550, not using to full potential

[MAC10]

hi guys, bought a 550 a year ago. just love it. pistol loading is a breeze. rifle on the other hand, not so. here is what i would like to be doing: loading 223 without case lube. i don`t like the greasy feeling of loaded ammo. and don`t want to spend time wiping them off. what i do now is skip the resizing and prime station(i do them all on a single stage) then put them in the powder drop stage and then move on. i thought some time ago i saw dillon made carbide rifle sizing dies but they still recommend case lube. basically i want to operate this as if i were doing pistol cases. is there anyway to FULL LENGTH resize and deprime without the lube? thanks for any help!

[GrumpyOne]

Tumble them after loading. It get the lube off. As far as not lubing them, I don't think it's feasible.

[calishootr]

i'm with grumpy on this one, if you decide to run unlubed rifle cases, be prepared to buy a stuck case remover as well, even with a carbide rifle die it is recomended that some sort of lube is used, if you dont like the 'greasy' feeling(im assuming you are using either RCBS or Dillon lubes) try using hornady one shot which to me, seems 'dry' like grumpy said, toss em in the tumbler for 15 minutes and yer golden

[M-Bear]

You are not going to get away without lube when you are sizing.

You can buy cases that are deprimed and sized but that adds a lot to the bottom line.

good luck.

[benos]

+3 to the last 3 posts. Except, members have reported that when lubing rifle cases with One Shot, you may eventually get a stuck case. The general consensus is that Dillon'l lube is better than One Shot.

be

[JxMAN25]

so even with carbide dies you have to lube with rifle? is there a spray to make it faster?

[GrumpyOne]

so even with carbide dies you have to lube with rifle? is there a spray to make it faster?

Yes, you have to lube with rifle. Hornady one shot is a spray. I use some commercial silicone spray bought at Lowe's home improvement. works pretty good.

[Kyle O]

I resize/deprime on a single stage press, then I clean, trim, chamfer, and on the 550 I just prime, powder, and seat.

I use a medical examination glove on my left hand, and just dob the very tip of my finger in some Mobil 1, rub it around to disperse it on my thumb, index, and middle finger. Then pick up a brass, and just rub my fingers around it as I place it in the shell holder.

To remove the oil, I just dump the brass on an old bath towel, splash some "prep-all" on them, and do a quick manual tumble to remove it.

I don't have to remove corncob from the flash holes with this method. But, you gotta find what works for you.

[MAC10]

thanks for your replies guys. figured i was going to get these answers. i was always afraid to tumble loaded ammo. so this is safe? no chance of a primer getting vibrated to go BOOM?

[MAC10]

Tumble them after loading. It get the lube off. As far as not lubing them, I don't think it's feasible.

hey grumpy, you say its safe to tumble loaded ammo? i thought of doing that but was afraid to. never heard of anyone doing that. no chance of one or more going off in there?

[calishootr]

tho it sounds crazy, it is safe, dont go nuts and pack em in for obvious reasons, and there is no need to tumble em for hrs, 10/15 minutes tops is all you will need, yeah its an extra step but it beatthe hell out of gettin one stuck in a die, which typically goes bad for both the brass and the die in my experience.

the only caution i would toss in for the whole tumbling live rounds thing is this, if your using an extruded/stick powder i would limit the time in the tumbler to even less than that for fear of breaking up the powder into smaller granules and possibly jacking chamber pressures sky high( yrs ago some genius did this w/ some surplus .308 he was tryin to clean up and sell, HP White labs said the chamber pressures were basically doubled)

[Graham Smith]

You will find this same discussion in the Rifle reloading section.

Do all your prep in advance including a good cleaning. When you actually do reload, put a universal depriming die in station one to push out any cleaning media that may have gotten stuck in the primer hole. It makes reloading a breeze without any need for lube.

[MAC10]

You will find this same discussion in the Rifle reloading section.

Do all your prep in advance including a good cleaning. When you actually do reload, put a universal depriming die in station one to push out any cleaning media that may have gotten stuck in the primer hole. It makes reloading a breeze without any need for lube.

what is the difference between a universal decap and the a regular full length die? i mean, what will the universal do or not do that would help me.

[Seedtick]

what is the difference between a universal decap and the a regular full length die? i mean, what will the universal do or not do that would help me

All it does is de-prime. Or in this situation, all is does is poke out any tumbling media that might be in the flash hole.

ST

[fastmtnbiker33w]

I kind of use Seedticks method. I have reloaded a lot of 308. A few years back my dad gave me one of those crappy Lee Anniversary presses. I mounted it up and used it to size and deprime the brass which I lube with RCBS spray lube. Throw them in in the tumbler, then put them in the 550 with a carbide size die and deprimer to knock out the media in the primer hole. I've never had problems running the previously lubed/sized/now cleaned brass through the second sizing. Not sure if it causes any stress to the brass or not. If YOU are concerned, just back off the size die (or get a universal depriming die as Seedtick recommends).

I don't reload for premier long range accuracy, but I don't see why this method couldn't be used with a Rock Chucker press and a competition sizing die then into the 550. Seems I remember seeing and reading some stuff on the web long ago where David Tubb used a method similar to this. He may have used a trimmer somewhere in the process.

Might be worth setting up an SDB or another progressive with the competition sizer/deprimer then a trimmer.....you could get all creative. No matter what, rifle cartridge reloading is a bit more time consuming than pistol. That's why I make sure I load at least a few hundred at a time. And at my current state of free time to shoot, that's only a couple times a year.

Edited October 27, 2010 by fastmtnbiker33w

[GrumpyOne]

I kind of use Seedticks method. I have reloaded a lot of 308. A few years back my dad gave me one of those crappy Lee Anniversary presses. I mounted it up and used it to size and deprime the brass which I lube with RCBS spray lube. Throw them in in the tumbler, then put them in the 550 with a carbide size die and deprimer to knock out the media in the primer hole. I've never had problems running the previously lubed/sized/now cleaned brass through the second sizing. Not sure if it causes any stress to the brass or not. If YOU are concerned, just back off the size die (or get a universal depriming die as Seedtick recommends).

I don't reload for premier long range accuracy, but I don't see why this method couldn't be used with a Rock Chucker press and a competition sizing die then into the 550. Seems I remember seeing and reading some stuff on the web long ago where David Tubb used a method similar to this. He may have used a trimmer somewhere in the process.

Might be worth setting up an SDB or another progressive with the competition sizer/deprimer then a trimmer.....you could get all creative. No matter what, rifle cartridge reloading is a bit more time consuming than pistol. That's why I make sure I load at least a few hundred at a time. And at my current state of free time to shoot, that's only a couple times a year.

It won't be an SDB. They only do pistol, and use proprietary dies (not a standard die).

[fastmtnbiker33w]

I kind of use Seedticks method. I have reloaded a lot of 308. A few years back my dad gave me one of those crappy Lee Anniversary presses. I mounted it up and used it to size and deprime the brass which I lube with RCBS spray lube. Throw them in in the tumbler, then put them in the 550 with a carbide size die and deprimer to knock out the media in the primer hole. I've never had problems running the previously lubed/sized/now cleaned brass through the second sizing. Not sure if it causes any stress to the brass or not. If YOU are concerned, just back off the size die (or get a universal depriming die as Seedtick recommends).

I don't reload for premier long range accuracy, but I don't see why this method couldn't be used with a Rock Chucker press and a competition sizing die then into the 550. Seems I remember seeing and reading some stuff on the web long ago where David Tubb used a method similar to this. He may have used a trimmer somewhere in the process.

Might be worth setting up an SDB or another progressive with the competition sizer/deprimer then a trimmer.....you could get all creative. No matter what, rifle cartridge reloading is a bit more time consuming than pistol. That's why I make sure I load at least a few hundred at a time. And at my current state of free time to shoot, that's only a couple times a year.

It won't be an SDB. They only do pistol, and use proprietary dies (not a standard die).

Ahh. I did not know that. No wonder you don't see many of those out there.