Reloading Order

[Ibelieve1776]

I am currently reloading 300wm and I'm fairly new to reloading I am looking for a good order to follow. I just started using stainless steel tumbling which is amazing btw.

Here is my typical order;
1 deprime since stm cleans primer pockets
2 tumble to clean for dies
3 fl size using Larry Willis die for bulge
4 neck size if still within head space limits
5 bump shoulder if head space is too tight
6 trim if needed
7 debur
8 uniform flash hole on new brass only
9 tumble again to remove lube
10 anneal every 5th firing
11 prime and load

Let me know if you see anything that may be out of order or something that can help me be more efficient.

 

[High Binder]

I would anneal more often and skip the second tumble to remove the lube. If you use the right lube it'll come off in water or an ultrasonic. So for example, I tumble in steel and then size/trim followed by a dip in the ultrasonic.

 

[mdmp5]

Don't tumble in stainless media after sizing, trimming and deburring/chamfering. It will peen your case mouths and then your effort was wasted. Anneal before you size, not after. You want to soften the brass before working it. Neck size before f/l sizing. What I do is neck size with a carbide expander ball first, with a large bushing, like .341. I then f/l size with a .337 bushing. There was a study a while ago about concentricity effects from neck and f/l sizing, trying it in both orders. Better concentricity was obtained from neck sizing first, then f/l sizing.

 

[nuclear_shooter]

Don't tumble in stainless media after sizing, trimming and deburring/chamfering. It will peen your case mouths and then your effort was wasted. Anneal before you size, not after. You want to soften the brass before working it. Neck size before f/l sizing. What I do is neck size with a carbide expander ball first, with a large bushing, like .341. I then f/l size with a .337 bushing. There was a study a while ago about concentricity effects from neck and f/l sizing, trying it in both orders. Better concentricity was obtained from neck sizing first, then f/l sizing.

What's the advantage of carbide expander ball? No lube inside the neck?

 

[308boltgun]

I recently started reloading for the 300 win mag as well. You mention the "Larry Willis die for bulge" (Innovative Technologies - Reloading Equipment. I have looked at that before and have seen comments both saying its a must and saying that its a waste of money. I am interested in what people have to say about this die, is it needed or not?

Thanks

 

[mdmp5]

What's the advantage of carbide expander ball? No lube inside the neck?

Whenever you are dealing with a piece of brass, you need to assume that the mouth is not round. The carbide ball with a large bushing will make that mouth nice and round before final sizing, inside and outside. Don't need to lube the inside of the mouth. It is not a sticking point, as you are just rubbing the neck with the ball. You only really need to lube the inside of the mouths if you are necking up to a larger caliber.

 

[High Binder]

What's the advantage of carbide expander ball? No lube inside the neck?

Yes, that's the key advantage to using carbide in reloading components.

 

[nuclear_shooter]

I'm guessing the expander isn't normally made from carbide?

 

[mdmp5]

I'm guessing the expander isn't normally made from carbide?

No. The standard expander on the redding is an unpolished cylindrical shaped piece of steel. It works, but not as well as the carbide ball. Another advantage of the carbide ball is that it is free floating, so it centers to the vector of the pull

 

[scudzuki]

Inspect cases as I am filling the reloading trays
spray with hornady 1 shot lube (fast, efficient) if FL resizing, skip if I'm neck sizing with a Lee collet die
run though the press
clean with vibratory polisher and corn cob
check lengths
if required, trim length and chamfer neck inside and outside

for gas guns, FL resize every firing
one gas gun (24" Krieger match chamber) gets its Lapua brass annealed every 4 firings.
bolt guns, neck size with Lee collet die 3 firings, anneal then FL resize (bump the neck .002") every 4th firing

I prime with a cheap Lee Auto Prime XR. Fast and accurate, plus I can locate loose primer pockets.
If I'm processing thousands of cases (like when I make AR plinking ammo) I prime sitting in front of the TV watching our DVR'ed shows with my wife... helps preserve matrimonial harmony.

Joe

 

[Ibelieve1776]

I recently started reloading for the 300 win mag as well. You mention the "Larry Willis die for bulge" (Innovative Technologies - Reloading Equipment. I have looked at that before and have seen comments both saying its a must and saying that its a waste of money. I am interested in what people have to say about this die, is it needed or not?

Thanks

I had several pieces of brass that would not chamber due to the bulge and typical fl die won't squeeze that back where this die will size it all the way to the belt.

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk

 

[ZiaHunter]

For FL sizing I use Type S dies and avoid using the expander even the carbide ball type for bolt guns. Isolated it to be the biggest single factor in causing runout other then neck wall thickness variation. If you do use an expander you may want to test whether lubricating v. not lubricating has an impact on runout. Rarely do I encounter dented case neck mouths in bolt guns but when I do an expander mandrel takes care of it. The important thing in sizing belted magnums such as the 300 WM is to adjust the die so the case is headspacing off the shoulder and not the belt. This will significantly increase case life as will annealing. Prior to sizing you may want to check for donuts at the junction of the shoulder and neck.

 

[Sniper260]

Read the stickys about reloading....