Bulk 223 case prep, how you guys doin it?

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VinnyQC

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So, what's your method to quickly prep 223 case? I'm not looking for superb accuracy, I'm looking for a quick and dirty method to prep 223 for loading in a progressive press (with canam powder and campro bullets) in order to make plinking ammos for sub-100 yards shooting in a 700$ AR15. The bar is low on quality here, I'd say 4, 5, maybe 6 moa, as long as it goes bang everytime. Quantity is what matters.

Contender #1 is a Frankford arsenal Platinum Series Case Prep and Trim System for 260$, but was wondering if any of you have a better, cheaper and/or faster system?
Contender #2 is selling the brass on the EE then buying camdex-processed from black sheep. Or just buying new ammos when they go on sale.

Any of you have clever setups or clever methods? Case prep is as fun as a root canal for me, I'd rather be loading ammos than prepping cases.
 
Brass prep sucks.

I don't have any clever suggestions, but figured I would chime in anyway. When it comes to the economic side of reloading for an AR, if all you want is quantity, you might be better off buying (lots) of ammo when it goes on sale. Relying on my sketchy memory, I seem to recall that I can load 55gr bullets for around $0.30 each (this is with buying everything in bulk and aggressively scavenging brass). This puts a value of $0.00 on my time. It's not that uncommon to see .223 on sale for around $0.34.

The "bigger" / more expensive Dillon presses have stations for case trimming and such. You can find some pretty cool videos on YouTube showing some very automated setups. I don't have pockets that deep, so I have to use my time in place of my money to process brass.

I'm in the middle of processing a large pile of brass for my AR. I don't have anything clever in my workflow, just a lot of patience. I look at this as a chore for winter. What I do:

1. Tumble for a couple hours, just to get the dirt off.
2. Lube cases, ~ 400 at a time.
3. Deprime & resize. I have the Dillon .223 dies in a Lee Classic cast for this. The Dillon dies are awesome for when (not if) you get a stuck case. Keep some extra pins on hand. The odd Berdan primed case shows up when you least expect it.
4. Trim, chamfer, de-burr, and clean primer pockets in my FA case prep station. During this process I will also spot check cases using a .223 case gauge to make sure that they are within SAAMI tolerances. For brass that has a primer pocket crimp, I throw those into a separate bucket for swaging. I've got enough of this brass that I think it's time to get a Dillon 600 Super Swage.
5. Tumble again but for > 4 hours with some case polish. This to get the case lube off and to make the brass all shiny and pretty.

Once all the brass prep is done, then I run through my Dillon 550 to complete the reloading.
 
oppy said:
Brass prep sucks.

I don't have any clever suggestions, but figured I would chime in anyway. When it comes to the economic side of reloading for an AR, if all you want is quantity, you might be better off buying (lots) of ammo when it goes on sale. Relying on my sketchy memory, I seem to recall that I can load 55gr bullets for around $0.30 each (this is with buying everything in bulk and aggressively scavenging brass). This puts a value of $0.00 on my time. It's not that uncommon to see .223 on sale for around $0.34.

The "bigger" / more expensive Dillon presses have stations for case trimming and such. You can find some pretty cool videos on YouTube showing some very automated setups. I don't have pockets that deep, so I have to use my time in place of my money to process brass.

I'm in the middle of processing a large pile of brass for my AR. I don't have anything clever in my workflow, just a lot of patience. I look at this as a chore for winter. What I do:

1. Tumble for a couple hours, just to get the dirt off.
2. Lube cases, ~ 400 at a time.
3. Deprime & resize. I have the Dillon .223 dies in a Lee Classic cast for this. The Dillon dies are awesome for when (not if) you get a stuck case. Keep some extra pins on hand. The odd Berdan primed case shows up when you least expect it.
4. Trim, chamfer, de-burr, and clean primer pockets in my FA case prep station. During this process I will also spot check cases using a .223 case gauge to make sure that they are within SAAMI tolerances. For brass that has a primer pocket crimp, I throw those into a separate bucket for swaging. I've got enough of this brass that I think it's time to get a Dillon 600 Super Swage.
5. Tumble again but for > 4 hours with some case polish. This to get the case lube off and to make the brass all shiny and pretty.

Once all the brass prep is done, then I run through my Dillon 550 to complete the reloading.
Click to expand...

Ok, so, basically, it's the FA case prep.

How many case/hour do you think you prep? Just to give me an idea. Let's say we forget about the time the cases are tumbling, as the tumbler can do this without supervision.
 
I've used the FA Trim center, I did a couple hundred 223 casings in about 40 mins (trim./chamfer/deburr). And I measured quite a few in that time frame just to make sure everything was working good. I'd recommend it for sure!
 
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I hate case prep. I do it all with no fancy station. FML.

I see Lyman has their case prep station on sale at Cabelas for 150 bucks.
 
Wet tumble for 2 hrs( minus the pins)
Resize,run em through the FA station.
Tumble again for 2hrs( minus the pins)
Let dry.
Boom!
 
The downside of the Frankford Arsenal tool is that trimming and chamfering are separate steps.

There are a couple of tools that you can mount in a drill or drill press that will trim and chamfer cases in one step. The World's Finest Trimmer is case-specific, which may be fine if you only want to trim .223 cases. The Trim-it II can take different inserts for different cases.
 
tjhaile said:
The downside of the Frankford Arsenal tool is that trimming and chamfering are separate steps.

There are a couple of tools that you can mount in a drill or drill press that will trim and chamfer cases in one step. The World's Finest Trimmer is case-specific, which may be fine if you only want to trim .223 cases. The Trim-it II can take different inserts for different cases.
Click to expand...

The Lee quick trim dies will trim, chamfer and debur at the same time. I have the dies I for my calibre and a trimmer, it works with a drill. Overall it work well, that's what I use currently, but it's kinda long cause I got to insert a case, then push the press lever as I'm pressing the trigger on the drill. Would work super well if I had 3 hands.

Maybe I'll check for some way to make the whole thing work with a drill press, and then it would be as fast as decapping any generic brass. About 300-400 pieces/hour. If anyone has done something like that, fell free to chime in.

Something like this, but less zip-ties, C-clamp and high-speed drill, but with a drill press that runs slower, even a cheap mastercraft drill press should be fine.

 
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The most time saving you can get from trimming/chamfering. I hate doing it, so I got myself a Giraud trimmer and a few conversions. Can do 900 - 1000 pieces / hour now. It's actually faster to just run the brass through the Giraud trimmer than measure OAL. ;)
www.giraudtool.com/giraud-power-trimmer.html
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I would vote for my stuff personally (but obviously I have a vested interest). My products make sense for people who want a good starting point but have time/equipment/ or space constraints. If you already have the equipment and the time to process obviously you can do it yourself cheaper, which is a win.

I make my products available to the consumer to try and offer it a fair price to give "you the consumer" access to a level of product that is otherwise mostly unavailable in Canada. In all reality, only about 10% of what I sell goes to "consumers". 90% goes to commercial loaders in drums on skids.
 
Dry media vibrate for 3 hours
Lube
Deprime, Full length Resize
Trim cases (Giraud Triway Trimmer and a drill) - I started initially with the FA trimmer, then the WFT but the Giraud is an all around better unit IMHO
Swage/Ream primer pockets
Wet Tumble 3 hours
Manual Priming with an RCBS universal primer tool

Finish with my Dillon 550 (unless I run Varget then I manually dump powder a la single stage press processing)

A note on the Giraud - much as I would have loved to have bought the motorized Power Trimmer version the Tri Way works great for 98USD....
htt p://www.giraudtool.com/Tri%20Way%20Trimmer.htm
 
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What I do to make bulk SUB MOA ammo for my AR

Tumble - walnut and polish to get rid of any dirt
Lube - Dillon spray or iso alcohol/lanoline
Size - FL or body size depending on the needs of the chamber
Tumble

With moderate pressure loads and a properly gassed AR, I rarely trim but if I need to.. Forster case trimmer with 3 IN 1 head. One pass and 3 steps done.

If you are starting with crimped primers, Dillon is a joy to use and makes quick work of this step.. .only need to do once.

From here, I put into my Lee 1000 progressive. Lee collet neck die to ensure neck is rd, prime, powder dump, seat a bullet... I don't crimp but you may want to.

For me, the most critical step is the sizing... It MUST be a proper fit in my rifle so I do this on a single stage press for consistency. Then finish off the steps in a progressive.

Done...

Jerry
 
I hate case prep. I've got a tumbler with walnut media that I use. A few years back I got a bonus at work and bought the Hornady Case Prep Center which does help cut down the time somewhat. Once it's tumbled/sized it's about 45 seconds/round to trim, chamfer, primer pocket clean, and neck brush with the case prep center. Still not speedy by any stretch.

The easiest method that I've found yet is: Brian at Black Sheep Brass.
 
I use a FA platinum trimmer, it works on all of the calibres I shoot (223, 7.62x39, 308, 30-06, 7.55x55). It takes me about 5mins to swap out the different collets and adjust the trim length.
 
Lyman turbo 1200 corn cob media

Resized in a lee breech lock challenger single stage. Rcbs lube pad for shell exterior, Hornady ‘one shot’ for inside the case neck.

Little crow gunworks .223 world’s finest trimmer set up in a drill press. They shipped direct from the USA.

Lyman case prep center (Amazon was cheapest).

If you want to speed up primer pocket swaging , and aren’t as anal as some of us, it can be done in a drill press with a countersink drill bit. Don’t overdo it:)

After that, good to go.
 
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