XrayDoc88

Thank you for that update. I have held off pulling the trigger on this press because of the inconsistent priming issues. Can anyone else confirm that the improved primer disc is truly working well?

I use the Lyman wet tumbler. When I finish tumbling I pour the toxic water and brass into the sifter under running water. I wear those thick latex dishwashing gloves and massage the brass to help get all the pins out of the brass. I find this works much better than just shaking the sifter when you're cleaning large quantities of brass. My skin never touches the bad water. For all those people who just use One Shot and basically shake or massage their brass in a plastic bag, does that eliminate the sticking when you pull the sizer/powder drop die out of thicker 9mm brass such as CBC or WIN? I would think very little lube would actually go inside cases this way.

Thanks Rich406. What happens when a primer jams and you're automated? Are there any automatic shutoffs or do you have to watch every reload and quickly smash the off switch?

Good point! I meant several thousand rounds!

Are there any other owners of the Apex 10 out there that have truly solved the priming issues? I want to be able to reload several hundreds of rounds without a primer jamming the system.

Has everyone else been able to solve their priming problems with this new press? I want one, but don't think the priming process should be so sensitive that it fails frequently. I wish Mark 7 would just scrap this priming system and redesign.

I know this topic is old, but in my experience reloading 9mm brass, I have the most "sticking" issues on the up stroke when the powder funnel is being pulled out of the expanded brass case. This only really happens with thicker brass such as CBC and WIN head stamps. But I started lubing my 9mm brass because of this sticking even though I have carbide dies. So for me, I want to spray a small amount of One Shot inside the top of the case. Most of the methods described here only address the outside of the case for resizing. Does anyone else try to get a small amount of lube inside the case and what's your method? I find standing 500 cases upright before spraying to be a real pain.

Thanks for both responses. I have since purchased several Lancer 300 BLK mags and will get a chance to try them next week! They've been out of stock for a long time.

To clarify, the Dillon Super 1050 or RL 1100 have dedicated swage stations, but on a XL 750 my only swage option would be to use the primer station and an aftermarket swager? Disassembling the primer station each time sounds like a pain. Is the manual Dillon super swager 600 any good? I noticed Dillon also sells a dedicated "case prep" press, the CP 2000. Has anyone spent the money for that option?

I have Sheridan cutaway gauges for 9mm and 40 S&W reloading. They're very nice. My .223 and 300 BLK reloading would be for bulk range shooting, not precision. When you use the Dillon electric case trimmer, do you have to then manually champfer/debur? Also, so you deprime and resize your brass on a progressive before it's clean? I don't like the idea of dumping dirty brass into the case feeder.

I guess when picking up range .223 brass you never know what you're getting. But what if you only reload your civilian store bought .223 ammo? Are you likely going to need a swage step? I don't think I have any military brass with crimped primer pockets. I currently deprime my pistol brass with a hand held Lee press while watching TV. I then wet tumble the brass shiny clean. Would this be a reasonable sequence to use when loading .223 and 300 BLK? 1. Deprime while watching the hockey game. 2. Wet tumble clean. 3. Lube and resize on the Forster. 4. Measure case length. Trim, debur as necessary. 5. Dump cases in Dillon case feeder. 6. Leave station 1 empty. 7. Prime, powder, seat bullet on Dillon. Or should there be another definite swage step, cleaning step or additional lube step inserted above? And I thought 9mm brass reloading had some quirks.

How about before sizing? I was hoping to just fill the case feeder once.

Ahh, case trimming and deburring? Can you do that after cleaning, but before resizing and primer seating?

Is this an additional step for bolt gun calibers or is full sizing not needed?

So is a neck resizing die never used if you first use a full size resizing die? I guess if the crimp stage is optional with rifle cases, the Dillon XL-750 does have enough holes for both a full size and neck resizing die?

I own Forster Co-Ax and Dillon XL-750 presses. Currently I reload 9mm and .40 S&W brass. I'd like to start reloading 5.56 NATO and 300 BLK. 1. Should I do this on the progressive or single stage press? 2. Is it worth it or easier to use carbide dies, even though you still have to lube? 3. When do you use a "neck resizing die"? Some die sets include this and others don't. I have a Mr. Bullet Feeder on the Dillon press. I'd be one station short if I had to add the neck sizing die with a separate crimp die. 4. What brand of dies do you like the best for these two calibers? Thanks!

I was thinking about purchasing some Lancer magazines for 5.56 NATO and 300 BLK shooting. However, I've seen just a couple comments on the internet that mentioned that the metal feed lips are pretty hard on the brass cases. I guess they get scratched or grooved on the outside. Is this a fact or concern for those who reload and own Lancer magazines? Is it better to stick with PMags if you're reloading your brass? Thanks.

I'm thinking Sarge is correct about the sideways primers. My reloading bench is actually portable with wheels. I always lock the wheels before starting, but my setup does have more movement than a large stationary work bench.

Great link superdude! The CBC and WIN rounds that wouldn't plunk in my gauge with the Hornady HAP bullets always had a slight bulge at the base of the bullet. It might be the bullet alignment not being perfectly straight, but it happened so consistently that I finally decided the bullets were a little too fat for the brass. I might have been able to fix the problem by increasing my COL a little, but I was a new reloader and didn't know you could do that. I guess the Lee Factory Crimp die could also help "iron out" the slight bulge. I already have Redding and Dillon crimp dies. I guess buying a third won't kill me.

I'm a fairly new reloader and have only had the Dillon for 11 months. I thought I'd post some experiences I've had reloading 9mm range brass on the Dillon XL 750 with a case feeder and the Mr. Bullet feeder. If you agree with the comments or have any additional suggestions, please chime in! 1. Very rarely, I'll have a case drop upside down. I have no idea why this happens or how to prevent it. 2. Very rarely, I'll have a bullet drop upside down. Ditto above. 3. Rarely, I'll have a primer pressed in sideways. I don't think it's possible for the primer to actually fit in the primer tube sideways. All I can guess is that the primer tips with jiggle motion as I'm reloading at a decent pace. Anyone? 4. It's MUCH better to lube your pistol brass, even if you have carbide dies. I loved the idea of not needing to mess with lube and bought all carbide dies. But the powder funnel supplied with Mr. Bullet Feeder would stick on thicker brass and it would take a very hard thud to raise the handle. This would then sometimes cause other problems. Now that I use One Shot, no sticking and reloading is easier. 5. With One Shot, I don't really feel a need to wipe my cartridges after reloading. Do others agree? 6. For those who use alcohol/lanolin, do you have to wipe the cartridges? I'd love to go the cheapest route. 7. Brass headstamps CBC and WIN were giving me fits with 125 gr .356" Hornady HAP bullets. The majority of these cases wouldn't pass the plunk test. I tried less flaring, more flaring, less crimping, more crimping, crimping with Redding die instead of Dillon die, resizing with Redding die instead of Dillon die. I didn't want to change the COL because I was following a Hodgdon recipe. I ultimately decided that CBC and WIN brass must be slightly thicker and just wouldn't work for me. 8. I switched to 124 gr .355" RMR truncated cone bullets and my problems with CBC and WIN brass nearly completely disappeared. I still have a few cartridges out of a hundred that fail the plunk test, but most of them pass now! I guess shaving a thousandth of an inch (.356" to .355") was enough? 9. I'm not completely sold on the XL 750. The spacing of the holes in the die holder seems too tight. Getting the Dillon wrench in there can require acrobatics at times. I know the use of holders allows you to keep multiple calibers ready to go. But it seems awkward to try to clean your dies while they're still in the holder with the powder measure hanging upside down. I'm wondering if I'd prefer the Hornady Lock-N-Load better? Has my learning process paralleled yours? Thanks!

Thanks everyone for hanging in here with me. I appreciate every comment. I may try using my Redding dies. I just wanted to keep them setup for my Forster press. Plus, I bought new Dillon dies with the XL 750. They are working for thin brass. I had no idea that the minor tolerance differences between head stamps could be so troublesome. If I didn't own a lot of Magtech ammo, I wouldn't care if CBC didn't work. I'll keep trying to get one set of dies and adjustments to work for everything, but it may just not be possible. This may be stupid, but I wonder if successfully loading thin and thick brass with the same dies has anything to do with how old the dies are? Do dies "loosen" up a bit after thousands of resizing operations? Maybe my brand new Dillon resizer is just a little too tight?

Well, I still don't have this figured out. I'm still having issues with thicker brass, namely CBC and a head stamp that looks like a small arrow. S&B and WIN mostly work. CBC never works. Here's what I've done so far. I made sure my Dillon resizing die was fully touching the case plate. I believe the Dillon die also under-sizes so I don't think a Lee U die would make a difference. I changed the powder funnel to an MBF. I think I have the expansion set correctly. I've carefully measured my 125 gr HAP bullets to make sure they weren't too large. They measure .3555". I have tried numerous crimp settings with the Dillon die. Over crimping, under crimping, perfect crimping makes no difference with CBC. The reason the cartridges don't plunk is because of a slight bulge right at the base of the bullet. That doesn't appear until the bullet is fully seated to 1.069" as stated in the Hodgdon manual. I'm beginning to believe that CBC brass must gradually thicken towards the base and the .356" bullet base simply can't fit that deep. I'm trying to fight physics. As Rooster said above, my next thought is to try seating the bullet a little longer to see if the bulge lessens and they will plunk. If that doesn't work, I guess I could try my Redding micrometer bullet seating die, though I'm not sure that step is an issue. Finally, I may just have to sort range brass or maybe try different bullets.

I have been striving for a minimal flare. That has worked fine with my Redding dies and Forster press. I'll try increasing the expansion a bit on my Dillon powder die and also slightly increasing the crimp. Also, I have now confirmed that I have previously successfully reloaded CBC, WIN, GFL, S&B and SIG head stamps on my Forster press. So even though thicker brass may be more difficult to dial in, it should be possible on the new Dillon. I'll make some more tweaks on current die settings and will also try the MBF powder funnel die.

No, none of them would chamber in two of my guns.

HesedTech, so there really is no danger in trying a longer COL than what the book states, as long as it plunks and feeds reliably? Somewhere I read that you might get better accuracy if the dead space volume beneath the bullet was kept to a minimum. In other words, if you could seat right on top of the powder, that was ideal. True or false? I would think that you could maximize accuracy just by shooting different loads carefully using a rest. How do you incorporate the chronograph as well, or do you just want to also attain a certain velocity in addition to being accurate? Why would you wet tumble after resizing 9mm? I thought it was nice to only resize clean brass. At least the idea of putting dirty brass in my shiny Dillon press seems icky. Thanks again!