.223 Case Preparation - Part 1

Liberty4Ever Says:

Mar 12, 2012 - I just tumble my lubed cases for 20 minutes in walnut hull media. It does load up the media with oil, but there isn't much oil used to lube the cases, so the media still lasts a long time. If I ever finish my big rotary tumbler, I'll clean my brass with stainless pins and soapy water, and I'll never need to worry about dirty media.

chavezchavez556 Says:

Mar 11, 2012 - Do I have to use the case cleaner to remove the motor oil ? Or can I just use regular media ?

vdsgw52 Says:

Jan 5, 2012 - Reloading since the early 80s on a small basis and now a larger scale with both pistol and .223 brass usually 1000 at a time. I feel your rifle prep videos and methods are tops. Spend the time preping the rifle even the pistol brass, saves tons of time and problems with any of the progressive machines. I dont have any dirty brass run through my machines anymore. Your washing in a wet tumbler is the ticket, I have been washing the brass with water and laundry soap.

Liberty4Ever Says:

Dec 26, 2011 - Yes, the resizing lube does eventually load up the media and it must be replaced, but it gets dirty too so that also requires replacement. A used drier sheet in the media absorbs the dirt and oil and prolongs media life. Some people still prefer wiping the cases by hand. There is so little oil used to resize that it doesn't load up the media very quickly. I'm swapping to stainless pins, soapy water and a rotary tumbler, so media life won't be a problem.

thegangvault2 Says:

Dec 26, 2011 - Hey! Nube alert...Sorry if you have already answered this, but does your oil contaminate your media? I mean I guess you use the same media for cleaning and then for removing the oil? That would be a lot easier than wiping down each individual brass like I'm doing now...

cybot63 Says:

Nov 14, 2011 - Here is the best thing to use and is recommended by Hornady.The expander on a size die will not come out of the case, what can I do? You can use black graphite from your hardware store as a neck lube. Just dip the neck in it after you lube the outside of the case. The powder already has graphite in it, so it will not contaminate the powder.

Liberty4Ever Says:

Oct 29, 2011 - All resizing lubricants are oils of one form or another. The heavier waxes, such as Imperial Sizing Wax, are less likely to contaminate a primer than liquid oil, but in any case, the resizing lubricant should always be removed from the case before the priming and powder drop operations. BTW - Independent tests have pretty well proven that gun oil is very unlikely to cause a misfire with loaded ammunition.

cybot63 Says:

Oct 29, 2011 - I have reloaded from the 80's and you dont get motor oil near a reloading press or powder or primers it contaminates the powder and primers and can cause misfire.

negtopside Says:

Oct 29, 2011 - +1000 for the motor oil! so much easier!

Liberty4Ever Says:

Apr 21, 2011 - I'm all about doing a task as easily as possible, and that's what I tried to show in this video. As Albert Einstein said, everything should be as simple as possible... and no simpler.

Liberty4Ever Says:

Apr 21, 2011 - The processes shown in the video aren't added just for fun. Reloading bottle neck rifle brass is different from reloading straight wall pistol brass. You can use carbide dies and not need any case lube for pistol brass, although I mist a very tiny bit of lube on pistol cases. You'll get stuck cases resizing rifle brass without good lube. You'll probably lose pistol brass before you need to trim it.

S1PR0DUCTI0NS Says:

Apr 21, 2011 - i have a question and it prob sounds dum i reload 9mm and all i have to do is clean the brass lube it and start loading cant you do that with .223 and 5.56 because i have seenalot of people using a decrimping and resizing thing that spins lol BTW i have a dillon xl650

Liberty4Ever Says:

Feb 13, 2011 - The ejector on the RCBS swaging tool is a nice option, but it seems to be designed to fit the RCBS press and doesn't fit many other presses. It's not a big deal. It takes almost no more time or effort to rock the brass off the swaging button. In fact, I kind of like it better without the ejector. The brass stays in place and is less likely to fall off, and best of all, any piece of brass that doesn't need a little tug should be discarded, as it has an oversized primer pocket.

Liberty4Ever Says:

Feb 13, 2011 - Some foreign military rifle brass has an undersized flash hole. When resizing, the decapping pin pushes out the spent primer but it wedges in the small flash hole and is pulled out of the resizing stem on the return stroke. Major PIA! Once it happens, you can sort the brass by headstamp and drill out those undersized flash holes.

Liberty4Ever Says:

Feb 13, 2011 - For plinking ammo, I'm not as fussy about the brass. I do use mixed brass for plinking. I use a bent paper clip feeler, dragged inside the case from the head out toward the shoulder. Brass loaded too hot or shot in rifles with excessive headspace will develop a thinned ring on the inside of the case near the head which can be dangerous because it's an incipient case head separation. I crush and recycle that brass.

Liberty4Ever Says:

Feb 13, 2011 - If I want accurate rifle ammo, I'll usually start with NEW brass, usually from Lapua because they have very tight tolerances. The other option is all one manufacturer (military Lake City brass is actually pretty good). Then I'll fire form it to fit the chamber of that specific bolt action rifle. Then I'll trim to a uniform length and sort the cases by weight (particularly for non-Lapua brass). Turning case necks for uniform thickness helps too.

Liberty4Ever Says:

Feb 13, 2011 - The swager works by pushing a hardened button up into the primer pocket and displacing the softer brass to remove the crimp. After swaging, all of the crimp should be removed regardless of how much crimp had been applied, and any crimped pockets should all be nearly the same size. If a primer pocket was too large, the swaging operation won't make it smaller.

Liberty4Ever Says:

Feb 13, 2011 - It's definitely a good idea to separate the brass for a few reasons. The brass has different wall thickness, crimp, flash hole diameter, rim depth and thickness, etc., so a progressive press will operate differently with different brass. The difference can be enough to cause reliability problems with the press operation, and obviously, any variation will result in less accurate ammo. I don't separate the brass for plinking ammo.

huntwithairguns Says:

Nov 5, 2010 - Barnes already makes all copper bullets though. They're probably my favorite bullets...perfect expansion and weight retention every time.

smaj100 Says:

Sep 15, 2010 - Liberty will the ejector button not fit on the lee press? I've seen it installed on the rcbs presses and it looks like it would make things a little smoother and faster.

sousatd Says:

Sep 6, 2010 - Excellent video. Just started loading .223. Have been a handgun cartridge reloader for many years, and I'm still learning great tips from folks like you.

backwoods3214 Says:

Jul 4, 2010 - in Canada  u need to use no lead shells, in shotguns i have to change my choke on it to use no lead for hunting. i have seen no lead bullets for some riffles, i better have no lead in my deer riffle clip. u can bye no lead reload tips .

Liberty4Ever Says:

Jul 4, 2010 - All bullets I've reloaded contained lead. I have considered designing all copper bullets that are longer, for a greater ballistic coefficient,and the homogeneous structure would be more uniform as opposed to copper metal jacket over lead core. The point would be more accurate .223 ammo. These solid copper bullets would probably be target loads only, but the longer bullets may tumble soon after impact so they may actually be good for defensive purposes... maybe.

backwoods3214 Says:

Jul 4, 2010 - have u evor reloaded no lead shells

Liberty4Ever Says:

Jun 1, 2010 - Yes, I like the RCBS Case Prep center. I wish it was a bit faster and more powerful to do the trimming, but it's held up well, and it's a lot faster than doing all of the operations sequentially, with all of the extra handling that entails, and the hassles of keeping up with all of the parts in all of the various stages.