Reminded myself why I procrastinate 223 today

[Kaldor]

I switch back and forth between calibers on my LnL. Its not that bad. Takes me 15 minutes at most, and that only going from small to large primers or vice versa. The secret is having all the tools and parts ready on the bench before you start.

Generally my LnL is set for small primers as I bulk load 9mm and 223. Change over for those is minor. Swap the rotor and change the bushing in the drop, and adjust on an empty case, takes a couple minutes, 5 at most. Change the bushing in my case feeder and adjust and swap the feed plate, 1 minute. Change the shell plate, 1 minute. Thats about it, less than 10 minutes.

Going from small large primers takes about another 5 minutes to swap the primer punch, primer slide, pusher foot on the case feeder.

If you dont have a case feeder, this process takes less time.

 

[Nature Boy]

Well, I reminded myself why I spent so much time this weekend reloading .223.

Savage Model 12 Varmint, 69g SMK, 25.3g Varget (Sierra accuracy load) LC brass, CCI primer.

5 shots, 100 yards, .400"

 

[tcoz]

You might want to consider buying a used Lee Turret Press for those calibers that you don't load that often or that many at a time. If you don't use the Auto Disk powder measure and have different turrets with your dies set up in them, changeovers are accomplished in under a minute. If you do use it you might add a couple of minutes to the powder apparatus switched over.
My ammo needs aren't all that great. I just love reloading so the turret is my only press. Auto-indexing for pistol and single stage for rifle. 223 is probably the easiest rifle caliber that I load.

 

[david bachelder]

I don't mind switching my LNL between calibers. I do it all the time since I load most everything on the LNL. I'm not exactly a speed demon at it but I can do it efficiently.

 

[Woolecox]

My 20+ year old RL550B has never failed to get the job done with pistol or .223. In fact, the .223 is one of my easiest cartridges to load. And that's with the supplied Dillon powder measure.

Yeah, same here. I have no problem loading 223 or 300 BLK on my 550. I really don’t think it is worth it though if you are going to do full case prep anyway; meaning size, deprime, trim, chamfer, primer pockets, etc.

I do my trimming on a Giraud power trimmer so that goes pretty fast. Priming is done via the RCBS Automatic Bench Priming Tool. Then using a RCBS Chargemaster to drop the powder, it’s a simple and fast to seat the bullet on my single stage. More accurate ammo that way too.

 

[Paddy]

Unless you have a bullet feeder for my runs of 300blk I prime, charge, feed, seat, crimp, so using 4 of the 5 stations for 5 operations. Considering adding sizing to it too for my low pressure loads, they don't seem to grow the cases at all, which would eliminate the steps of size, trim, chamfer, deburr.

For 223 I don't have a feeder, and I don't crimp, so I only get 3 operations, but it still seems worth it for blasting ammo.

 

[Paddy]

Well the adventures in 223 continued today. After losing the primer shuttle spring, I called Hornady and they very kindly sent me a new one free of charge! I know Dillon and rcbs get the lions share of the customer service praise, but Hornady can't be overlooked as they have never done me wrong and they not only answer the phone, but they send stuff out for free too, almost feel guilty!

Anyway, spring arrived so I found a piece of string and tied it to one end this time (thanks) and began loading again. Since I have another powder measure on the way I decided to fully swap the powder measure for case activation and that seemed decent. I do have a question about the funnel parts for the Hornady measure. They supply two small funnels and one longer one at has a turned down projection. I ended up using the two smaller ones stacked. What's the longer one for?

So then I got my first ever primer detonation. Some swearing and wide eyes. And then ANOTHER detonation. LOTS more swearing and furrowed brows. ***?!

These were Tula primers btw.

 

[KansasSasquatch]

Well the adventures in 223 continued today. After losing the primer shuttle spring, I called Hornady and they very kindly sent me a new one free of charge! I know Dillon and rcbs get the lions share of the customer service praise, but Hornady can't be overlooked as they have never done me wrong and they not only answer the phone, but they send stuff out for free too, almost feel guilty!

Anyway, spring arrived so I found a piece of string and tied it to one end this time (thanks) and began loading again. Since I have another powder measure on the way I decided to fully swap the powder measure for case activation and that seemed decent. I do have a question about the funnel parts for the Hornady measure. They supply two small funnels and one longer one at has a turned down projection. I ended up using the two smaller ones stacked. What's the longer one for?

So then I got my first ever primer detonation. Some swearing and wide eyes. And then ANOTHER detonation. LOTS more swearing and furrowed brows. ***?!

These were Tula primers btw.

Only use one of those "funnels." Use the "medium" length funnel. It should have the smallest bore and is intended for .20-.270. The shortest one is for 7mm and up. The longest is intended for pistol cartridges. The manual is your friend (not trying to be rude) http://www.hornady.com/assets/files/manuals-current/metalic-reloading/LNL_AP.pdf .

HOLY **** 2 primer detonations?!! When/where are they detonating? Have you removed all primer crimps?

 

[Paddy]

They both detonated during priming. Yes I reamed out all the pockets with an rcbs cutter but I'm not sure it reams them out completely so I've started also kissing the mouth with a ball shaped burr bit as well on most batches, but not this particular lot. I've never really felt super great about the priming system on the Hornady, even on 45acp there are some that seem sticky and some get mangled a bit too. Thanks for the tip on the manual, But I actually just read it yesterday with the new linkage kit that came and pretty much the only thing they don't talk about, at all, is the different funnels and what they are for.

Oh ya that manual is way better than the one that comes with the parts.

I wonder if my primer punch is a bit out of alignment with the shell plate?

 

[stavman11]

Well I am lazy and Impatient:banghead:

I have 3 Lee Pro 1000's. 1 for 9mm, 1 for 38s/357 and One for prepping .223 brass

I recently got a Dillon 650.. with Case and Bullet feeder for .223...

Makes Life sooooooo Easy.... Just add powder and Pull to any of my presses. Just changing a bullet size/type is all the adjustments I need

 

[Paddy]

Not a bad way to go at all. And I fear I'm headed that direction as well.

 

[oneounceload]

Tried reloading 223 on my Dillon 550 and never could get powder to drop the same amount twice so went back to using a RCBS JR and 2 Rockchuckers. I also use one of the RCBS Uniflow powder measures. For as much .223 I shoot it just wasn't worth the agravation.

Same here; I really hate reloading, but being cheap AND poor means I need to do so. I have about 1500 38s, and over 2500 each of 12 and 20 gauge , let alone 223, 45, 357, 32, etc............

ONE of these days.................................

 

[mstreddy]

Paddy, sounds like you solved it the powder measure issue. The manual covers which of those 3 funnels go with which calibers.
I'm curious though as to the primer detonations. I've loaded several thousands and while I've crushed a few primers due to a remaining crimp on 223, and 9MM, I've never (looks for wood to knock on) had a detonation. Check your alignment, check for crud in the punch area, and, how much force are you exerting on the primer stroke?
And on the subject of customer service, Hornady is one of the good ones. They have always responded quickly and replaced whatever parts I've broken or even misplaced.

 

[Paddy]

Yes in many thousands I hadn't either. Sometimes I use what I think is excessive force on the primer stroke because, well, it requires it. I always keep it clean and I have a bottle of can air at the ready all the time. I was losing powder out the case mouths however which was then falling into all over the place where it shouldn't have been like the primer punch. Dunno, but it made me pretty much resolve to priming those cases off press. The rcbs bench primer has way more power and feel than the press primers I've used.

 

[Muddydogs]

I would be checking my primer system over closely if I had 2 primers go off. I have loaded thousands of rounds on my LnL without a single primer detonation and I have smashed a few primers along the way. Had a few 223 cases get past the swagger and the LnL still smashed the primer in the pocket.

Caliber changes are no big deal with the LnL if you have the extra powder die but even without the die all it takes is a little practice to switch the press over. If this was your first time what makes you think that you can have it done in a few minutes and not have to tinker with it? Reloading isn't an instant gratification type of deal.

 

[Paddy]

It wasn't my first time by any means, just first in a while because I knew how annoying it would be so I leave it set up for one cal all the time. Yes I checked the primer system but what's to check? The primer is in the spot, and the punch does its thing. Maybe these are poorly made Russian primers? Or maybe my pocket detailing of mil brass is not adequately preparing the pocket for priming. I don't know.

 

[mstreddy]

One thing to check on the primer system is junk, powder, slivers of brass from primer pocket crimps, and other assorted tiny pieces that will become lodged in there. There are two styles of primer punches from Hornady -- an older style where the punch has a narrow body and wider top (head). This would be prone to having junk caught in the body. The new style is all one thickness top to bottom, and less likely to get bound up. If you have the older style, see if you can get the style from Hornady. It has helped me.
I also keep a can of compressed air on the bench and will hit the primer shuttle and system several times during a cycle.
As to the brass not being prepped enough. I can see that. I had a batch that I swaged with the RCBS bench mounted swager and some weren't deep enough. So, I would end up crunching the primer in. It would sometimes leave a crescent sliver behind. I had some crushed, but no detonations.
The next batch I ended up hitting with the chamfer tool and they primed easily.

As to priming off the press, nothing wrong with that. Lots here do it that way.

 

[Paddy]

Yeah I'm thinking it's the chamfer step I didn't do that's biting me here. I'm going to chamfer all my mill brass from now on. Touching it with a carbide ball burr in a cordless drill makes quick work of it.