It's not going to be as easy as 45ACP because you are going to need to trim. That can be done quickly though, I use a 650 to size and trim to length on the first pass.
Welcome to THR !!
Mr Morris has told you correctly. Don't be fooled by some of the videos on this thread. All bottleneck cases have to be
sized, then trimmed to length, and that's what consumes most of your time.
Progressives are faster because they:
1) Work on more than one case at a time
2) Cut out all the physical handling between stages
So,
most any brand of progressive press is going to a) size and de-prime. Then the 223 case has to come out of the press (
handled) to be b) trimmed (
handled again) and possibly cleaned. Then go back into the press (
handled yet again) for c) primer and powder, then lastly d) bullet seating. But because the 223 case has to come out of the press, 223 will NEVER load as fast as say 9mm or 45ACP. And all this extra handling reduces the advantage of having a "progressive" press. So while using a progressive is faster than a single stage press, bottle neck rifle cartridges reduce the output speed by a large percentage.
The ONLY exception to this is
the Dillon trimmer which allows in-press trimming so that the case will progress through the various stages without the addition (and loss of time) of human intervention.
Now to be fair, you could adapt the Dillon in-press trimmer to most any progressive press. And, you need to connect the Dillon trimmer to a shop vac. So besides the added cost, there is also added noise that a normal bench trimmer doesn't have.
Hope this makes sense.
Drainsmith.......let me guess ... your wife was wearing red the day you met her! Mine was wearing green. And what's my favorite color in the spring........green.
