So I really love reloading handgun rounds with my turret press (Lee Classic 4-die turret with Pro Auto Disk Powder Measure). It seems the process is designed for it: clean or not, you can resize/decap, charge and expand the case, seat a bullet and crimp (if you'd like). No worries, no fuss.
But with rifle ammunition it seems a lot less straightforward. It seems like you DEFINITELY want to clean the brass first, because you need to lube the cases, and it seems that dirty brass would only make it more difficult to size. Then after you resize you need to measure the case and possibly trim/chamfer which throws a wrench into the works. From there you can charge the case with the powder measure, although many rifle powders tend to not meter well) and then seat the bullet and crimp in the last two stages of the turret.
I have basically settled on a hybrid batched single-stage program outlined below. Is this pretty typical or are there folks out there who use the turret in a more "turret" fashion? Are there any tricks, for instance if you trim the brass to the trim-to length, you can get x-number of firings out of it before it needs trimming again?
1 - decap with universal decapper
2 - clean
3 - lube and resize, 10 at a time
4 - wipe!
5 - measure. If too long, see 6. If okay, skip to 7.
6 - trim to length, debur and chamfer
7 - prime all 10 cases (I use the safety primer attached to the turret for this)
8 - charge all 10 cases (I use the auto disk but check often because I still don't quite trust it with the longer stick powders)
9 - seat bullet
10 - crimp
So I basically use the turret as a single stage, with the exception of 9 & 10 where there are two consecutive pulls of the lever without removing the cartridge.
Note that I don't MIND doing it this way. I am not trying to crank out 100 per hour. Just wondering if I am being too cautious about the powder drop and trimming and stuff. Those seem to be the major holdups in the process.
But with rifle ammunition it seems a lot less straightforward. It seems like you DEFINITELY want to clean the brass first, because you need to lube the cases, and it seems that dirty brass would only make it more difficult to size. Then after you resize you need to measure the case and possibly trim/chamfer which throws a wrench into the works. From there you can charge the case with the powder measure, although many rifle powders tend to not meter well) and then seat the bullet and crimp in the last two stages of the turret.
I have basically settled on a hybrid batched single-stage program outlined below. Is this pretty typical or are there folks out there who use the turret in a more "turret" fashion? Are there any tricks, for instance if you trim the brass to the trim-to length, you can get x-number of firings out of it before it needs trimming again?
1 - decap with universal decapper
2 - clean
3 - lube and resize, 10 at a time
4 - wipe!
5 - measure. If too long, see 6. If okay, skip to 7.
6 - trim to length, debur and chamfer
7 - prime all 10 cases (I use the safety primer attached to the turret for this)
8 - charge all 10 cases (I use the auto disk but check often because I still don't quite trust it with the longer stick powders)
9 - seat bullet
10 - crimp
So I basically use the turret as a single stage, with the exception of 9 & 10 where there are two consecutive pulls of the lever without removing the cartridge.
Note that I don't MIND doing it this way. I am not trying to crank out 100 per hour. Just wondering if I am being too cautious about the powder drop and trimming and stuff. Those seem to be the major holdups in the process.