Looking for advice to speed up process.

If your brass doesn’t get into mud or sand, don’t worry with cleaning. You can just wipe with rag or just run with it.

Size and deprime at the same time. Clean primer pockets don’t do anything for you.

A Dillon will help you size faster and an fx120 will let you powder/seat faster.

Getting the ejector kit for the rock chucker would speed things up too.

honestly when you get to the stage of this question the answer is BOTH.

with the 550 your loading will speed up and your powder will be the slow end (unless you use the dillon powder drop but that doesn't sound like what you are aiming for)

with the 120fx you powder will be perfect and faster, but you are slow on the single stage.

you will always want more on one the ends until you get both.

so get the 550 with a couple of toolheads (1 for prep 1 for load) and the 120fx then you'll be happy and making excellent ammo fast

another thing you can do is go up to a turret press and the 120fx

the turret will speed you up vs the single stage

all depends on how fast you want to be: 100, 200, 300 rounds per hour.
determine your goals and needs then set your equipment up to those accuracy and production rates.

needham said:

onestly when you get to the stage of this question the answer is BOTH.

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This.

I had a chargemaster to run with my 550. You'll be waiting on powder every pull. Unless you run a ball powder with a polished dillon hopper, you'll want to run both if you care about time and want powder accuracy.

Saw this in youtube. Run 2 powder cups with the V3. Put a scotch tape to even out the weight.

TheOfficeT-Rex said:

This.

I had a chargemaster to run with my 550. You'll be waiting on powder every pull. Unless you run a ball powder with a polished dillon hopper, you'll want to run both if you care about time and want powder accuracy.

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Have you reprogrammed your CM1500?
Im just getting into this fancy powdering business (yes, hand threw and trickled all before now....) DINOSAUR!!

I know a gent on here who says he can drop a charge every 11 seconds or so with his reprogrammed.

LRI sells a stainless machined straw insert and also just shows their reprogram of the CM1500.
I have a lot of respect for Mr Dixon's work and opinion and he says he can do just fine with it vs the A&D set-up.

I don't have the CM anymore. I'm moving to an fx-120 based system - I have the scale, I'll be moving to an autotrickler v3 soonish.

I'm sure some do have success modding their CM's, but I don't think the quality and consistency is the same as a lab balance based system that works out of the box with speed and precision. I'm also watching with interest for some RCBS matchmaster reviews to come up... I've already seen one unit for sale in the px. It's just a matter of time before they discontinue the CM series, IMHO.

Having said that, I don't think every use case necessitates an autotrickler system. It's the old addage of pick two - cheap, fast, accurate - and if you're just running 3 gun or prs, there's not much lost with a CM or even a powder thrower for most local matches (6-700 yards, 2 MOA targets). I ran superformance (ball powder) through a dillon PM for some 6,5 CM rounds once - they were perfectly acceptable on steel out to the 500 yard line, which was all i had at the time.

Multiple head press will speed things up and I agree with not tumbling the brass unless it's in med sand or water. My pinch point is power thinking about getting another dispenser to speed things up

One thing was that you hand prime off press? The dillon seems to do that task well enough for me.

My problem is the powder dropping inconsistency so I am trying different powders to find something with a wider node.

Dthomas3523 said:

If your brass doesn’t get into mud or sand, don’t worry with cleaning. You can just wipe with rag or just run with it.

Size and deprime at the same time. Clean primer pockets don’t do anything for you.

A Dillon will help you size faster and an fx120 will let you powder/seat faster.

Click to expand...

Can you explain your cleaning techniques? Interested in your thoughts on wet tumbling vs. dry media tumbling vs. no cleaning. The wet tumbling gets shiny clean brass, but not sure how much of a difference it makes.

Another possible idea is use of glass test tubes and racks to pre-charge.


If have a spouse or kids they can keep refilling these as you go.

Random_Scrub said:

A lot of great input thanks.
I don’t mind the extra cleaning cause I can just throw it in the ultrasonic and walk way and do other things.

I didn’t know about the ejector kit until now. I’ll look into that.

as far as modifying the chargemaster, I got the straw insert and I’ve done the programming. Just still feels slow. Hesitant to spend more just to make something a little better.

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A couple other things I do to help speed up my process:

• Get a Primal Rights primer seater and you can crank out hundreds of cases in practically no time at all, and with very little effort
• Bulk prep your brass (deprime, clean, size, prime), so when it comes time to load, you just have to throw powder and seat the bullets

Dthomas3523 said:

Getting the ejector kit for the rock chucker would speed things up too.

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Do you have a link for that I really would like to give that a go

Two different ones to look at, may be others.



I use the Inline fabrication one for a Hornady single stage, but I'm also using their mount. It can be made to work without it.

6.5SH said:

Two different ones to look at, may be others.

Case ejector system for RCBS Rockchucker and JR single stage presses - Inline Fabrication

This system ejects your cases for you, allowing you to leave your right hand on the press lever and your...

inlinefabrication.com

Contact Support

I use the Inline fabrication one for a Hornady single stage, but I'm also using their mount. It can be made to work without it.

Click to expand...

Thanks man I just ordered it and cant wait

mtruong said:

A couple other things I do to help speed up my process:

• Get a Primal Rights primer seater and you can crank out hundreds of cases in practically no time at all, and with very little effort
• Bulk prep your brass (deprime, clean, size, prime), so when it comes time to load, you just have to throw powder and seat the bullets

Click to expand...

this is what I try and do. I keep all my brass ready to just drop powder and seat bullets. This makes things a lot easier.

my process is shoot loaded round. Deprime, wet tumble, anneal, lube, resize, neck expand, dry tumble to get lube out of neck and off case, Giraud trim, prime, drop powder, seat bullet.

lol typing it seems like a lot but I usually split it up between days and keep brass in oration to just load and go.

I'm gonna throw another vote in for the Dillon 550. Its all I use now for precision loads, albeit thats only 3 calibers currently. I also load bulk 223, 308, 9mm, and .357/38 on it.

I went the route of 2 chargemasters set up on a side table. Together, I rarely have to wait. Occasionally my old chargemaster 1500 decides to not trickle a bit, but I'm currently setting up a little cheap trickler for when that happens.

This last batch of 200rds of 6.5cm I did all in one swoop. Threw my fired cases in a dry tumbler for an hour or so and then go to town:
-Lube 50 cases at a time
-Station 1 - deprime/size/prime (sized with a honed Forster FL die - no expander ball)
-Station 2 - Turning Mandrel - sets neck tension to 2.5 thou (checked with pin gauges)
-Station 3 - Manual dump powder from the 2 chargemasters
-Station 4 - Seat bullets
-Wipe cases off with towel

I use the Armanov locking/clamping tool heads w/ floated sizing and seating die. We'll see how good these 200rds perform compared to the last 350rds I did with a 2 tool head setup.

Gustav7 said:

I'm gonna throw another vote in for the Dillon 550. Its all I use now for precision loads, albeit thats only 3 calibers currently. I also load bulk 223, 308, 9mm, and .357/38 on it.

I went the route of 2 chargemasters set up on a side table. Together, I rarely have to wait. Occasionally my old chargemaster 1500 decides to not trickle a bit, but I'm currently setting up a little cheap trickler for when that happens.

This last batch of 200rds of 6.5cm I did all in one swoop. Threw my fired cases in a dry tumbler for an hour or so and then go to town:
-Lube 50 cases at a time
-Station 1 - deprime/size/prime (sized with a honed Forster FL die - no expander ball)
-Station 2 - Turning Mandrel - sets neck tension to 2.5 thou (checked with pin gauges)
-Station 3 - Manual dump powder from the 2 chargemasters
-Station 4 - Seat bullets
-Wipe cases off with towel

I use the Armanov locking/clamping tool heads w/ floated sizing and seating die. We'll see how good these 200rds perform compared to the last 350rds I did with a 2 tool head setup.

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I am eventually going todo the same with a 650 but haven’t yet because I don’t want to make the CO-AX useless.

f-Class John on YouTube has a goodway to set up a progressive press.

Kadams1563 said:

I am eventually going todo the same with a 650 but haven’t yet because I don’t want to make the CO-AX useless.

f-Class John on YouTube has a goodway to set up a progressive press.

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You could always use the Co-ax to size and the Dillon to do everything else. Some guys like to size separately either via a different toolhead or another press.

I'm currently just trying to test to see if the one toolhead operation makes any difference or not. Its actually not that much faster, as wiping off the lube is more annoying than being able to tumble it off.

F-Class John has some crazy OCD and I like his videos lol. To be clear.... I am NOT going for F-class accuracy, nor can I even shoot that well. But it is cool to finally see just how accurate you get with Dillons.

I can’t shoot that well either and honestly I don’t even to real hardcore load development. I shoot nothing but PRS style matches and at steel.

I can just dump powder in a case and hit those targets but loading on a Dillon sure would speed things Up.

Dthomas3523 said:

If your brass doesn’t get into mud or sand, don’t worry with cleaning. You can just wipe with rag or just run with it.

Size and deprime at the same time. Clean primer pockets don’t do anything for you.

A Dillon will help you size faster and an fx120 will let you powder/seat faster.

Click to expand...

This.
Don’t clean or do unneeded tasks unless you have to.
Progressive can really speed things up as can a turret press.
Auto throw V3 is about 10 seconds per charge.

If you want stupid fast just necksize with a lee collet but it does come with quirks and limitations and some experience with it is necessarily to prevent problems.
DON’T neck size for competition or hunting.

mtruong said:

Can you explain your cleaning techniques? Interested in your thoughts on wet tumbling vs. dry media tumbling vs. no cleaning. The wet tumbling gets shiny clean brass, but not sure how much of a difference it makes.

Click to expand...

I run in wet tumbler *without* pins. Soap and water. 20-30 min. Nothing else.

I just want to get any of the really bad shit (mud, sand, etc) and with water, all I do is dump it in a straighter. No sifting media out or anything.

Pins are overkill. Purely cosmetic to get it shiny and perfect.

There is nothing faster than a Dillon 650/750 with an autotrickler unless your running the latest gen prometheus.

I do my prep for a caliber on one tool head. Deprime,size,trim,expand in one pass and can go about 500-700 rounds and hour depending on how froggy I feel. Toss it all in the tumbler.

Swap tool heads to load, then toss the brass back in the Dillon hopper and get to loading with the v3. Can run about 250-300 rounds an hour of match ammo for this part of process.

Huskydriver said:

There is nothing faster than a Dillon 650/750 with an autotrickler unless your running the latest gen prometheus.

I do my prep for a caliber on one tool head. Deprime,size,trim,expand in one pass and can go about 500-700 rounds and hour depending on how froggy I feel. Toss it all in the tumbler.

Swap tool heads to load, then toss the brass back in the Dillon hopper and get to loading with the v3. Can run about 250-300 rounds an hour of match ammo on for this part of process.

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I don’t like you at all right now.

10,000 rounds per min you can do it , your very own ammo manufacturing facility get your kids in on the fun turn it into a 24 hr facility .

Huskydriver said:

There is nothing faster than a Dillon 650/750 with an autotrickler unless your running the latest gen prometheus.

I do my prep for a caliber on one tool head. Deprime,size,trim,expand in one pass and can go about 500-700 rounds and hour depending on how froggy I feel. Toss it all in the tumbler.

Swap tool heads to load, then toss the brass back in the Dillon hopper and get to loading with the v3. Can run about 250-300 rounds an hour of match ammo for this part of process.

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Have you noticed any issues expanding after trimming? due to burs or brass flakes?

I'm assuming you're using the RT1500 trimmer

Gustav7 said:

Have you noticed any issues expanding after trimming? due to burs or brass flakes?

I'm assuming you're using the RT1500 trimmer

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Nope but I assume its because I use the vacuum attachment and honestly it does a pretty fantastic job for me. I never see any brass shavings anywhere after I'm done

Huskydriver said:

Nope but I assume its because I use the vacuum attachment and honestly it does a pretty fantastic job for me. I never see any brass shavings anywhere after I'm done

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Awesome, good to know.

You’re still chamfering and deburing though right? Really wish there was a tri-way cutter available for them

Gustav7 said:

Awesome, good to know.

You’re still chamfering and deburing though right? Really wish there was a tri-way cutter available for them

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Correct usually every other firing though. The chamfur is still there if you are only trimming a skim off the brass. But seriously... Someone needs to figure that out