Reloading 30-06 in large quantity.

Patrick Graham · April 28, 2000, 09:00 PM

Well, I did it, I set my Dillion 550 for 30-06. I had to, I have two hungry mouths to feed. One 42 SA Garand and one 44 SA Garand. It's not going as fast as I had dreamed it would. I'm using Hornady One Shot, so I don't have to clean the lube off (at least I'm telling myself that now). I'm swabing the inside of each case neck with a Q tip soaked in Midway Minute lube. You have to do the neck swabbing or you'll hang up in the middle of the downstroke. I'm also ceaning the primer pocket, that takes a lot of time out of the cycle. I'm getting about 120-150 an hour when I really work at it. The neck swabbing and primer pockets are the bottlenecks.

It's still faster than when I would load 200 at a time on my single stage rockchucker with the Lee Autoprime.

Walt Welch · April 30, 2000, 06:08 PM

Hmmm...I loaded thousands of rounds of 30-06 and never had to lube the case necks. If you are having problems with the bullet friction, try a boat tailed bullet. If you still have problems, there is a contraption consisting of a short bore sized brush standing upright, and lubed with mica (IIRC). You just push the case down over the brush and lift up, then put in the powder charging station. I have never used this, but do recall seeing it (I believe in Brownell's). I assume you are not using GI cases with the ring of sticky sealant around the case mouth.

The way I reload everything is to tumble polish the cases, resize and decap, tumble again to get lube off and clean the primer pockets (gets most of the junk out, anyway), then prime, charge with powder, seat and crimp bullet, and tumble again for 15 min. or so to get fingerprints off.

Despite the theoretical dangers of tumbling loaded ammo, I have never seen or heard of anyone having a discharge. It has been pointed out that loose ammo in a glove box suffers far more vibration over a period of time. Walt

alan · April 30, 2000, 11:09 PM

When I was loading 30-06, I rezized on a single stage press, washed the cases in gasoline and then hot water, baked them to dry on 225 degree setting, cleaned primer pockets and trimmed where necessary. I used a carbide expander ball in my sizing die, sometimes no expander ball, loading jacketed boat tail bullets. I has a large number of cases.

Then I primed, charged with powder and seated bullets with a Dillon 550. At an earlier time, using only a single stage press, I loaded thousands of rounds of 308 and 30-06. You performed a given operation ON ALL THE BRASS, then changed dies. Did that for years, before Dillons were available.

Do not recall very much lubing inside of necks, except sometimes with moly.

Patrick Graham · May 1, 2000, 09:56 AM

I'm lubing the case neck because of the expander ball. The expander ball seems to be more of an "issue" with my new Redding dies than it did with my old lee dies. I didn't lube the inside of the case neck with my old lees sizing die and I did have a few difficault downstrokes but nothing like I'm having with the new redding sizing die. If it doesn't "break in" soon I'm going to call Redding.

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April 28, 2000, 09:00 PM	#1
Patrick Graham Junior member Join Date: January 18, 1999 Location: Kokomo, Indiana USA Posts: 674	Well, I did it, I set my Dillion 550 for 30-06. I had to, I have two hungry mouths to feed. One 42 SA Garand and one 44 SA Garand. It's not going as fast as I had dreamed it would. I'm using Hornady One Shot, so I don't have to clean the lube off (at least I'm telling myself that now). I'm swabing the inside of each case neck with a Q tip soaked in Midway Minute lube. You have to do the neck swabbing or you'll hang up in the middle of the downstroke. I'm also ceaning the primer pocket, that takes a lot of time out of the cycle. I'm getting about 120-150 an hour when I really work at it. The neck swabbing and primer pockets are the bottlenecks. It's still faster than when I would load 200 at a time on my single stage rockchucker with the Lee Autoprime.

April 30, 2000, 06:08 PM	#2
Walt Welch Senior Member Join Date: November 3, 1998 Location: Alamo, CA Posts: 424	Hmmm...I loaded thousands of rounds of 30-06 and never had to lube the case necks. If you are having problems with the bullet friction, try a boat tailed bullet. If you still have problems, there is a contraption consisting of a short bore sized brush standing upright, and lubed with mica (IIRC). You just push the case down over the brush and lift up, then put in the powder charging station. I have never used this, but do recall seeing it (I believe in Brownell's). I assume you are not using GI cases with the ring of sticky sealant around the case mouth. The way I reload everything is to tumble polish the cases, resize and decap, tumble again to get lube off and clean the primer pockets (gets most of the junk out, anyway), then prime, charge with powder, seat and crimp bullet, and tumble again for 15 min. or so to get fingerprints off. Despite the theoretical dangers of tumbling loaded ammo, I have never seen or heard of anyone having a discharge. It has been pointed out that loose ammo in a glove box suffers far more vibration over a period of time. Walt

April 30, 2000, 11:09 PM	#3
alan Senior Member Join Date: June 7, 1999 Posts: 3,847	When I was loading 30-06, I rezized on a single stage press, washed the cases in gasoline and then hot water, baked them to dry on 225 degree setting, cleaned primer pockets and trimmed where necessary. I used a carbide expander ball in my sizing die, sometimes no expander ball, loading jacketed boat tail bullets. I has a large number of cases. Then I primed, charged with powder and seated bullets with a Dillon 550. At an earlier time, using only a single stage press, I loaded thousands of rounds of 308 and 30-06. You performed a given operation ON ALL THE BRASS, then changed dies. Did that for years, before Dillons were available. Do not recall very much lubing inside of necks, except sometimes with moly.

May 1, 2000, 09:56 AM	#4
Patrick Graham Junior member Join Date: January 18, 1999 Location: Kokomo, Indiana USA Posts: 674	I'm lubing the case neck because of the expander ball. The expander ball seems to be more of an "issue" with my new Redding dies than it did with my old lee dies. I didn't lube the inside of the case neck with my old lees sizing die and I did have a few difficault downstrokes but nothing like I'm having with the new redding sizing die. If it doesn't "break in" soon I'm going to call Redding.