dillon, it says on Dillon's website the carbide rifle dies are intended for extremely high volume loaders, like a commercial reloaders, an individual is unlikely to wear out a set of dies in their lifetime. BTW, even carbide dies in bottleneck rifle calibers need to be lubed.