[Josephnagy1]

I was wondering if someone can spell out the process for reloading a rifle load on a progressive. I have done a few searches on here and on youtube and what not but i have not found a comprehensive step by step. I have the rcbs progressive and a trimmer and the dies and all the pieces for the round. I will be reloading .223 and .308

[JohnM]

What do the instructions for your press say about getting set up?
You ever reloaded?, got any manuals?

[Josephnagy1]

yeah i have been reloading handgun rounds for a year or so.

[tyeo098]

I dont have a progressive, but Im pretty quick on my single stage.

1) Tumble tumble
2) Decap and resize
3) Trim the first 100 or so cases
4) Get tired trimming the other 1000 and move to priming.
5) Remind yourself to trim next time. (.001 wont hurt that much... right?)
6) Prime all the cases while watching TV
7) Jerry-rig something with the Lee perfect powder measure to make it work on a single stage with the universal charging die.
8) Charge all 1000 cases
9) Seat bullets
10) Load on strippers
11) Put in storage

Thats my method at least. The ONLY time Ive had a problem not trimming was with one case where the mouth got caught and the shoulder got squished. It was odd looking, like if you held it by the bullet, and pushed really hard on the rim. The shoulder caved in.

[Josephnagy1]

alright so i know how to do everything you mentioned short of the trimming. i have the trimmer but i have not used it. can you explain a bit more about trimming? ps. thanks for your help!

[KansasSasquatch]

If you have a good reloading manual it should tell you about trimming if you read the manual rather than just use the data. But basically, clean your brass, lube it, adjust your sizing/depriming die, then size all your brass. If it all measures the same length (or within .010") I don't trim it, I just go through the loading process. If it does need to be trimmed you will want to chamfer and de-burr the case mouths after trimming. Also remember to check your brass for primer pocket crimps, you will want to remove any primer crimps before re-priming. Proper case prep is half the work of reloading rifle ammo.

What model of trimmer do you have? That will help someone give you more precise instructions on using it. But it most likely has some instruction booklet with it if you bought it new.

[tyeo098]

What model trimmer do you have?

[medalguy]

Since you're loading .223 and .308 you will start using military brass at some point, that's pretty much a given. I use exclusively mil brass and that requires a slightly different approach since you will need to swage the primer crimp before loading the first time.

I deprime using an RCBS universal depriming die then size and trim on a Dillon 1200 trimmer. This only trims and does not chamfer or deburr the case neck. However, as long as you keep a sharp cutter in the tool, it leaves very little material that needs to be removed. I accomplish this by just tumbling the sized and trimmed brass in corncob for about half an hour. This effectively removes any excess material. I then take the sized/trimmed/deburred brass to a bench mounted RCBS Autoprime tool and prime it. I prefer this method so I can get a good feel for the primer seating and insure there are no high primers. Sometimes this is difficult on a progressive press.

Only now do I put the brass in the Dillon press and charge, seat, and crimp the rounds. I end up with clean, uniform ammo.

Lots of guys prime on the press. It's just my choice to do it off the press. Once your brass has been swaged, you don't need to repeat this part of the process ever again. FWIW, I reload GI brass 5 times and toss it, figuring I've gotten my money's worth out of it.

[Josephnagy1]

..aswed