I am learning. First mistake. I deprimed my cases with a lee decapper die and then put them in the tumbler. Though it would clean the primer pocket. Wrong! It just filled the flash hole with media.
Next mistake. When I started resizing I thought well they are already deprimed so I will screw that deprimer pin up and keep it out of the way. Wrong! When you do that you also move the expander ball up. If it isn’t down in the case to expand the neck on the down stroke your necks will be way too small to fit over the trimmer pilot. So put it back in the die and expand it out right. Wrong! throw that brass away.
Next mistake. I bought the forster original case trimmer and all the accesories to go with it. After about an hour of turning on that handle I realized this isn’t going to get it. Took the handle off and put a nylock nut on there and got an electric screw gun. Now I can trim a case in nothing flat. I have the forster trimmer that trims and deburs at the same time. Works great. Took a while to get the length right. More trial and error. Then I realized what that little set screw was for. Fine adjustment.
Next mistake. Bought the lyman flash hole deburing/flash hole uniformer. Again after my hand started cramping I realized this wasn’t going to cut it. I bought the Lyman case prep center. Have it set up with a primer pocket uniformer, crimp remover, primer pocket cleaner and a lyman flash hole deburer and flash hole uniformer. Makes preping cases fun.
This is as far as I have gotten with reloading.
Now I do have a question. I am sure I will learn it the hard way like all this other stuff but maybe you guys can save me from myself. Most of the brass that I have preped is match ammo from Federal, Nosler, Winchester without crimps. Now I am into a bunch of the federal 5.56 ammo I use with my other gun. I am not swaging the primer pockets. I am using the crimp remover from the lyman case prep center. Anyway the question is how deep do you go with the crimp remover. It almost looks like there is a sleeve in the primer pocket on this brass. I don’t want to make it so big the primer falls out. What I am doing now is beveling the outside edge and hoping the primer pocket uniformer will take care of the rest. Guess I will find out when I start priming.
Prime a few cases to get the feel. They should seat with a little resistance. Don’t get carried away when you swage the primer pockets, just enough to get the primer to seat.
Vibratory tumbler don’t clean nearly as well as wet tumbling with stainless media. I would look into it if you want clean primer pockets.
You can move the expander ball/decapping pin up and out of the way, but only enough so the pin won’t go through the hole. Before I did this, the pin would hit the case head around the flash hole inside. I figured it would just be easier to move it out of the way. Or you could just remove the decapping pin, which I do on some of my other dies.
Be careful with that Federal brass, the primer pockets stretch out after 1 or 2 firings. If it doesn’t require a bit of force to seat the primer, don’t use them. You will pop primers. They may even fall out unexpected.
Definitely don’t swage too much. Just enough so the primer will seat.
If I were you, I would go watch some you tube vids on reloading, there are some good ones out there. The general feeling I am getting from the thread is “I’m not sure how to do this correctly”
There is a ton of good info in this vid series. This guy is pretty squared away. Given your current skill level with 223, you should not be shooting any of your reloads or reloading them yet. Remember this is dangerous. What type of press are you using ?
Maybe it would help if you told us all the equipment you are using ? Every brand has it’s own quirks. What all of us want is for you to be safe and gain some knowledge in reloading.
My latest purchase is a stainless media tumbler. Why didn’t I do this years ago !!!
Lastly, I do see you are new to the forums, and that you are new to the black rifle club. Welcome !!! you will find this is one of the best forums around. There is so much knowledge on here I rarely post that much. I also see you are not new to reloading, but new to the 223 cartridge. There are many steps in reloading this one.
Everyone here will help you the best they can.
I have watched tons of utube videos. Probably wouldn’t have gotten through building my rifle without them.
most of the mistakes I have made so far are just bonehead mistakes. Playing with all the brass prep is definitely new to me. We just didn’t do all this 35 or 40 years ago. sure we trimmed and I had a hand neck turner for my benchrest rifle but reloading has come a long way.
My stuff
Forster Co-Ax B-3 press
lee decapping die and forster sizing and micrometer seating dies
forster original case trimmer
lyman 1200 tumbler
lyman case prep center
lyman Gen6 powder system
I have 200 lapua cases that I am going to use for load development once I have this brass prep down
I have 8 Lb of cfe 223 powder Want varget and some others to try. Finding it is the problem. Got the Cfe 223 off gunbrokers. Paid way too much.
Sierra Matchking 52gr, 69gr, 77gr
Berger 70gr VLD
Hornady 52gr match
got the reloading manuals for all the bullet manufacturers. Not all have CFE 223 but their websites do
CCI small rifle bench rest primers
and a whole lot of other stuff I can’t think of right now.
Decapping before tumbling is good for SS media, probably not so much if you’re just going to dry tumble.
Getting rid of the expander ball is a good idea. It gives your runout and more case trimming. But you need to replace that with a neck expander die… or some other way to size the neck back out. Neck expander dies size on the down stroke and don’t increase case length.