Well I started with a Lee Classic Turret Press (LCT) over a year ago, and it served me well as a learning tool. I cranked out about 4,000 rounds on her before deciding that I just couldn't keep up with my shooting, so I decided it was time to update to a progressive back at the end of February.
With the LCT, I also primed on the press, which seemed like a safe method using the "Lee Safety Prime" system. I still use the LCT for load development and some rifle rounds, so it was a great investment.
Now fast-forward to March of this year as I am working on getting my Dillon XL650 setup. The priming system bothered me, and I have read many, many threads around the 'Net talking about priming problems (sideways primer, upside down primers, etc.), and then of course the safety aspect of things where I have read about entire tubes of primers going Ka-Boom!
In my infinite wisdom (), I decided to get an RCBS APS bench-mounted priming tool (the one with the strips).
This meant loading primers into strips, and *then* priming cases.
Not a bad system actually, although I struggled at first and had to have some new parts sent to me by RCBS, it is just REALLY slow, and sort of defeated the purpose of going to the progressive from the LCT.
So this weekend, I finally bit the bullet (I love that expression!) and tried running some 9mm through the XL650 while priming on the press. It was marvelous! I had 3 failures out of my first 100 rounds: 1 sideways primer, 1 upside down primer, and one primer that I sort of dented somehow (no Ka-Boom though... whew!). Part of the issues I was having here are related to problems I was having in position one where the cases were not being fed correctly, and I kept having to mess with things. When things were running smoothly, I had no issues. (I have since adjusted and fixed the case loading, all good now.)
This is a HUGE time savings. I feel like an idiot for not at least trying this earlier.
So, that was a long story to get to my next proposed time savings plan...
Since I started wet tumbling, I have been de-priming before tumbling so I can get those nice shiny clean primer pockets. Those that do this, swear by it, and those that don't, laugh at us anal OCD folks that want those nice shiny primer pockets.
De-Capping all those cases is another HUGE time drain. I started doing them on the Dillon which helped, but since it made such a mess on the press, I had to clean and lube everything after decapping 1,000 rounds, I actually started dry tumbling for an hour before decapping!!! Am I an idiot of what???
So here is my method to go from range brass to clean, ready-to-load brass:
1) Sort (I have the sorting pans)
2) Dry tumble for an hour
3) De-cap on the XL650
4) Wet Tumble and dry
Like I said, I am not very smart...
I think I am done decapping before wet tumbling, and I am going to go back to just washing the cases as they are, and deal with the dirty primer pockets. Any one want to tell me this is not a good idea?
Maybe for some precision loads or rifle loads, I might consider it, but for pistol ammo, I am beginning to thing that I really need to re-think my processes, and priming on the press has opened up my eyes to a new way of thinking again.
I do enjoy my time in the reloading room, don't get me wrong, but I still cannot keep up with my shooting, and I find myself out of ammo way too often.
It is time to speed things up.
Thoughts? Other ideas? Comments on dirty primer pockets?
With the LCT, I also primed on the press, which seemed like a safe method using the "Lee Safety Prime" system. I still use the LCT for load development and some rifle rounds, so it was a great investment.
Now fast-forward to March of this year as I am working on getting my Dillon XL650 setup. The priming system bothered me, and I have read many, many threads around the 'Net talking about priming problems (sideways primer, upside down primers, etc.), and then of course the safety aspect of things where I have read about entire tubes of primers going Ka-Boom!
In my infinite wisdom (), I decided to get an RCBS APS bench-mounted priming tool (the one with the strips).
This meant loading primers into strips, and *then* priming cases.
Not a bad system actually, although I struggled at first and had to have some new parts sent to me by RCBS, it is just REALLY slow, and sort of defeated the purpose of going to the progressive from the LCT.
So this weekend, I finally bit the bullet (I love that expression!) and tried running some 9mm through the XL650 while priming on the press. It was marvelous! I had 3 failures out of my first 100 rounds: 1 sideways primer, 1 upside down primer, and one primer that I sort of dented somehow (no Ka-Boom though... whew!). Part of the issues I was having here are related to problems I was having in position one where the cases were not being fed correctly, and I kept having to mess with things. When things were running smoothly, I had no issues. (I have since adjusted and fixed the case loading, all good now.)
This is a HUGE time savings. I feel like an idiot for not at least trying this earlier.
So, that was a long story to get to my next proposed time savings plan...
Since I started wet tumbling, I have been de-priming before tumbling so I can get those nice shiny clean primer pockets. Those that do this, swear by it, and those that don't, laugh at us anal OCD folks that want those nice shiny primer pockets.
De-Capping all those cases is another HUGE time drain. I started doing them on the Dillon which helped, but since it made such a mess on the press, I had to clean and lube everything after decapping 1,000 rounds, I actually started dry tumbling for an hour before decapping!!! Am I an idiot of what???
So here is my method to go from range brass to clean, ready-to-load brass:
1) Sort (I have the sorting pans)
2) Dry tumble for an hour
3) De-cap on the XL650
4) Wet Tumble and dry
Like I said, I am not very smart...
I think I am done decapping before wet tumbling, and I am going to go back to just washing the cases as they are, and deal with the dirty primer pockets. Any one want to tell me this is not a good idea?
Maybe for some precision loads or rifle loads, I might consider it, but for pistol ammo, I am beginning to thing that I really need to re-think my processes, and priming on the press has opened up my eyes to a new way of thinking again.
I do enjoy my time in the reloading room, don't get me wrong, but I still cannot keep up with my shooting, and I find myself out of ammo way too often.
It is time to speed things up.
Thoughts? Other ideas? Comments on dirty primer pockets?