NEW .308 Reloader Gathering Brass and Equipment

[Tornado_Todd]

A Newbie to reloading rifle brass but have been reloading pistol and shotgun ammo for years.

I have decided to start with .308 for an Indian Ishapore .308 Enfield rifle. I have a Dillon 550B, an old single stage CH press, and a RCBS Rotary Case Trimmer. A friend has an extra set of Lee Pacesetter dies.

I've gathered about 400 rds. once fired Winchester and Lake City brass.

I am thinking about using the CH to deprime & resize. Then after cleaning use the 550B for seating primer, measure powder, seat & crimp the bullet. Does this sound like a good idea?

Should I buy a Dillon Super Swage 600 for the Lake City Brass?

[hk33ka1]

I hear the Dillon super swage is the best swager going. I have not used one yet, but I do own the RCBS swage die set and a Lyman reamer. I have just been using the reamer in a drill press lately, and unless I come across a couple thousand surplus brass I don't think I'm going to invest in the Dillon.

I use your method of sizing the rifle brass first before running it through the second press when progressively loading bottleneck rifle cases. Sounds good.

[chris in va]

For crimped brass I just get an el cheapo chamfering bit and chuck it in my cordless drill. Takes all of half a second per case, works fine. Done this with hundreds of 30-06 and thousands of 223.

[Tornado_Todd]

It seems to me that sizing and de-priming first before cleaning and prepping the brass makes sense. I suppose with the Winchester brass I could just tumble it first and use the Dillon 550B for the complete loading process. I am just thinking it's best for a beginner to slow the process and take time to inspect the brass even if the primer pocket doesn't need to be swagged.

A friend told me to get to get a spray can of Hornady One Shot Case Lube. I have never used lube before in my Dillon Carbide Pistol Dies.

[savagelover]

normaly no lube is need when using carbide dies...but a stuck rifle case in a sizing die can ruin your day for sure...so use the lube..

[hk33ka1]

I was not happy with the Hornady spray lube I had tried. I continue to use an RCBS lube pad and case lube II or Imperial Sizing die wax.

I think the sprays really shine for making pistol brass a little slicker for dies that don't have to have lube but benefit from it.

[1Hobie]

Lube is necessary with Dillon Rifle dies. Check out Dillon's site.Their case lube works well. Also,the Dillon die has the capability to un-stick a case.

I drink the kool-aid..

[Tornado_Todd]

To use a lube pad do you just roll the case across it? It seems like the spray would be so much faster. When you have a full loading block and spray 40 cases at once.

Is there a case lube spray that works well?

[boostedtt91]

Just a FYI incase you didn't know that when reloading for your 7.62 Ishapore, you are going to want to use alittle less of a charge than whats called for cause the 7.62 nato cases are thicker than 308 cases so they will not take as much powder. I would start at the bottom of the chart and work your way up. This is what im going to do when i get dies for my ishapore to reload for it.

[grandpajoe]

To use a lube pad do you just roll the case across it? It seems like the spray would be so much faster. When you have a full loading block and spray 40 cases at once.

Is there a case lube spray that works well?

If you are going to deprime and clean afterwards, I've found the cheap food spray (think PAM) works great and at 99 cents for a can it goes a long way. I've also used it without cleaning in my AR and it worked fine that way too.

[Dave R]

I reload for an Ishapore Enfield as well. If yours is like mine, it has a generous chamber. That means that the brass will be HARD to resize, because it has grown more than a tight chamber would. Use lots of lube, and don't plan on getting as many firings as you would get with a tight chamber.

[oneoldsap]

If you have a huge chamber , I would advise neck sizing , to prolong case life by not overworking your brass . Of course neck sizing will provide more case life in any rifle ! I've been reloading almost 50 years and I'm still using Lyman case lube and a pad . I can count on one hand the number of cases I've had stick in the die ! All these fancy new lubes are just a soloution to a problem that didn't exist . Whenever I see a thread on someone sticking a case , they are never using a pad and lube , mostly it's One Shot causing their problem .

[Unclenick]

Todd,

A few points:

Weigh your Winchester and LC cases. Unless it is more than 20 years old, you'll find the Winchester averages almost 25 grains lighter. It has a semi-balloon head design that was developed for the 1992 Palma Match that has less brass and more room inside. To get to a given pressure, you'll need to use roughly a grain and a half more powder in the Winchester cases.

All rifle case dies, including carbide rifle case dies, require lubrication. The reason you get away without lube in carbide pistol dies is a straight resizing operation is done just by pushing the case through a ring. The ring doesn't contact much surface area at a time, so it doesn't have much friction. To shape tapers, though, the die has to contact the whole case body at once, and that creates a lot of friction.

I've not had problems with case lubes, but I do use a two-step approach for large quantities of brass. I dilute Lee's water-soluble case lube with alcohol and apply it with a pump sprayer and let it dry. I then apply an aerosol spray lube. I don't think the brand matters at that point. The double application makes anything workable and if either spray operation should miss a case, the other gets it well enough to avoid a stuck case.

If you want to use a progressive press, your approach is fine, but don't forget to trim after sizing and not before. If your chamber is wider than usual, case growth during sizing will be greater than usual.

If your Lake City brass is Match brass, it shouldn't have a crimp. If it is standard LC brass, I have the Dillon 600 and like it because it is faster than anything else I've tried. I've done 1000 cases in under 40 minutes, and that included a short break. You just have to get the hand coordination down. I pick up and place cases on the anvil and work the flipper with my left hand, and work the handle and remove cases with the right. This modification looks like it would help. Realize, though, that swaging will upset the brass around the primer pocket a little by pushing the crimp brass aside. Firing flattens that back out. As a result, a little of the brass flows back in around the pocket and sometimes that causes a pocket to need a second trip through the swager, which may negate the speed advantage over power cutting. It depends on the lot of cases, though, as to whether it needs that second pass or not. The swager also uniforms the diameter of tight primer pockets, which chamfer cutting does not, and if you prime with the Dillon, you'll likely appreciate the effect of that and of a second pass through the 600.

I've not tried the chamfering approach out of concern I wouldn't be able to do the job uniformly from case to case, but that's speculation on my part and not experience speaking. I'll have to try it on some scrap cases. I'd miss not uniforming pocket diameters. On the plus side, it should be almost as fast as swaging on the Dillon and never need redoing.

The prettiest primer pocket profile is the one the Wilson case trimmer makes, but it takes a lot of time to do relative to those other methods.

[Tornado_Todd]

Thank you all very much for all your help. I hope to be setup soon and I'm sure I will have more questions. Take care and have a Great Christmas, Todd

[medalguy]

Todd, I have several Dillon presses and for rifle calibers I do exactly as you m,entioned. All case prep occurs off the Dillon. Personally I size and deprime on a Rockchucker because it's so easy. Then I swage on the Dillon swager, fast and easy. And yes, the rubber band does indeed help with the swaging.

I then prime using an RCBS bench mounted Autoprime because I like the feel of the Autoprime when seating the primers. It's very important to get them properly seated, and the Autoprime makes that easy to do.

Only then do I go to the Dillon to charge, seat, and crimp the cases.

For case lube, I would highly recommend using Imperial Sizing Wax. It's the finest lube I've found in 45 years of reloading, it's cheap and lasts nearly forever.

[Unclenick]

The rubber band plus don't forget that wire that goes from the base of the handle underneath to the anvil paddle to flip it up.

[Tornado_Todd]

Hey, for rifle brass do you recommend a sonic cleaner and why?

For my pistol brass, I have always used the an old Berry's tumbler with corncob media and about 8 drops of Brasso.

[Unclenick]

You may want to make a new thread for this topic rather than hijacking your own thread.

While there is argument about how fast it happens, we have at least one member who documented an example of the ammonia in Brasso weakening brass. I would avoid Brasso for that reason. It probably won't matter at pistol pressure or over the short term, but ammonia does damage that migrates into the brass over time, just like happens in season cracking. To be safe, use Nu-Finish automotive polish or buy one of the non-ammoniated polishes for tumbling. They all work. So does a little white automotive polishing compound, some cheap toothpaste, or a little of the diatomaceous earth powder sold at the local garden center for non-toxic insect control. Choose one and mix with water or mineral spirits.

The ultrasonic works, but calling it a necessity would be going too far. Conventional cleaning plus occasional primer pocket crud removal does fine. Indeed, all you really "need" to do, is get dirt and grit off so it doesn't scratch up your sizing die, then get the case lube off after sizing. Mineral spirits on a rag works if you don't mind the labor. Plain corncob in your tumbler will work, too. That's what I usually use to get case lube off.

[gonzoo75]

I have recently tried dillion spray case lube. And find it to be very effective. But the i clean my brass after in a ultra sonic cleaner. The dillon lube is very greasy.