loading 223 on progressive ?????

Tomme boy

Well-Known Member
Was thinking about getting a Lee Auto breech lock pro. I have a ? about setting up the powder thrower. Lee has the short rifle powder die. Does this flair the mouth like a pistol charge die does? Or do you add a flair die after the powder charge die to flair the mouth so it does not shave the bullet?

I have always loaded 223 on my single stage presses since I started loading in 94. I need to get a press that will shorten the load time. Getting too old and wore out to do every step on a single stage.

I need to place a order and want to get everything at one time to save some $$$ on shipping instead of buying everything and then finding out I need another piece later.
 

Ian

Notorious member
No it doesn't flare the mouth. You need five stations to load cast in .223 unless you don't crimp or crimp them all later on a single stage. You can run an expander in station 2 and the powder die on station 3, then reach around the most inaccessible side to place and seat a bullet in station 4.

I load 300 BLK start to finish on a 3-station progressive but have some very special, custom dies.
 
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358156 hp

At large, whereabouts unknown.
I load 223 on a Dillon 550, but I pre-process all of my rifle brass. This shouldn't be a big issue for you since 223 brass almost always needs to be full-length sized and trimmed anyway. I process 223 brass in 1000-2000 round lots, mostly because I hate doing it. My usual setup on my 550 is to have a universal decapper die at the first station to guard against tumbling media in the flash hole, then the usual flaring die with the powder measure at the second station, then seating at station three, and a crimp die at station four if desired. I usually prime brass by hand before starting, but I can also prime normally at the first station if I want to. If cast bullets are the plan I will use my M die at the first station instead of the decapper, and I just inspect the primer pockets by hand.
 

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
I load jacketed and 223 on my turret-arrangement Ponsness-Warren P-200 press, they call it "Semi-Progressive". I just use my RCBS (mostly) die set and powder measure, and can run off 180-200 rounds per hour once I have the items arranged around the machine's perimeter. As above, the brass is resized on a single-stage (RockChucker) and trimmed (Forster) previsously--the P-200 does the re-priming and re-filling.
 
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