223 and X-Die Reloading Steps. Doing too much??

[psychbiker]

I may be doing something wrong here so I'll double check my steps.

I have 556 military crimp brass. Using X-die and CTS Trimmer

1) Deprime
2) Stainless wet tumble (like clean primer pockets)
3) Lube and Full length size all (required for x-die for initial pass)
4) Tumble To Remove Lube ??
5) Trim (CTS Trimmer puts rings on brass cuz lube still on)
6) Remove Primer Crimp
7) Lube again before final X-die size ??
8) Size, seat prime, powder drop, seat bullet
9) Done

So a couple things. I know I have an extra step cuz of the primer pockets. BUT is all this separate tumbling really needed? The CTS trimmer is a great timmer but why do I need to remove the lube before trimming? If I do then I have to re-lube before running it through the die again? What a pain in the arse!!! I did not do the steps in bold. I have the all my brass ready to for primer crimp removal and then load up.

I know this will be a pain initially and I wont have to trim or remove crimp again. I've touched my brass all 650 pieces, about 3 times each this past week. I was too lazy to swap out pieces on my progressive to deprime...HA! I took the 15 minutes when it came to full length size and that sure sped things up.

Throwing away the X-die isnt an option. Spent too $$ on reloading and not dropping more on another set of dies.

 

[GLOOB]

I'm pretty sure you're doing it wrong.

I think the story is supposed to go like this:

Starting with random brass and range pickups that were last trimmed who-knows-when:
1) Deprime
2) Stainless wet tumble (like clean primer pockets)
3) Lube and Full length size all with normal FLR die
4) Tumble To Remove Lube ??
5) Trim (CTS Trimmer puts rings on brass cuz lube still on)
6) Remove Primer Crimp
7) Seat primer, powder drop, seat bullet
8) Done

Now go and shoot those trimmed-to-min-spec but otherwise totally ordinary reloads. IF you can collect your own brass without picking up other people's cases, then forever after you can:

1) Deprime
2) Stainless wet tumble (like clean primer pockets)
3) Lube and Full length size WITH THE X DIE
4) Remove lube
5) seat primer, powder drop, seat bullet
6) Done