Progressive press for rifle loading.

[SamT1]

So I’m at a crossroads in my reloading. Have tons of single stage and other basic equipment. I have a load master setup in 45acp and I like it. I’ve pretty well thinned down the guns I shoot in bulk to. 308, 45, 223, 300blk anything else the single is fine.

So I’m thinking of buying a spare head for my loadmaster and setting it up for 308 with an auto drum on it. And possibly later on doing the same for any other calibers that use large primers and the same shell holder.

Then buying another loadmaster for 223 and setting up a head for blackout.

I’m not seeing a bullet feeder for 308 or 223, is there something else that will cross over?

I’d love a Dillon 650 , but I’m not real keen on the primer system loading and the cost of setting up the spare heads is pretty high. My loadmaster runs good. But it’s mounted rock solid and I run a die in every hole for alignment. So many of the loadmaster videos I watch where guys are working out kinks you can see the press or bench moving around.

 

[Toprudder]

In my experience, the big difference in loading rifle on a progressive, as opposed to loading pistol, is the case prep involved in rifle. The cases should be resized, then trimmed/chamfered, before continuing with the loading process. I have .223 setup in my Dillon 550, but the brass are all sized in my LCT, then prepped before I bring them to the Dillon. I do have 4 dies in the Dillon, the first one it a Lee universal expander (which I use to flare the mouth for flat-base bullets) then the other stations are normal. I will sometimes drop powder separately, in which case I just do the bullet seating and crimping in the Dillon. Either way, it cuts down on the number of times I have to pull the handle.

 

[Load Master]

I load all the rounds you mentioned and more. I have two Lee Load Masters. Switching from one cal to another is one of the Load Master strong points. I can go from most any cal to another in under 10 minutes. I have turrets for each cal. For rifle I deprime in bulk. The brass is wet tumbled, and dried. I then lube and bulk size the cases. They are next trimmed, neck chamfered and primer pockets are swagged. I normally will clean them again before assembly. Assembly takes place on the Load Master using the Lee Auto Drum as the powder drop. My 223 Rem rounds typically give single digit standard deviations.

As far as a bullet feeder, you can purchase the Mr Bullet feeder that will work, but personally for rifle I prefer to use my fingers. Mainly because there is no neck flaring needed, just the normal chamfer of the case neck.

 

[Walkalong]

I load all my rifle on my LNL. I load everything from a run of two to a run of 500 on my LNL, both rifle and pistol.

My son has a Loadmaster and likes it, he reloads .357, .40 S&W, and .223.

 

[Baldy]

Load .223's with a Dillon 650 for awhile. I done all case prep first and powder check them often. No problems after I got the hang of it. Good Luck..

 

[SamT1]

I load all the rounds you mentioned and more. I have two Lee Load Masters. Switching from one cal to another is one of the Load Master strong points. I can go from most any cal to another in under 10 minutes. I have turrets for each cal. For rifle I deprime in bulk. The brass is wet tumbled, and dried. I then lube and bulk size the cases. They are next trimmed, neck chamfered and primer pockets are swagged. I normally will clean them again before assembly. Assembly takes place on the Load Master using the Lee Auto Drum as the powder drop. My 223 Rem rounds typically give single digit standard deviations.

As far as a bullet feeder, you can purchase the Mr Bullet feeder that will work, but personally for rifle I prefer to use my fingers. Mainly because there is no neck flaring needed, just the normal chamfer of the case neck.

Dang that’s a pretty fast change over to do shellplate and priming all at once. Maybe I just need shell plates and heads.

I don’t do a lot of trimming. I’d probably just chamfer them before I decap them on the press.
I have about 2K rounds of sized, primed and chamfered LC brads. I imagine I can get 3-4 loadings before trimming again.

 

[Muddydogs]

If you have the cash for more then one press go for it but is it really worth the cost of another press to save 10 to 30 minutes it takes to change over? Even with my LNL AP and all the extra stuff to make change overs quick and easy I still find I need to tweak the powder throw or the PTX adjustment once its all set up so no matter how much stuff I purchase I'm still messing with things for a few minutes before I start cranking out the rounds which is just part of reloading. Amazes me how many people purchase another LNL AP just to have one set for large primer and another set for small primer when the change over takes just a few minutes and is as easy as things get.

When I got into shotgun shell reloading I decided I needed a press for each load so over time I picked up 3 Mec 650's and 2 Mec 9000's and set them up for each load. Well after setting up all these presses I learned how to make them work and what needs tweaked to do what I need I now find I only load on the 9000's as in just a couple minutes I can have the press reset for the load I want. Guess what I'm saying is with use comes experience and what once was a pain to do I can now do in a quarter of the time and is no longer a pain.

 

[Whiterook808]

I have been pondering this for a while and I just don't see how it will save me much time, given the volume that I load and the case prep. I have a Chargemaster Lite and by the time I have seated the bullet the next charge is ready in the case of .223. Sure using a power measure would be faster, but I don't think as accurate. The only savings would be when I crimp and that really doesn't take much time or effort. So I still load all rifle rounds on the Rockchucker and pistol on the 550b.

 

[Blue68f100]

I do all my bulk 223R on my LNL-AP. De-prime first for wet cleaning, size, then trim. Once there to this point it's all done on the press without removing them any more. All my precision bench loads are done on a SS press.

Muddydogs: Most make the mistake of adj the ptx which is constantly changing as you change calibers. What I do is set it be done, then do all the adj with the powder base die. Doing this way there is nothing to adj unless your running a different bullet.

SamT1: If the LoadMasters are working for you I see no reason to change. Thatr's what your comfortable with and have all the pieces to fit.

 

[DRAINSMITH]

So I’m at a crossroads in my reloading. Have tons of single stage and other basic equipment. I have a load master setup in 45acp and I like it. I’ve pretty well thinned down the guns I shoot in bulk to. 308, 45, 223, 300blk anything else the single is fine.

So I’m thinking of buying a spare head for my loadmaster and setting it up for 308 with an auto drum on it. And possibly later on doing the same for any other calibers that use large primers and the same shell holder.

Then buying another loadmaster for 223 and setting up a head for blackout.

I’m not seeing a bullet feeder for 308 or 223, is there something else that will cross over?

I’d love a Dillon 650 , but I’m not real keen on the primer system loading and the cost of setting up the spare heads is pretty high. My loadmaster runs good. But it’s mounted rock solid and I run a die in every hole for alignment. So many of the loadmaster videos I watch where guys are working out kinks you can see the press or bench moving around.

This is used after you have the bullet feeder for your .223

 

[MikeInOr]

I load .223, .308, 30-06, 6.5x55 and 8x57 on my Dillon 650.

I have Heavy barrel varmint Remington 700's in .223 and .308. For these I like to load the rounds for precision so I use the Dillon full length sizer / case trimmer on a single stage press first. Then chamfer on RCBS case mate. Finally run them through the respective 223 or 308 Dillon 650 configured head. Once I found the powder levels my target rifles like I am VERY pleased with the precision of the rounds I get from my 650.

For plinking ammo in my semi autos and mil surplus guns I just run the cases through the .223 or .308 head without any other prep (generally no trimming unless the brass has been reloaded a few times). My plinking ammo is brass, my target ammo is nickle plated... makes it easy to tell them apart.

I do highly recommend the Dillon carbide dies in .223 and .308 regardless of what color your press is painted. I can tell a big difference in the amount of force they take vs my non-carbide other bottle neck case heads.

I am rather fond of the priming system on the Dillon 650, I have never had a problem with it. Switching between large primer and small primer is pretty smooth, easy and relatively quick. I do generally group what I am reloading by primer size... 45acp with the large primer bottle neck rifle rounds... 223, 9mm and .30 carbine together... to minimize primer system changes.

I have considered a second 650 press dedicated to small primers... but then I find a great deal on a firearm I always wanted and switching the primer system seems pretty insignificant!

 

[Kingcreek]

I load .223, .308, .243, 270 and 300wm on a Dillon 550 with no trouble. I often but not always size and trim separately and remove the 1st die on the 550.

 

[25-5]

I only deprime, size and seat rifle on my 450. Prep and prime separately. I do not like the accuracy of the Dillon powder bar for dispensing rifle powder. I am not familiar with your auto drum.

 

[SamT1]

As far as I can tell the auto drum is the same function as a “perfect” powder measure. I’ve been running LT-32 and it meters so close out of the “perfect” measure that I don’t trickle it. I believe it’s more accurate than a charge master would be even.

 

[bullseye308]

One Loadmaster will do it all, just get a few spare turrets and powder measures and you’re done. I love my Loadmaster, and have a turret setup for each caliber already set for whatever combo I have found to be most accurate.

What I do is run the cases through and deprime/resize, then trim(if necessary), chamfer and tumble. I prefer to hand prime all my cases, then store till time to load. I do use a case feeder, but not a bullet feeder.

Take the money you would have spent on another press and accessories and buy more components and be happy.

 

[Load Master]

In regards to the Lee Auto Drum, it is one of the most accurate powder measures I've used. That said, like most any powder measure, extruded powders like IMR 4064, or IMR 4198 don't repeat as well as I like. For extruded powders I still like to trickle on to my balance beam scale.

H335 is one of my favorite powders for my rifle rounds. It measures extremely well from the Auto Drum.

 

[Hondo 60]

Any excuse to buy a new press receives my full attention.

My way for 223 or 7.62x54r:

Deprime on Lee Breechlock
Wet tumble
Lube - Size -Trim if needed
Chamfer
Remove primer crimp if necessary
Dry tumble to remove lube
all with a single stage.

223 powder (Varget) drops most excellent from Dillon PM
So I powder/seat/crimp on Dillon 550
==============================================

7.62x54r

7.62x54r powder (2400) does NOT drop most excellent from Dillon PM
So that's another step on the Lee SS.

Seat/Crimp goes pretty fast on the Dillon

 

[Texas1880]

The Dillon primer system is excellent, imo. The whole thing is a bit expensive, but when you can load 800 rounds in an hour, easily, it’s worth it. Plus you’ll have it forever. Just need the primer quick exchange for small to large— two bolts, and you’ll switch from 308 to 223 in 10 minuets. It’s a time vs money thing.

 

[jmorris]

I have KISS and MBF rifle bullet drop dies, both work.



Loadmasters can be tweaked to run, just watchout for crimped primer pockets on the positive depth LM. The 1050 has the same type seating mechanism but that added an additional station to swage the pockets first, to prevent kabooms.

 

[frankmako]

Lots of people do it and I did setup one of my dillon 550 to load 5.56. I did this as a test to see if it would work for my other rifle loads that I use in matches. But I did not do it long and went back to the single stage press. I get a better match round working off the single stage press.