First try at .223 loading progressive - not good.

[John3921]

Decided to set up the LnL and take a stab at loading .223 in progressive mode.


AAAARGHHHH!


I'm using once fired Lake City (milsurp) brass that has been decapped, sized, polished, swaged, and trimmed. Maybe 6 out of 10 the primer seated with no real issue, a couple three took a bit of an oomph to seat, and about 1 in 10 - no how no way was that primer seating. I think part of the issue is there are misc nicks and burrs on the rem of the brass that may be keeping the case from lining up perfectly over the primer pocket.

In a related issue the spring loaded primer seating stem is acting sticky - so it seems to jamb occasionally. I managed to snap the plastic guide rod holder using too much force when something in there was jammed.

I'm using CFE223 for powder - having a difficult time getting it to dial in at the drop I want. From progressive shotshell loading I know if you want uniform drops - you need uniform strokes on the machine. This is difficult to achieve when the primer system is balky.

On the other hand the bullet seating and ejection worked fine.

I'm hoping this gets better as I get the kinks worked out. Hopefully once the brass has been loaded one time the primer pockets will clear up. I have a lyman primer pocket reamer that I'm using now to remove any trace of the primer crimp.

 

[VinnAY]

Let me say that I don't use a progressive press myself but so its kind of moot to say that I only hand prime military brass. I use the attachment in my drill and LC or TAA brass still puts up a fight being primed.

 

[Muddydogs]

Make sure you press is indexing correctly as this might be an issue if the primer pockets are not lining up. You might need to adjust your swager also if your primer pockets are tight. Take the snap ring of the primer seater and give it a good cleaning once in a while as dirt and powder can jam it up. I've loaded thousands of rounds on my LnL AP and have forced a few primers into a case but I have never broken the priming station, you must have stood on the press handle to get that much force.

 

[Blue68f100]

Sounds like your indexing may be off and/or you did not remove the mil primer crimp.

 

[clutch]

I've never reloaded .223/5.56 on a progressive but I think you are running into why I dislike reloading 9mm on my progressive.

It only takes a few cases that need the pockets swaged to get the crimp out to ruin your experience.



.

 

[Walkalong]

.223 cases that have just been reamed are pain enough with a hand primer. I can't imagine priming them the first time on a progressive. After that they are easier, as the first priming helps. I wonder if swaging works better. If I do 1K of just reamed .223, I will have a handful that just refuse to take a primer and have to be touched up.

Ditto for the occasional 9MM case with a crimped pocket.

 

[gahunter12]

I have never had a problem loading .223 on my Dillon. Check your indexing to make sure it is lining up. Also you should have a problem getting consistent drops with CFE223. This could be due to the press not running smooth.

 

[kwg020]

Blue68 mentioned it, did you ream the crimp out of your primer pocket? Have you reloaded before with a single stage press? Learning all the ins and outs of reloading is best done on a single stage. There are too many things going on with a progressive re-loader if you don't have the basics worked out. kwg

 

[stavman11]

.223 cases that have just been reamed are pain enough with a hand primer. I can't imagine priming them the first time on a progressive. After that they are easier, as the first priming helps. I wonder if swaging works better. If I do 1K of just reamed .223, I will have a handful that just refuse to take a primer and have to be touched up.

Ditto for the occasional 9MM case with a crimped pocket.

Ditto..

I now hand prime all My .223 Brass for this exact reason... my Lee proo works Like Butter Now that I eliminated Priming the .223 Rounds... That was the Only issue I would have if one was to occur...

I have used about 2-1/2lbs of CFE223 in my Progressive and no real issue once I get Rolling... Like gahunter12 said... once yer system is dialed it should meter just Fine...

Double check a group of Pockets again and try em.... That should help..

Good luck

 

[cfullgraf]

I would look at other issues before fiddling with the indexing on the L-N-L. It seems to be one place folks needlessly get into trouble with the press.

If you have not had a major jam that you tried to power through or the if the press has a lot of time on it, I doubt the indexing is off.

As said, crimped primer pockets with the crimp removed can be a pain even with a hand primer.

 

[ole farmerbuck]

I load .223 on my LNL all the time. Usually I run them through and prime them first. Then loading is a breeze. My powder measure meters IMR8208 within 1/10th of a grain so i have no idea why yours wont measure CFE223 perfectly.
Like Walkalong said, 1st time priming is easier with the hand primer.

 

[John3921]

I bought prepped brass from an on-line source. It is sold as being swaged, I've no idea how or what equipment they use. I'm taking a couple twists with a reamer now as this seems to help. I may get out the hand prime and prime the brass first - at least for the first loading. I'm inclined to think it's both an indexing issue and tight pockets.

I have loaded on a single stage press for years. I bought the LnL primarily for 9mm and .45. I thought I'd try loading .223 in progressive mode. I did have some indexing issues early on with the press. I've reset the pawls and the indexing issues seem to have gone away. With the .223 though I'm seeing that slight hesitation in the indexing before the plate fully indexes. I don't know if thats just because it's a new plate that needs to wear in or what.

I tore down the powder measure last night, scrubbed it all out with hot soapy water, dried it out and re-assembled it. I did notice that the CFE223 was clinging to the hopper tube. So I wiped it all out with a drier sheet. I plan to run a ground wire to the press today. I've never had static issues with my shotgun press even with W296, but CFE is very fine grained, maybe a little bit of static is more of an issue. I also noticed a fair amount of powder clinging to the drop tube and the bushing when it tore it down last night.

 

[Canuck-IL]

...small thread drift...
Walkalong said...

If I do 1K of just reamed .223, I will have a handful that just refuse to take a primer and have to be touched up.

I think it's brass specific. I used a Dillon Super Swage on 1k of SB 308 brass (spanish milspec) and found none would accept a primer (Win, Wolf & Rem tried) ... every one required a touch with a reamer - nice brass, but a lot of work.

/Bryan

 

[Walkalong]

I was talking about reamed brass. You mention swaged.

I also wondered in a previous post if swaged was better. I have an RCBS swager, but it was so slow I just started reaming them with a Hornady tool.

Perhaps it is time to finally break down and buy the Dillon Super Swage.

 

[Icky The Great]

I would ream your pockets on a test batch first. Run them. If there are no issues, run another small batch except with this batch triple check your powder charge.
I am thinking the priming function is causing your problems. Do not mess with the alignment right off the bat. I would also check your primer feed for debris or residue. My LnL AP had some grease deposits on and in the primer and bullet feeds.

 

[Rushthezeppelin]

I just had my first 223 progressive session last night and I also had a hell of a time with a few pieces of LC brass. Most of them just didn't seat flush or better even though they had all been reamed and had to be thrown back in the press to reseat them (a wee bit scary doing that but no detonations, makes me want to put a shield on my press). One of them got straight up crushed, my first crushed primer ever. When running them through the pro 1000 with just sizing die in (I'm doing two separate progressive steps for obvious reasons) alot of the LC brass had such tight pockets that my priming ram which had no primers in it (once again obvious reasons) would get stuck sometimes in the primer pockets of the LC brass, totally locking up the entire press until I wiggled the brass to let the priming ram spring back out.

 

[blue32]

When I started loading 223 on my 550b I started with commercial brass. I tossed the LC and similar crimped brass in a bucket sorted by headstamp. There's enough problems with extruded powder bridging and trimming after sizing that you really don't need to compound by throwing tight primer pockets in there.

But if you really want to take it all on at once, get that Hornady pocket swager. Mine came with bits for small and large primer pockets.

 

[Weber]

What did you use to swage the brass?

I use a LNL AP, and once set up properly have had no issues with 223.

The powder drop needs to be cleaned really good. I think I had to clean mine 3-4 times before I got consistent drops everytime.

I did have an issue with the primer system not dropping the next primer into the feed. The adjustment needed to b pushed out a little further than the plastic adjustment would allow, so I hollowed it out a little further with a drill bit, and it worked great.

 

[John3921]

Cleaning and grounding the powder measure seems to have sorted out that problem. I don't see any evidence of static in the hopper and I'm getting very consistent drops on a primed case. Little or no extraneous powder collecting on the shell plate (so it isn't hanging up in the drop tube and falling out later)

I moved the powder measure over to station 3 to make it easier to pull a case, tare the scale, and check the drop.

I'll run a few cases through 1 at a time and see how it goes here in a little while.

 

[Rollis R. Karvellis]

Sometimes changing primer brand will eliminate this problem. I, have some CCI's that need to be hand feed into the prime tube because they are to big for the filler tubes.

 

[Canuck-IL]

Walkalong said ...

I was talking about reamed brass. You mention swaged.

That was my point - neither swaging nor reaming is a surefire bet on ALL brass ... swaging is apparently not a cure-all, even with a Super Swage.

/B

 

[Walkalong]

Agh, thanks.

 

[ole farmerbuck]

I use the Super Swage. In my opinion, it's the only way to go.

 

[GW Staar]

I ran into the same problems with old LC .308 brass. Finally have it working fine on my Pro 2000 progressive....after tried nearly every thing else:

1. deprime and size on my Rock Chucker.
2. swage on my bench swager (mines the new RCBS, but the Dillon works similarly)
3. case prep on the RCBS Trim Mate. For me that means reaming, uniforming, and deburring the flash holes. (my trimmer deburrs and chamfers the bullet end after case prep is done.)

For the FIRST Operation on the Trim Mate, I've found it very important to "touch a RCBS military reamer to the swaged brass, to round the mouth slightly,for three reasons: 1. It allows my uniformer to go in the pockets without gouging. 2. It makes identifying swaged brass immediate. 3. The slightly chamfered pocket mouth makes primers slide into the center of the pocket and start easily in my APS press primer system.

4. Finally, tumble the brass to de-lube it for 15 minutes in dry clean 20/40 corncob. That leaves a very slick white film on the brass, and also contributes to primers sliding in nicely.

 

[edfardos]

I'm unable to use LC brass on my RCBS pro 2000. 1 in 12 primers goes in sideways. commercial brass is not a problem so I have buckets of LC brass waiting for a priming solution in my progressive press. I haven't tried a pocket swager yet but my reemer or Deburr tool is ineffective.

Edfardos