Chills1994

Thank you for the reply. I also have a Dillon RT1500 trimmer. It is currently set up on a prep toolhead for .223 . I would normally wet tumble brass with SS pins. So in total, that brass was making three trips through my 650 The very first toolhead was just one die in the entire toolhead. It was a universal decapper in station #1 .EDIT: the Swage It tool is installed to knock out the primer crimps. I should have worn my FitBit watch to see how fast my heartbeat was getting up to. Despite my best efforts, pumping that 650’s handle aerobically, I could never out run the casefeeder. so once all the primers were out, I would wet tumble for 90 minutes using my FART. Then there is the rinsing and the separating of the pins from the brass. Then there is the drying of the brass. Then for the second trip through the 650, I would lube the brass inside a zip lock bag using the “shake and bake” method. Next, I would install the prep toolhead in the 650. That has an RCBS small base full length resizing die in station #1. That acts like a pre-re-sizer. Stations #2 and #3 are empty. The Dillon .223 trim die and RT1500 trimmer are in at station #4. Station #5 is empty. Then I would wet tumble again to get all the lube off. The actual load toolhead has a Lyman M die at the #1 slot. Station #2 is filled with the Dillon Powder Measure. Station #3 is empty. (I have a mirror positioned just so that it shows the powder in the case has it comes up through the #3 hole) A Redding micrometer adjustable bullet seating die in the #4 spot. The #5 station has a Lee FCD Almost done.... Then there is the case gauging and checking the OAL’s. And sometimes weighing the loaded rounds. And sometimes spinning the rounds in a concentricity (runout) gauge. Then there is the boxing up of ammo. Then putting a sharpie marker stripe across the headstamps. And then labeling the boxes. To me, that is a lot of rigamarole... a lot of steps...a lot of process to go through in order to just shoot. Just as a side note... I will never skimp on the case gauging part. To a degree getting eyes on and fingers on the loaded rounds is a good thing. That .223 round produces upwards of 55,O00 psi + . It’s just a few inches from my face and eyes... inside a gun that costs right around $1,000 (or more) with an optic that costs about the same riding on it right next to the chamber. my logic being if I am case gauging all the rifle rounds anyway, if a round has a case that is too long, the case gauge will catch it....if you’re looking for just whammo blammo in the accuracy department, then give Single Pass Rifle Reliading (SPaRR... yes, like the spar in a wing) a try.

Thank you for your reply! I think the term you are looking for is “neck tension". or possibly “brisance". Just within the past two weeks, for my 9mm toolhead on my 650: 1. Traditional resizing die either by Dillon or RCBS (with the decapping rod removed) 2. EGW/Lee Undersize die 3. Dillon Powder Measure with the two old school return springs 4. Redding micrometer adjustable bullet seating die 5. Lee FCD soooo... moving the Dillon PM out of the #2 station where it normally goes and has the failsafe rod attached to it was something very new to me. I had never heard or read of it being done before. In turn, moving the PM to the #4 station on .the 223 load toolhead was also “uncharted waters” for me. Now that I have proved that out, that the ammo can be made safely, consistently, reliably, and accurately, I think I have some gadgets in mind to help streamline the process or make it even more convenient. There will be more tinkering and trial and error involved. I was really wondering if one of you all would reply with something like, “YOU MOVED YOUR POWDER MEASURE OUT OF STATION NUMBER TWO!? YOU’RE. AN IDIOT!"

Oh...yeah... one more thing. I almost forgot. That LC19 brass that I shot yesterday... that was its 3rd firing (thrice fired???)... I measured 10 of those fired cases (so the next time I run them through in a single pass on the 650, I will make it a point to measure some of them for case length AFTER being re-sized in the Redding S die w/ neck bushing and make sure they fit the case gauge) :

For the next time out, I will have to load up some Hornady 55 grain FMJ’s . if this is just going to be whammo blammo, there is no sense in wasting the good ($$$) bullets on them. I also have some Montana Gold 55 grain FMJ’s that I bought as a case years ago. They group just slightly better than XM855 and XM193 ammo. I just checked the MG website. They aren’t even listing .224 caliber bullets.. they probably haven’t for years. I suspect they were actually Armscor bullets. Checking out Graf’s website, if they had any of the Armscor .224 bullets in stock, they would be running about 8 cents each. Whereas, the 69gr HPBT SMK is running 24 cents each, retail, and the 77gr HPBT SMK is running 28 cents each, retail.

10 shot group, also at 100 yards:

Another 5 shot group: (which reminds me I should have stapled the targets on the cardboard instead of the plywood. The bullet holes look a lot cleaner when cardboard is the backer)

I made it to the range yesterday to shoot some groups. I am calling this Single Pass Rifle Reloads(ing). Or SPaRR for short. This particular load consisted of LC19 brass, WSR primer, 22.0gn of H335, and a 69 grain HPBT SMK. all groups were at 100 yards.

First off, you have to understand that I had a zip lock bag of LC19 brass (5.56 or .223 brass) that was twice fired. That’s important to know because the primer crimps were already taken care of. I took about 5 to 10 pieces of that brass and measured them for length. They were all under 1.76”. None of this brass had been tumbled yet. I poured them out onto an aluminum cookie sheet. Then I sprayed them with a homemade version of the Dillon lanolin lube. Then I started setting up the toolhead. To make a long story short, through some trial and error, that toolhead ended up like this: 1. Universal decapper 2. Empty/nothing 3. Redding S die with a 0.245 neck bushing 4. Dillon powder measure with 2 old school return springs 5. Redding micrometer adjustable bullet seating die Then I gingerly shook the cookie sheet with brass and sprayed them again with the lanolin lube. I only had so many pieces of twice fired LC19 brass. In all, I made 63 complete, reloaded rounds. I poured some 91% rubbing alcohol on a terry cloth towel and dumped the loaded rounds onto that. I grabbed the four corners of the towel and gave ‘em a good shaking. That got rid of the lube. All 63 rounds fit the case gauge just fine. (some brass was measured for length just after resizing and were under 1.76” .) They all measured at about 2.25” for OAL. I weighed each one and they came in around 186 grains. (69gr SMK + 22.0grn of H3355 + a WSR primer) I will be back in a couple of days with a range report. If you don’t need super clean brass with clean primer pockets.... AND you don’t care that some brass might measure 1.745” and others might be 1.750” and others still might be 1.755” ... AND your brass doesn’t have any primer crimps, then single pass reloading might be for you. Maybe?

Whew! Glad to hear I am not the only one that does this.

Long story short, it was taking too much elbow grease to resize and load 9mm with the EGW/Lee Undersize die in Station # 1. All my powder measures have received the retrograde treatment. No need for the powder bar failsafe rod. So I moved the PM to the # 3 slot. The U die went to the #2 station. Then at the # 1 station, I installed a Dillon 9mm resizing/decapping die. It acted like a pre-re-sizer. I wet tumble first after decapping the brass, so these two sizing dies pictures below have their decapping rods removed. I checked, re-checked, and checked again the charges the PM was throwing. Everything checked okay, snd I always put my Mark I eyeball on the freshly charged case to check for powder before my fingers set a bullet on top of the case. Have you ever moved your Dillon PM to a different station besides # 2 (on a 650) ?

I have been trying to track down Tactical Sports in .40 , but not much luck. I was hoping some distributors had some stuck on a shelf from 2018 when they were discontinued. a TSO is my second choice. I like the two tone look of the TS’s... better. I took the slide off my SP01 last night and put It on my matte stainless CZ75b . The matte stainless slide wouldn’t fit on my SP01 frame.

Is he full length sizing with the decapping rod / pin assembly removed? is he just neck sizing only? otherwise I am with Guy Neill.

I took my Beretta mags made by Mec Gar with + 2 extensions that would hold 20 rounds of 9mm and stuffed them with .40 cal rounds. IIRC, the most I could get in was 15 rounds. so with a Barney round in the gun, I was at a total of 16 on board. I am assuming USPSA still has the 8 shots per array rule??? so back then trying to shoot Limited at major PF with a Beretta 96 was a non-starter. you fire one make up shot before the end of the second array and you're stuck doing a flat footed slide lock reload (right in the middle of the array) I ended up going with the Beretta 92 in 9mm and shooting Limited minor. at least with stock TS or TSO mags, 18 in the gun does give you some more flexibility and room for error.

thank you sir! So about 104 bucks per mag.... gotchya! I have an old STI open gun in 9mm Major. It came with one mag that worked. Probably about 10 years ago, I bought new SVI mag tubes for it. Come to find out SVI changed the dimensions on their tubes. I am probably into each "mag" for about $150. the big stick is probably closer to $180. I was really hoping you guys would tell me TS / TSO mags in .40 cal could be had complete for like $50 out the door.

How much are TS or TSO .40 cal mags going for? How many rounds can you stuff into them?

What that pic doesn't show is there is a pouch sewn on the outside big enough to carry a box r three of ammo. here is their website: http://www.bagmaster.com/# and here is the bag I am talking about : https://www.wiskurtactical.com/prod/BAG-MRBD-HG.html you should be able to get it in different colors.

Bagmaster Bags of St. Louis, MO. I have two of them. They look like this:

Sorry to hear about the ban. Thanks for the reply!

Have you tried bottle necked rifle cases say like .223 or .308? Since the rifle cases are more top heavy and then add a bullet sitting on a case mouth with very little flare, one would think the bullets would like to fall off .

Yes a Case Pro is a roll sizer. it has two steel plates. one is fixed or stationary. The other plate moves in a linear motion . at that time (and going back to say 2007), the Case Pro was the only roll sizer I ever knew about.

have you used a Hornady case comparator (the little dealie-oh that clamps onto your digital calipers jaws) to see if you are bumping the shoulders back far enough (or too far)? how are you trimming your brass?

I had asked this question before here. It was maybe 6 months to three years ago that I asked about Case Pro plates for .223 (and possibly .308). I was/ kinda still am having concentricity issues (a.k.a. runout issues) with my .223 rounds. IIRC, the Case Pro only gets or squishes down so far on a .223 case . Again, IIRC, those same replies said I would still have to run the Case Pro’ed brass through a full length sizing die. To me, that seems less than ideal... to have to handle brass 2 or 3 times.... off the Dillon....through a Case Pro... through the 650 prep tool head ... tumble case lube off... back through the load tool head on the 650.

The last match I ever shot was April 12th, 2012 . Soooo... Consider this a tag because I want to see where this thread goes.

Ditto! That is why I would rather just run brass through in batches...taking a total of 2 trips through my 650. For now anyway, I do try to keep say the LC 19 brass separate from the LC 16 brass all separate from the Hornady brass (and of course watch the Lapua brass like a hawk). It would be a different story if I started out with 5,000 pieces of Winchester brass. Then it would have received the X die and 1.74" trim riggt from the git-go.

In theory...RCBS does sell X sizer dies in .223. So after sizing and trimming all your .223 (5.56mm) brass down to 1.74" (the X die instructions call to trim your brass 20 thousandths under max case length), on the subsequent reloadings, if you have the X die mandrel screwed down, you can skip the trimming step. Consequently, you can pretty much treat your bottlenecked .223 cases like straight walled semi-auto cases. Just one trip through the reloading press. In theory.. Here's the kicker though... You have to be able to keep all your X-die'ed and 1.74" trimmed brass separate. You also have to be able to get all your X-died and trimmed 1.74" brass back. Double Alpha was or is making an automated brass stripe-r that would have been ideal for this, but I think it is only big enough to accomodate pistol ammo.