Dewey 68
Member
I've been loading pistol rounds on the Pro 1000 for about 9 years, so I thought I'd give 223 a try. I now know why most don't reload 223 unless they are going for accuracy rather than just plinking rounds.
My first go at lubing and sizing left me with 4 stuck cases before I got better at lubing. Luckily I planned ahead and bought a Lyman stuck case kit ahead of time. I used a "World's Cheapest Trimmer" and my drill mounted in a vice for trimming which worked great. I bought a Lee chamfer and deburring tool, which worked okay. Tried a countersink bit for removing primer crimp, which didn't work very well, but ended up buying a Hornady small hand pocket reamer, and cut down an old cleaning rod to mount it in and chucked it in my drill/vice combo which worked really well. I ended up using the countersink to chamfer the mouths instead of the Lee tool. I hand prime using a Franklin Arsenal hand primer so that went fine. I tried using my case feeder, but the bolt for the small feeder was too short, so I ran to the hardware store to buy a longer one. I ended up having to get a tap and die out to thread the bolt since I didn't buy one that was completely threaded and didn't notice that the case feeder has a nut at the top of the bolt by the housing. Messed around with different heights but couldn't get it to feed without tipping, so I took the feeder off and decided to feed them by hand.
I bought the Lee long charging die and mounted my Lee Auto Drum on top of it. Crushed a few necks getting it set to the right depth. I'm using Ramshot X-Terminator but kept having powder spilling out when charging. Did some reading and it sounds like I need to bump the lever at the top of the stroke a few times to make sure the powder is all out of the die before I lower the press.
Bullet seating went okay but having flat based bullets and no case bell I wasn't counting on having to guide each bullet up into the die.
Overall, it was a slow, messy affair. I bought a 8# jug of X-Terminator so I'll have many more chances to improve on my loading technique, but I'll probably save most of it for when ammo prices increase at the next panic. The Pro 1000 works pretty well for pistol reloading, but if I was going to get into reloading for rifle I think I'd look for a different press.
My first go at lubing and sizing left me with 4 stuck cases before I got better at lubing. Luckily I planned ahead and bought a Lyman stuck case kit ahead of time. I used a "World's Cheapest Trimmer" and my drill mounted in a vice for trimming which worked great. I bought a Lee chamfer and deburring tool, which worked okay. Tried a countersink bit for removing primer crimp, which didn't work very well, but ended up buying a Hornady small hand pocket reamer, and cut down an old cleaning rod to mount it in and chucked it in my drill/vice combo which worked really well. I ended up using the countersink to chamfer the mouths instead of the Lee tool. I hand prime using a Franklin Arsenal hand primer so that went fine. I tried using my case feeder, but the bolt for the small feeder was too short, so I ran to the hardware store to buy a longer one. I ended up having to get a tap and die out to thread the bolt since I didn't buy one that was completely threaded and didn't notice that the case feeder has a nut at the top of the bolt by the housing. Messed around with different heights but couldn't get it to feed without tipping, so I took the feeder off and decided to feed them by hand.
I bought the Lee long charging die and mounted my Lee Auto Drum on top of it. Crushed a few necks getting it set to the right depth. I'm using Ramshot X-Terminator but kept having powder spilling out when charging. Did some reading and it sounds like I need to bump the lever at the top of the stroke a few times to make sure the powder is all out of the die before I lower the press.
Bullet seating went okay but having flat based bullets and no case bell I wasn't counting on having to guide each bullet up into the die.
Overall, it was a slow, messy affair. I bought a 8# jug of X-Terminator so I'll have many more chances to improve on my loading technique, but I'll probably save most of it for when ammo prices increase at the next panic. The Pro 1000 works pretty well for pistol reloading, but if I was going to get into reloading for rifle I think I'd look for a different press.
