Speeding up precision rifle reloading

Get the Franklin arsenal Case and Trim Prep machine. I trim to size (repeatable), chamfer inner neck, outer neck and clean primer pocket in one operation. Just recently prepped 2300 X .223 case prep took me a total of 8.5 to 9.5hrs to prep them all

4. Primer pocket clean with cordless drill and K&M primer pocker uniformer.
This step is real quick already.

5. Trimming with Forster 3in1 trimming head and forster original trimmer lathe. So far Giraud looks quicker. Any good? Is it to be found in Canada?
 
The Giraud trimmer look alike I purchase does trim/chamfer/deburr 3in1 also, so no need for the Frank Arsenal prep machine.
Once it gets here, I will make a seperate post about it with my initial impression, and if I really do enjoy it I am buying a second.
That way I won't have to move the blade between my 2 calibers.
 
I rarely load a cartridge from start to finish.

What I do is have at least 100 brass for each caliber.

New brass primer pockets uniformed, trimmed for length necks skim turned, weigh sort into two batches and mark them, eliminate the outliers. New brass is fireformed to the chamber, I do this to reduce , if not eliminate, the first firing stretch, which could be up to 0.008".

On a fired piece of brass; #1 clean neck and shoulder area with 000 steel wool, anneal with torch rotating brass in a drill motor, in the flame 8 seconds, do all calibers at the same time.

#2 run brass through a Redding body die (set this die up with as close to zero set back as possible, like 0.001") dwell time ~ 5 seconds

#3 Brush case mouth with a nylon bore brush , just in and out, now run bumped brass through a Lee Collet die with ~5 seconds dwell time.

#4 Before priming , this is with a new case and only done once, uniform the primer pockets to take the radius out of the bottom of the pocket, The primer will seat firmly and I do not clean carbon out of the pocket as there is no discernable build up.

#5 Charging cases, use an FX 120i , Lee dippers, and a powder trickler. This is the slowest part of the operation, but one that demands precision.

With the Lee collet die there will be a requirement to neck turn after several cycles as a 'donut' will build up at the shoulder / neck juncture. Skim turn at the mouth and remove material along the neck to the shoulder.

For trimming cases I use the Lee system (case length gauge and trimmer) chucked in a drill motor with a Lee universal shell holder.
In the life of the brass this may only be a few to 3 times, as my dies are set up minimum.

Once set up, the monkey motions to do this are all mindless except for powder dispensing.

These steps are always on going but only do 1 or 2 at a time with powder dispensing a stand alone.

I get generally good results doing it this way.
 
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Cleaning primer pockets is a waste of time. So is neck sizing, if you don't have a tight neck chamber (which I believe you do).

If you have a lot of $, there's an autoloader you can get for the AMP. Just load up the hopper and let the AMP eat while you do other things. (Edit - I see you are looking into this)

Sounds like you are already looking at a Giraud, good purchase there. Henderson trimmer is another option if you can't get the Giraud.

You can automate with a Dillion 550. Some do that, and just seat the bullets long and then do a final seating depth on a single stage press.

Also, you may want to tumble with rice. Will be a lot cleaner the corn cob media.
 
I feel like these 2 extra steps are more relevant for 6.5x47 L than .308.
As primer pocket cleaning, is done with a uniformer.
When passing it in my 308, only carbon is removed, but in 6.5 I see it also removes brass as the brass seems to flow there too.

Same thing for neck turning, in 308 my casings grow in lenght, in 6.5 they grow in girth at the neck and barely grow a thou per firing in lenght.
Yes my tight necked chamber doesn't forgive much if I got more than 12 thous neck thickness. Factory 6.5 lapua brass is 13 thous thick. Find it a little stupid that it's been chambered in a way of forcing peeps into mandatory neck turning.

Got my 2 Giraud knock offs, will replace them with the real deal once Giraud ships north again.
Also on the waiting list for the amp mate, this will definitely be a good time saver.

Loaded 200 rounds this week, and already with my few new changes (tumbling instead of krazy kloth, giraud style trimming, K&M neck turning with quick release power case holder) it felt better, felt like I got an easy 20-25% improved production rate.
Add the amp mate and autotrickler V3 bluetooth board to this, I feel like the time savings will be enough for me to get some PT in during my reloading room schedule.
 
What are you priming with?

A Primal Rights CPS primer could save you a lot of time priming, especially if you are priming by hand. It also consistently seats primers at a specific depth (adjustable by the user).
 
I am priming with the Forster co-ax primer with primer tubes.
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Damn I like the look of that primal rights primer.
 
kthomas said:
What are you priming with?

A Primal Rights CPS primer could save you a lot of time priming, especially if you are priming by hand. It also consistently seats primers at a specific depth (adjustable by the user).
Click to expand...

kthomas, do you have one ?
If you do, are they repeatable (perfect uniformity in countersink measurement) ?

I've never heard of these before.

ohhh... that is super sweet. Looks very fast and I'll bet its accurate.

Interesting that when mentioned "its has a dead stop" ..my brain immediately thought of how much I love the accuracy of my Forster Co-Ax press (because it also dead stops). Then he later mentions the accuracy of the Co Ax Press. i.e. The one that sits on top of the Press -not the dedicated table top version.

I've tried Lee and RCBS hand primers, I find them to be quite inconsistent in depth.
I have a Frankfort hand primer for everything that is not my 308 Palma competition loads (they are Co Ax).

I want this for all my priming needs.

$600 USD though ... yikes !


 
I don't have one...yet. I will have one pretty soon, which I'm really excited about. Right now I hate priming, I use a K&M hand primer, and my hand really feels it after a 100+ rounds.

This appears to be the best priming unit on the market, and I've heard nothing but stellar reviews from those that own one.
 
You guys could buy a Dillon 650 with a case feeder and do some of the operations in one "handling" of the brass. Operations like deprime, sizing die, prime, and expander mandrel are not super dimensionally critical and could be done in one trip through the 650. Just pull the handle 100 times for 100 brass. At least, that's what I'm planning to do. Depending on consistency I can obtain, I might do the bullet seating on my RCBS rockchucker supreme single stage rather than the 650.
 
adamg said:
You guys could buy a Dillon 650 with a case feeder and do some of the operations in one "handling" of the brass. Operations like deprime, sizing die, prime, and expander mandrel are not super dimensionally critical and could be done in one trip through the 650. Just pull the handle 100 times for 100 brass. At least, that's what I'm planning to do. Depending on consistency I can obtain, I might do the bullet seating on my RCBS rockchucker supreme single stage rather than the 650.
Click to expand...

In a typically year, 75% of my reloading is for F Class competition and practice.
So I am kind of committed to my Forster Co Ax.
I were ever to do more plinking and pistol, then a Dillon progressive would certainly make sense.

My first ever press (that is long since sold) was a Hornady Lock n' Load progressive (after a year of use, I wish I had spent the extra $ and got a Dillon). It seemed like it needed to re-tweaked before, during, and after every 1,000 round production run.
 
dump brass in tumbler

deprime on press

primer pocket clean using station

(only trim after first fire)

lube with wax and roll-pad, use Q-tip to wax inside of necks very lightly

nk size & prime

dump sized/primed brass on towel, wipe off wax by rolling brass in towel

charge, seat, measure

have shot 1000s 6.5cm with single digit SDs using this process
 
MartyK2500 said:
Just ordered the autotrickler V2 to V3 upgrade kit.
The bluetooth charge weight input will sure be a fun way to work around this.
Click to expand...

Nice!

I still have to order the spare parts kits so I can get a second "shot glass" cup and try out 2 at a time !

I don't know how the V2 works, but my $0.02 worth of advice is this:

Once you get everything set up, take a piece of coloured tape (or a post-it note) and cover you re-zero button on the 120i scale.

Probably partially the result of excessive Irish Whiskey consumption while I reload.
But sometimes when making a batch with various powder charges, I have been known to hit the re-zero button -instead of hitting zero on my iPad to clear the set weight.
Of course the cup is not on the scale... so the hopper dumps all over the goddamn place and the trickler is rolling full steam.
 
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