Reloading 308/7.62 for semi auto, questions

[Farbmeister]

Lee dies. Best bang for the buck. Get the set with the factory crimp. You will love the Lee way of removing stuck cases over any other die out there. Really, look on youtube.

RCBS's retarded method (you need a drill??? make a day of it!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mVcEvPCWfw

The Lee way (Losen one nut, tap out with punch, 30 seconds MAX)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ylp3fsYrEVw


CCI primers. Unless your load calls for something else.

RCBS has a primer crimp swage die. If you can, get brass without it. Its a PITA and the swage is not 100% effective meaning you will find out when you crush a primer. If you have 1000s of primer crimps send them out once to get professionally done/cleaned/swaged. I did that with some MILSPEC 5.56 and it was the best $30 I ever spent.

At the base level all the manufacturers stuff is the same. Its a Ford v Chevy mentality. If the $60+ RCBS dies were significantly better than the $30 Lee dies we'd all switch.

[reichebrown]

I have a Lyman hand crank trimmer and did 1k of 223 with it. Yes it was a lot of work but not to bad. Since then I have seen a few people unscrew the handle and chuck a drill on the end of the shaft. I will be looking into this. As for the rcbs swager... I got through 10 pieces of bras and bend the support rod inside the case. I borrowed a friends dillon super swage and burned throug the rest of the brass very consistently.

[wanneroo]

Looking into the Dillon swager, some thought it fantastic, some had trouble with it. Overall I'd consider it but it's $100 and if I keep putting too much money out there I'll have a lot tied up in reloading gear.

My thinking is that any reloading gear that doesn't work out I can pension off on ebay, so I think it just comes down to looking at the budget and making the best choice you can at the time with the info you have.

I did look at the Lee dies but couldn't get any indication they would work well for semi auto guns so I passed them up in favor of Rcbs. So far I have been happy with my Lee pistol dies. If the rcbs dies give me trouble or I don't like them, I've got no problem trying something else.

I passed on the X die as I dont think my brass will last long enough banging out of a PTR91 or FAL to make using these dies worthwhile. The bolt action guys with their neck sizing and careful shooting can probably massage a piece of brass to be loaded many times over, but with my guns launching brass into low orbit on ejection I don't reckon loading a piece of brass more than a couple of times before it gets lost in the grass or damaged beyond use.

The lee quick trim is something I would still look at for a caliber I might not shoot much of and didn't want to blow $70 on another WFT trimmer.

[762xIan]

Looking into the Dillon swager, some thought it fantastic, some had trouble with it.

It is good, it smooshes the brass back where it should be after they add the crimp, I usually add a step with a primer pocket uniformer tool which has a cutter on it to make sure. Good thing with primer pockets is you only have to do it once.

My thinking is that any reloading gear that doesn't work out I can pension off on ebay

We also have the marketplace here!

I did look at the Lee dies but couldn't get any indication they would work well for semi auto guns

I am confused here, I am using Lees in .30-06 for 3 garands and Lee .223 dies for 3 ar's...no trouble on my end.

I passed on the X die as I dont think my brass will last long enough banging out of a PTR91 or FAL

I have been getting 10 loads on average for my FAL's/CETME/1919...etc... I have a decent version of my own "NATO" round that isn't to hot and my brass life has been good. If you are flinging brass that far, turn down the gas on the FAL and maybe build yourself a brass catcher. I made one with a wooden frame and netting material. Works great off the bench or set up while prone.

[762xIan]

Heads up....just doing some looking around, Wideners has 145 gr FMJBT's in stock again!

Link: http://www.wideners.com/index.cfm

When you go to "bullets" and find the size, there is a caption called "mil spec" in the list, click on that one for what they have.

Wideners has been a good outfit for me over the years.

[wanneroo]

It is good, it smooshes the brass back where it should be after they add the crimp, I usually add a step with a primer pocket uniformer tool which has a cutter on it to make sure. Good thing with primer pockets is you only have to do it once.

We also have the marketplace here!

I am confused here, I am using Lees in .30-06 for 3 garands and Lee .223 dies for 3 ar's...no trouble on my end.

I have been getting 10 loads on average for my FAL's/CETME/1919...etc... I have a decent version of my own "NATO" round that isn't to hot and my brass life has been good. If you are flinging brass that far, turn down the gas on the FAL and maybe build yourself a brass catcher. I made one with a wooden frame and netting material. Works great off the bench or set up while prone.

I think what remains to be seen is how much volume I am going to do and when I get burned out on various tools I can upgrade as needed. I started reloading with a Lee hand press so that was great to start but I now have the Rock Chucker and will be going the whole hog with a Dillon 650 within a year or less. If it turns out I'm going to have a fiesta of cleaning out primer crimps and the RCBS tool turns out to be a drag, I'll upgrade for sure.

We will see how the RCBS dies go. I know how the Lee dies are from handguns, I like em, so no problem there.

Part of the problem with losing brass is my range is under construction. When it is finished and graveled in the main shooting area that will eliminate much of the problem. As it is in some places right now even if the brass drops to my feet it can still go missing in the mud or whatever.

Hopefully I'll get plenty of runs out of brass but if I get 3-4 runs out of it, that's fine. Anymore than that is a bonus. Still looking for a port buffer for the PTR. Robert RTG has been sold out forever and I don't see them on the secondary market.

[wanneroo]

Heads up....just doing some looking around, Wideners has 145 gr FMJBT's in stock again!

Link: http://www.wideners.com/index.cfm

When you go to "bullets" and find the size, there is a caption called "mil spec" in the list, click on that one for what they have.

Wideners has been a good outfit for me over the years.

They also have 150g Hornady FMJBT bullets, $410 for 2100.

[dkf]

The Dillon swager is the better one available. Only better option I know of would be to buy a 1050 which will swage on the press. There is a mod you can do to the bench mount Dillon swager to speed the process up.

I remove crimps the cheap rat bastard way. A 90 deg countersink for non ferrous metals.

[wanneroo]

Lee dies. Best bang for the buck. Get the set with the factory crimp. You will love the Lee way of removing stuck cases over any other die out there. Really, look on youtube.

RCBS's retarded method (you need a drill??? make a day of it!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mVcEvPCWfw

The Lee way (Losen one nut, tap out with punch, 30 seconds MAX)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ylp3fsYrEVw


CCI primers. Unless your load calls for something else.

RCBS has a primer crimp swage die. If you can, get brass without it. Its a PITA and the swage is not 100% effective meaning you will find out when you crush a primer. If you have 1000s of primer crimps send them out once to get professionally done/cleaned/swaged. I did that with some MILSPEC 5.56 and it was the best $30 I ever spent.

At the base level all the manufacturers stuff is the same. Its a Ford v Chevy mentality. If the $60+ RCBS dies were significantly better than the $30 Lee dies we'd all switch.

Hey guess what?

With my RCBS die about 100 pieces of brass in I got a stuck case. The head or rim on a piece of PMC brass sheared right off and the case is stuck, stuck, stuck. I managed to back out the decapping pin some but can't get the top of the die off like I did when I cleaned it after getting it. One would figure on a resizing die the top should come right off so you can tap it out from the top, but nope not this one.

I was using Hornady one shot lube, followed all the instructions, watched some youtube videos and since this is my first time with rifle brass what I noticed with these small base AR dies was that it took a hell of a lot of force to resize them compared to pistol brass. Enough the table was shaking and crap was falling off of it. I don't know if that's normal or what.

I looked at my options for getting the case out and when it comes down to it the easiest thing to do is send it to RCBS with $5 and let them deal with it and also they will replace anything I might have damaged in the die.

This is my first time using RCBS die and so far not all that impressed.

I like my Lee pistol dies a lot so I might just buy a Lee set and try it out so I can keep rolling.

How normal is it to get a stuck rifle case?

[762xIan]

I was using Hornady one shot lube,

I gave up on one shot for large bottleneck rifle cases, I stick to imperial or unique case sizing wax.

it took a hell of a lot of force to resize them compared to pistol brass. Enough the table was shaking and crap was falling off of it. I don't know if that's normal or what.

Not normal at all and could be a couple of different things, lube not dry, not enough lube, didn't shake the can good and mix up the lube, dirty dies.....

This is why I switched to using "normal" case lubes like imperial, resizing a full size rifle case is like doing a pistol round. One shot and the other spray lubes are a bit of a pain in the ass.

How normal is it to get a stuck rifle case?

It happens every so often to everyone. I go the extra mile on my case prep myself. I have been able to remove stuck cases on my own so far, and have not had so send any off.