Pistol to rifle

[Mattroth54]

I’m pretty comfortable reloading various pistol calibers. Someone challenged me to avoid the square deal b press because “someday you’ll want to reload rifle”. I swore I’d never reload rifle, but wound up with a 650 anyway. Good thing, because now I want to reload rifle. Funny how that works. 5.56 is what I want to reload. My reasons for reloading are several fold, primarily because I enjoy reloading and want to learn something new. Saving a few bucks is good, but not my primary motivation. I don’t plan to crank out thousands of rounds at a sitting, mode like a few hundred here and there. Ammo is just for plinking and perhaps a coyote or two from time to time. No need for anything fancy.


Things I know I need:

Case feeder plate
dies
conversion
case trimmer

My questions:

1. What else do I need?

2. If I load 5.56 to .223 specs, is there any need to sort cases or are they interchangeable?

3. Anything else I need to know?

 

[tsilveus]

I highly recommend a case prep machine. I have the Lyman. It greatly reduces time and keeps your hands from becoming claws from cramping when preparing your rifle rounds. Watch prices, as this product fluctuates a lot (I purchased for $100). Also, dont forget the case lube.

 

[Mattroth54]

My reading tells me case prep will become as big of a part of reloading as reloading. Got a long way to go!

 

[Broom_jm]

When it comes to bottle-necked rifle cartridges, case prep IS "reloading". I mean, once the case prep is done on any metallic cartridge, all that's left is seating the right primer, dropping the right powder charge, and seating the bullet to the right depth. All of those steps are exceedingly easy to do correctly, with the right equipment.

Given your description of what you want to achieve, reloading rifle won't be a lot more steps than the pistol cases you've been reloading. You may have to trim and/or remove primer crimps, but you won't have to flare case necks. There isn't all that much difference between the two processes, unless you're loading for accuracy from your rifle.

 

[Mattroth54]

So, I’m just starting to mess around with die setup. The only missing piece to my 650 setup is a powder funnel, which I’ll have soon. I resized a couple cases today and instantly learned a couple lessons:

1. Case lube isn’t optional for rifle.
2. Totally unrelated, cases stuck in the sizing die suck.

Hope to have more to share soon!