Which Dillon for Rifle reloading?

[Baer45]

After loading pistol loads for a few years now I want to get into volume reloading of 5.56 and 308. seeking advice. If you had a choice between reloading on 550 or 1050 which one and why? My thought was to designate one 1050 for 308 and the other for 223 as the 1050 could swage military pocket primers and use the dillon trimmer (als0 have a Gracey I could use) and reload my pistol on the 550 with the quicker change of die heads...I know nothing about reloading for rifle except the basics...Any help appreciated...C

[ajg308]

1050 for rifle all the way for the exact reasons you mentioned. Plus you can get the case feeder for the 550 which only does pistol rounds.

[pjb45]

I am slowing becoming more and more informed about loading rifle on the 1050.

My way is not the most efficient but it seems to be the most reliable for me.

A. I use two tool heads for loading rifle.

I use a Dillon cleaner with rice to clean my brass.

I use One Shot to Lube

Tool Head 1

Station 1: Deprimes, sizes with a Redding FL die

Station 2: Swages and expands the neck - Note: I use really use a the Dillon Super Swage after I finish with Tool Head 1 to ensure the primer pockets are perfect.

Station 5 or so: Dillon 1200 Trimmer: I use a small Shop Vac vacuum cleaner and six foot plumbing drain hose (1.25 diameter) to collect the shavings

I Super Swage all my brass the first time. This worked better for me than the 1050 built in swage. I have a variety of head stamps and I am learning more about what to keep and what to throw away. I will probably standardize on LC for match ammo.

I clean the lube off and clear out the primer pockets with a small philips head screw driver. Although a universal decap die might do the same thing.

Tool Head 2

Primes - Federal Match Small Rifle

Powders -I go slower than with reloading a pistol, it cuts down on the bridging problem. I had to redo from the beginning for my powder set up to get it right. This took the longest time to get it just right.

Seats the bullet - I would have used a Redding Competition Seating die but I did not have enough room. The RCBS seating die was profiled for Speer and mangled the tips of my SMKs.

Crimps- I use a slight taper crimp. It seems to facilitate feeding.

B. For AR 15 .223 for a JP rifle

I use a JP case gauge. Others are available

I trim to about 1.745

My OAL is ~2.245 about what it takes to load a magazine

SMK 69 grains

VV133 22.5-24.5 grains, 24 was a little hot sometimes. I think the 22.5 chrono'd at 2830 fps.

I get 1/4 inch groups at 100 yards - our club has a concrete tube 100 yards long - so wind is not factor.

C. I purchased brass from Scharch which was a good deal. The neck seems to have a bit of a bellow so the crimp die took care of that. I have heard issues with federal brass so I will pay more attention to that in the future. I have about 5000 rounds that I will ensure is swaged properly then I will probably put the swage away. I tend to loads 1000s at a time because I use one machine for four different calibers and changing the tool heads out is a PIA for me. I am becoming better at it.

[Baer45]

Thanks to both of you. That is really helpful information. It did not take me long on a single stage to fugure out this was not going to work for me! I think the prep work for rifle ammo is what has always caused me to put off getting itno reloading the rifle rounds.I like pjb45's idea of two different heads; but dread having to tune the machine (but will!). I have a Dillon brass trimmer but am leaning to maybe just using the Gracey first and it would seem to be quicker and easier...?

[boomfab]

1050 with two heads and the Dillon trimmer is the fastest way to load rifle, hands down. You never had to handle individual cases like with other trimmers.