My first Batch of .223

[ALBY]

my first attempt at loading rifle.

brass prep sucked. badly. it took 8+ hours to sort a 5 gallon bucket and get about 3500 pieces. 2300 were NATO marked lake city, WCC or FC.

another few hours to process the RP and WINCHESTER I was going to load. 4 stuck cases out of 1200. :sad20:

but... the loading was easy. set up the press, loaded, gauged and striped 600 rounds in about 4 hours. relaxed and taking my time...

rifle project: click for slideshow

1 5 gallon bucket of brass=3500 rounds

tumble

sort by headstamp

mil brass = save for swaging...

gauge for case OAL. long brass gets seperated for trimming another day

bag and tag

whew. that sucked. beer time

FAST FORWARD 1 WEEK

R P and WINCHESTER, no crimp, ready to process.

Set up dedicated toolhead for the 1st pass thru the dillon 650 to resize

station 1, lube and decap (lube die is pretty cool!)

resize in the rcbs Xdie

remove stuck cases (facking lube die!)

brass is ready to go. beer time again.

FAST FORWARD 1 WEEK

midsouth shooters supply: varmit nightmare 55gr spire point varmit bullets

natchess: western tac rifle powder, 24.5 gr

set up dedicated toolhead for reloading

universal decap to clear tumbling media from primer pockets

powder drop 24.5 gr TAC (take a long time to drop compared to loading pistol)

powder check

dillon seating die to .221 OAL (bottom 1/3 of cannalure)

lee factory crimp (VERY LIGHT)

viola

zombie rounds.

hope i did this right...

btw, the rcbs seat die did NOT fit the 650. brian had to send me a dillon seat die. got here right before the blizzard. thanks brian!

[wide45]

Next time, gauge length and trim after sizing.

Mike the brass length on a few of your loaded rounds. They should be OK, but the length can change during sizing.

Edited February 14, 2010 by wide45

[ALBY]

i checked length on the cases and it looks good.

most of the brass was once fired RP from my own gun. i had *a few* of them that did not fit the gauge.

edit: i counted and had 63 out of 1200 that did not gauge for OAL. most were obviously reloaded before.

brass was mostly RP and about 300 WINCHESTER.

Edited February 14, 2010 by ALBY