Dillon sizing?

robtattoo

WKR
Joined
Mar 22, 2014
Messages
3,488
Location
Tullahoma, TN
I load large quantities on a Dillon 550.
I recently bought a lot of 'fully prepped' 5.56 brass. I'm getting tough bolt closure with my Tikka .223 & is near impossible to close the bolt on my little straight pull AR.
Seems like it hasn't been fully sized. It all needs the shoulders pushing back 5-6 thou, from the small sample I've measured.

I do have a Redding body size die, along with a Lee collet neck die, neither of which require case lube & I was wondering, if I use the neck die in position 1 to size, de-prime & prime; powder in position 2: seat in position 3.... can I use the body size die in position 4?

It would be much quicker & easier than having to hand lube, FL size & re- tumble all 700 pieces.

I tried just body sizing loaded rounds in position 4 & it works, but it's a lot more pressure than I'm used to putting on the press. I've always sized on my Forster single stage & then moved to the 550 for the loading operation only.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Sep 23, 2022
Messages
405
Location
Carolinas
Sounds like you got brass that was fired in a MIL spec or military gas gun, shoulders usually get blown out more than a bolt gun or civilian production gun with tighter tolerances.

Not sure about the order needed. While you wizards out there on progressives knock out cases of ammo, I still ride the single-stage train 😎
 
Joined
Mar 28, 2020
Messages
901
Put 50 at a time in a big ziplock bag, spray a good squirt of hornady one shot and shake well
To clean put 50 at a time in a damp towel grab each end and shake vigorously side to side , one minute and they are clean
The lube will make the process much smoother on the dillon
 
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