Re-sizing cases/ case prep for .223/5.56 is a pain

leewongfei

leewongfei

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I processed 1200 cases last night with the worlds finest trimmer, a Dillon superswage, and a Lee chamfur/deburring tool. I have a blister from hell on my finger as well. Can’t say it was not the most enjoyable thing I have ever done, but can honestly say that I understand why people spend the money on a Giraud Power Trimmer. It will clearly keep you sane while you do it.
 
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1200 case in one sitting? you are the boss!
so you got an idea about power trimmer, next idea is foot pedal operated hydrophilic drive for your press.
and you got your own 'Waffen und Munitions Fabriken'
 
Yep, 1200 cases on a Giraud will give you a nice blister too.
 
And who held the gun to your head and said, "Comrade, you will do 1200 cases, NOW !!" [smile]
 
There are guys who will prep your brass(as much as you can fit in a large flat rate box, I think about 2500 5.56 cases) for you for a fee.
 
Yes prep is a pain...I use one of those Nitril coated gloves. works well. I did a big marathon case prep a few years ago. I took 500 cases from the 1k's I prep ed and load and prep this until I started seeing splits...6 loadings. This are now in bucket. I grabbed the next 500 to load. I will continue this until I have all my 1 fired in the multiple fired bucket....@ 500 cases per session my 1 fired pile should last a few years.
 
I bought an RCBS power trimmer for less than $200 which eases the pain. I also gave up on the Dillon swager and turned to a counter sink in an electric drill. My best move, however, was to purchase a dedicated 22 LR upper for my AR. I do 90% of my shooting with it.
 
Heavy work glove one one hand and Giraud. No blisters no matter how many you do. The Giraud is worth at least twice as much as they sell it for.
 
I trim/chamfer/debur all manually...how do you think I feel? I also lift and work out so my hands are fairly calloused, but its still alot of extra work.
 
I use a small drill press from Harbor Freight, $55.00 with coupon. Have a Lee case trimmer in chuck. After depriming and re sizing, I run them through a Gauge to check head spacing and length and I find the a good 25% do not need to be shortened, THAT ALONE cuts down on time. Using a Lee case length gauge I zip a case up to cutter, fast twist and off , another twist and 2nd case on and so forth. This is very fast. I then use a rotary tumbler with stainless pins which get the lube off AND deburrs the case mouths.
[grin] I find this the fastest way to do a large batch
 
I pop the primers out of the fired rounds on a single stage with a Lyman decapping die and then pop them in a tumbler with walnut media. Then I resize using one shot (straight walled pistols) or imperial wax and dry neck lube for all the others. From there I use a Lee case trimmer to make a few dummy length ones and keep them in a dummy jar with others that are complete rounds sans the powder and primer if I don't already have some. I use those to set a Lyman trimmer that has a power rod. No holding at all to cut to length. For chamfering I use a Hornaday trio with a set of inner and outer chamfering tools along with a pocket cleaner. If it's a first reloading, I'll take the inside cratering off the primer hole with a Lyman pocket hole cleaner. I just unscrew it from the handle and screw it on to the trio as it accepts any 8/32 threaded tool. I also screw on an old bore brush to do the inside and then back into the tumbler with corn cob media for a final cleaning.

I only do straight walled pistols once, the first time, and, of course, removing the cratering is also a one time deal for all. I found going this route is really easy on the hands.
 
100aces said:
I use a small drill press from Harbor Freight, $55.00 with coupon. Have a Lee case trimmer in chuck. After depriming and re sizing, I run them through a Gauge to check head spacing and length and I find the a good 25% do not need to be shortened, THAT ALONE cuts down on time. Using a Lee case length gauge I zip a case up to cutter, fast twist and off , another twist and 2nd case on and so forth. This is very fast. I then use a rotary tumbler with stainless pins which get the lube off AND deburrs the case mouths.
[grin] I find this the fastest way to do a large batch
Click to expand...

The RCBS power case trimmer I use trims chamfers and de burrs all in one operation. This makes it unnecessary to add the extra step of checking length, unless I am prepping cases for match use. I tumble the cases clean, lube and resize, tumble to get the lube off, trim/deburr/chamfer in the RCBS power trimmer, and then load on my 550. The only problem I encountered was corn cob grit stuck in the primer flash hole and pocket. Since the brass was already resized, I installed a decap only die in station #1 of the 550 rather than a sizing die. This clears the primer pocket/flash hole.
 
I used to check the length before I trimmed , but when I got the Giraud, I found that it's faster to trim it than it is to check it.

I can trim about 1500 .223 cases in an hour.
 
Any recommendations on who sells a simple purpose made hand tool to remove the military primer crimp?
Don't have a lot of it and would rather spend the money on other things I need to get started for now.
 
Dadstoys said:
Any recommendations on who sells a simple purpose made hand tool to remove the military primer crimp?
Don't have a lot of it and would rather spend the money on other things I need to get started for now.
Click to expand...

A hand-held chamfer tool will also do a great job of removing the primer crimp.
 
oilspill said:
I think I'm sold on that, any tips getting it to run smooth on the LnL or is it pretty much plug/play?
Click to expand...

The best way is to get a 650 :) that was the only time I got it to run smoothly. The Dillon trimmer doesn't chamfer, but does not leave a burr. So I haven't bothered to chamfer the neck
 
I just cut, deburred, and cleaned another 700 .223 cases to make .300 Blackout brass.
This in in addition to the 1000 pcs I have already completed. The 1K pcs are also deprimed,
Decrimped, and swaged to .300 blackout. Picked up Powder and Primers this weekend. Now
for some projectiles.

I have the worlds finest trimmer also. It gave me a large blister and went thru two
rubberized gloves. The cutter would grab the case and start it spinning in your fingers.
The gloves helped. If I cut them a little shorter with the mini chop saw it may not be
so bad.

I do have an idea to improve on the trimmer using a Microstop Countersink with a rivet
shaver as the cutter. The cutter spins inside the body so that would give you more to
hold onto. The W.F.T. locks the body to the cutter and the brass is held by a collet inside
a bearing. The microstop would also allow you to fine tune and lock the length properly.
The W.F.T. uses two set screws. Using the set screws is a PITA if you do not have a factory
case available.

Malodave
 
Dadstoys said:
Any recommendations on who sells a simple purpose made hand tool to remove the military primer crimp?
Don't have a lot of it and would rather spend the money on other things I need to get started for now.
Click to expand...

I use a 90 deg countersink in a hand drill. I prefer this to the Dillon swager.
 
As my son sized and deprimed 2400 223's, ran each through a case gauge. Guess what? I only had to trim 160 to length. What a time saver. I then have length gauge/cutter in my cheap drill press($50), UP/DOWN, then quick inside/outside deburr and done. Why I never used he gauge before, I don't know, young and stupid, I guess[rofl]
 
I trim a little short in my drill powered forster and then just size as they go through the 550. I dont bother to chamfer and 99% of the time I have no issue forcing a primer into military brass.

Its no giraud but I can prep at least 300 cases an hour.

Mike

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2
 
The title of this thread is so true, I have to repeat it: "Re-sizing cases/ case prep for .223/5.56 is a pain".

That's why I send mine out for processing. Resize, trim, mouth chamfer, clean in stainless steel media, and shipping both ways ends up costing me 7 cents per piece when I send out 2500. My time is worth way more than the $175.
 
PatMcD said:
The title of this thread is so true, I have to repeat it: "Re-sizing cases/ case prep for .223/5.56 is a pain".

That's why I send mine out for processing. Resize, trim, mouth chamfer, clean in stainless steel media, and shipping both ways ends up costing me 7 cents per piece when I send out 2500. My time is worth way more than the $175.
Click to expand...


With 2500 cartridges, at $175.00, starting your cost at 14cents for brass alone, what is your cost to reload .223?

Or 7cents, +misc costs adding up to 14cents each I'm guessing?
 

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