Discuss handloading, reloading and presses here.
 #91791  by myopicvisionary
 
First would be tumbling, Then depriming and sizing. [Then removing the crimp, trimming and deburring. This being the most time consuming, but needed. None of this do I use the press but a Lyman case trimmer and Lyman case prep multi tool.]
Using my Dillon 550 for reloading rifle brass; after tumbling, I have a tool head with the sizing die and the power trimmer. I run all fired rifle brass through to resize, deprime and trim. I will sort by case head. In the case of .30-06, I have a lot of Greek XHP brass. I segregate by weight and use what weight I have an abundance of for my match ammo. I do the same for the bullets that I am using. Since the XHP brass is military, I run it through my Dillon swage to remove the primer crimp. (For those not familiar with reloading), this only needs to be done once. When I am ready to load, I switch tool heads for the one with the powder measure, seating die and crimping die. I run the cases through all four stations as normal even though there is no die in first station. Since the brass is already resized and deprimed, all that has to be done at the first station is seating a new primer. Continue the loading process as normal.
 #91794  by stephpd
 
Glad to see i"m not the only one that sorts by head stamp as well as by weight. I'm not really OCD, though that does run in my family. Many in my family really anal retentive about it too. As an example I bought the Mustang from my brother, that had also bought it from another brother. In the folder that came with the car was every receipt, in chronological order, for everything that had been spent on the car, including oil changes. All I wanted was the title. And I'd be hard pressed to even find that folder now, though I'm pretty sure I didn't throw it away. You just know that both of them knew exactly where that folder was. Probably in a file cabinet along with separate folders with sales slips, warranty cards and owners manuals for everything they've ever bought.

But, yeah, I do sort for consistency in batches. Luckily the last 1000 rounds of 5.56 was fairly consistent. Bought them through a guy on gunbroker. For the most part all had the same head stamp and only two slightly different weights. Same for the bullets with two very close weights. Made for two nice sized batches that are very consistent. These being made up for distance shots with 77 gr hpbt bullets.


So, how does that power trimmer work? The Lyman case trimmer cuts to very exacting standards but definitely leaves a burr that needs a few twists of the deburring tool to clean up.

I just use one of the pocket reamers from the multi tool in a cordless drill for cleaning up the crimp. It doesn't take long for each one but when doing a batch of 1000 it does add up.

For the life of me I still don't own a micrometer. To me accuracy of .001 with a dial indicator is close enough. I do check for length of the cases after trimming. But I'm not as particular with checking neck size. I figure the sizing die keeps that fairly uniform.

By the same token I also don't anneal the necks. All the military brass I've bought comes looking like it was already annealed. So why mess with a good thing unless you want to do it this way.



Anything short of exacting standards with heat treatments can do more harm then good.
 #91800  by myopicvisionary
 
The Dillon power trimmer is mounted on a die in the tool head. Once it is set, it stays adjusted. As each case is pushed up by the ram, the case mouth is trimmed cleanly without burrs. It has a manifold around the die that hooks to a shop vac so all the brass trimming are whisked away.