Use to load pistol, new to rifle. Have to use a full size die?

[Djstorm100]

I use to reload on a Dillon 650 but only did pistol calibers. Mostly 9 and 45acp. I sold off my press and few other things when I wanted to get my insulin pump.

I'm loading pinking and match ammo for my 18inch Ar

Anyway I have a ton of .223/5.56 brass so I bought a Lee single stage (going to have a Dillon 650 again in few months) to I could start processing brass. My concern is, is it ok to lube up dirty brass and run it through press. I would think it is not a good idea. Would need to tumble first, lube clean brass up, size and deprime, toss in tumbler again to get lube off?

Do once fired brass (out of Ar's but half is not ran in my gun) need to be full base or will a short base die work? Trying not to over work the brass so I can get most life out of it.

So this, is there for any problem processing the brass this way?
1) decap and tumble
2) lube Size and tumble again.
3) Toss in tumbler (using a rotary with SS media)

Shiny new cases with clean pockets ready to be trimmed/debured/chamfer

Just doing these steps because I have several thousand pieces of brass and it is going to keep me busy for a long time. Plus I'm finding my self getting more in to the precision game and single press IMO is needed.

 

[velillen]

I'll answer what I can....

You can lube and resize dirty brass. I know a guy who does it. He has two full length resized dies, one is strictly for clean brass and one is for dirty brass. He cleans the dirty sized every few hundred rounds. He also wipes down the dirty cases to ensure no dirty or carbon chunks are on the outside of the case.

As for having to tumble lube off....depends which lu be you use. Hornady one shot won't effect powder so you could get by without tumbling it off. I'd still toss the rounds in an old towel and wipe off any excess though.

My personal method for rifle brass is

Quick tumble in my stainless steel tumbler

Lube and size

Good tumble with soap and lemishine and all that

Trim chamfer ect if needed

Load up

 

[Djstorm100]

With my brass and range pick up I would need to run all of it through a Full length size and not just bump the shoulder back. This is to make sure all the brass are relevantly the same size, correct? I would only shoulder bump if I knew that case was fired out of the rifle I was reloading for?

Sadly the nearest 600+ yard range is 1hr 45 min. away. I can't get up there as much as I would like. 200-300 yards I can go over to my parents or a friend's place. Which I know isn't nothing because my rifle is zeroed at 200. I shot the first time last weekend out to 600 using a Viper PST 1-4x and made 2 hits on 20x20 steel using wolf gold and 75% hits at 500yards on 2.5 moa steel. Got to work on trigger control.

Does anyone know of some homemade case lube? I've heard of using PAM, anything that I could get a walmart would be awesome.

 

[Pinecone]

I full length resize all my semi auto brass. I do NOT use a small base die. As long as I set the shoulder back enough it runs fine in all my 5.56 semi autos. My latest AR (Colt) needs the brass sized down to fit a Wilson case gauge.

I tumble before resizing. Mainly to save the dies.

With once fired 5.56 brass, the military brass will need to have the primer pocket swaged or reamed. I use a Dillon 600 Super Swager.

I do NOT use Hornady One Stuck case goop. I use Dillon Case Lube, which you can make yourself using lanolin and alcohol (1 part lanolin to 8 - 10 parts alcohol).

So I tumble to clean
Lube
Size
Tumble to clean off lube
Swage if needed
Prime, Powder, Bullet, Shoot.

Actually, after loading, I tumble for about 15 minutes to remove any finger prints, so if the ammo gets stored for a while, there is no corrosion.

 

[Djstorm100]

Thanks guys.


'm finally back to reloading and started to process brass this past weekend (decapping and tumbling).

I now need a good case trimmer that I can hook up to a drill, being able to take the crimp out of the military brass would be a plus too.


Load wise
SMK .77 HPBT I order.


Now I just need some powder to try, reloader15 seems pretty standard but a lot of guys like 8208 XBR.

Primers would I use standard small rifle or use Magnum or military primer(CCI #41 primers)?

 

[witchhunter]

I wouldn't try to save .13 cents on lube. I read a lot of posts about stuck cases from guys who use spray lube. It might work for some guys, but like I said, I see a lot of guys having trouble with it. Real lube is cheap and last for years. You can chuck a Phillips screw driver bit in a drill and remove crimps.....I would also FL size al of your brass, just to be sure it will all chamber and fire.