Equipment To Load 223

**usmc21** · February 27th, 2015, 07:23 PM

most store ammo is undersized so it will fit in any brands of rifle chamber. they all are saami standards but some chambers are on the tight side and others like savage and remington are rather liberal on the chamber length.
i know on my savage 7mm mag, hornady manual sets oal at 3.290, when i used my chamber gage my max oal was 3.885 touching the lands.

**Gunowner99** · February 27th, 2015, 07:34 PM

So it would be okay?

**usmc21** · February 27th, 2015, 07:44 PM

the way i size my bolt gun brass is i take store ammo federal, rem, whatever brand and shoot for practice...i then take that fired case and use that as a reference to bump the shoulder back on my brass my .002 because the fired case is an exact copy of your chamber and my bumping the shoulder back .002 you are not over working your brass each time you resize..i happen to use a larry willis case gage for that purpose. now to get oal to the lands requires a bullet seating tool made by sinclair so you can stretch the bullets out closer to the lands and improve accuracy..this however is for more advanced reloading. if your just starting out i would get the basics down 1st and follow the instructions that come with the die kit you are reloading for.

**GeneCC** · February 27th, 2015, 07:58 PM

Originally Posted by wanneroo

Ah what? You shouldn't be running the case through a resizing die again and this is why I never bought a turret press. Nor do I prime on the press because that is out of order with what I do. Like I said think of this as 2 different modules of activities. One is case prep, the other is loading, crimping and quality control.

Let me repeat. Do NOT run the case back through a resizing die after you have completed case prep(resizing, trimming, chamfering, deburring, swaging primer pockets if need be, etc.). Whatever you need to do, however it is you need to figure it out, Do NOT run the case back through the resizing die.

If you want to simply your life, for 223, use the turret press as a single stage press.

I mostly use Lyman case gauges to help check my work:

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/268...-223-remington

Lyman case gauges are good. L.E. Wilson makes a good case gauge too. When you'd doing semi auto full length sizing a case gauge is really helpful, maybe indispensable.

**usmc21** · February 27th, 2015, 08:03 PM

beginner reloaders should start on a single press..that way you have to lean each step in the process of bullet/case/powder prep and you understand what you are doing and how to do it. i think the turret presses would be very difficult to get the fundamentals of reloading and could also be very dangerous.
cause it is very easy to not set up the turret press correctly and under-charge a load and you end of having a squib in the barrel and then chamber another one especially in semi auto weapon..

**Gunowner99** · February 27th, 2015, 08:07 PM

Understood. I operate it as a single stage now as I am learning and concerned with qc and safety.

**usmc21** · February 27th, 2015, 08:15 PM

that's the way to go..just take your time and develop a system where you can reload and minimize mistakes..we all make them, i can't tell you how many cases i have screwed up over the years from not paying attention or forgetting to put lub on them and attempt to resize them. not fun!! one of the most important tools you can buy is a chrono for measuring bullet velocity..that will really help you tremendously, because printed data in reloading manuals will get you close but if you change any combo they used while reloaing your data will be different from theres

**wanneroo** · February 27th, 2015, 10:27 PM

Originally Posted by usmc21

beginner reloaders should start on a single press..that way you have to lean each step in the process of bullet/case/powder prep and you understand what you are doing and how to do it. i think the turret presses would be very difficult to get the fundamentals of reloading and could also be very dangerous.
cause it is very easy to not set up the turret press correctly and under-charge a load and you end of having a squib in the barrel and then chamber another one especially in semi auto weapon..

When I first got into this, I looked at the Lee turret press. Seemed more trouble than it's worth. And here we have a beginner where that has happened. It adds extra confusion when it's not needed.

Where people screw up is trying to do several things at one time with reloading and that's also why I reject priming on the press or trying to add powder while on the press when you get started.

Reloading I find to be easy, BUT you've got to pay attention and check your math and work all the time.

**arjohnson** · February 27th, 2015, 10:53 PM

I not new to reloading, been doing it a long time for pistol calibers. I'm just now getting into reloading .223 and .308. I've researched and got all the necessary equipment except a case gauge.

I will load all of this on a single stage press, looking for more precision than speed. I currently have a Dillon 650 for pistol calibers for cranking out lots of ammo fast, works great and never had an issue.

Here's my list of what I will be using.

Hornady single stage press
RCBS small base 223 dies for AR
Hornady 308 dies for bolt gun
Hornady Powder measure
Foster case trimmer
Redding powder trickler
RCBS 505 scale
Imperial sizing die wax, tried a few cases and this stuff works great.
Plus some other stuff I'm sure I'm forgetting

**usmc21** · February 28th, 2015, 10:29 AM

chrono and larry willis head space gage are very nice to have also. that way you can bump your brass back exactly where you want instead of guessing on your dies.
also it's nice to measure your bullet velocity, cause we all know printed data in reloading manuals can vary especially if you don't use the exact components that they did to achieve that velocity.