I’ve basically come to the conclusion that i’m only going to reload for my bolt action (.243). Its what i hunt with, so…
I’ll just buy steel .223/556 for the AR…
Sort of the direction I went quite a few years ago. I was reloading 45acp, 38spl, 9mm, and quite a few rifle. Now; the ONLY thing I reload is my 7mm remington magnum for hunting. And even then, I only do about 100 a year. 60 for re-sighting my scope and for fun, and 40 on hand for hunting. It’s not like I need a lot of rounds. Prior to the Obama scare (His election), I stocked up on pistol and rifle ammo. Minimum of 1000 rounds per caliber. I was getting 45acp for $10 a box. 9mm for $7 a box. 38spl for $8 a box. 357 magnum for $10 a box. 9mm makarov for $7 a box. etc… Bought a little here and there. Would it save me money if I reloaded? Yes. But the older you get, the more money generally you have, and the less time you have. So, for me, reloading isn’t what it use to be. I keep the reloading equipment around in case of an emergency, but most of my plinking fun now is mainly .223, 22LR, some 9mm and 9mm makarov. Mainly .223. It’s the cheapest, and the most fun.
This would be another comparison to make:
vs.
Yes, I know it’s .223 apples and .22lr oranges, but for plinking the cost comparison is valid… Doing the basic math in my head, it would cost two-thirds or even only half to go .22lr vs. reloading .223 ($300-500 for a .22 conversion, then 5-7¢ per round, vs. $500-600 to set up reloading .223, then 12-15¢ per round).
FWIW, I haven’t set up to reload .223/5.56 yet, but I did buy a .22lr conversion and several thousand rounds of .22lr…
Update on the cheap load…
It ain’t working!!!
The wolf .223 primer will not reliably ignite the wc844 powder, I’ve have several hang fires and one squib. Luckily I saw that the shell casing was missing the bullet as I tapped and racked. I cleared the rifle and tapped the bullet out of the barrel with a cleaning rod and I was back in business.
I switched to some ammo loaded up with my old load of 24.5 gr TAC, 55 FMJ, and Wolf 223 primer in LC brass. Shot around 200 of these with no issues…
I’m switching to CCI 41 primers which were $334 delivered for 10 K, so now my cheap load will cost $0.12 a round…
I’ll report back with any other problems…
-dave
Strange. Is this the Wolf SRM? I have used those with wc844T powder without issue though my Wolf primers are from 2007.
Hmmm.
I find that strange too. I’ve used the standard (not .223) Tula (Wolf/Russian) SR primer for both ball (H335) and stick powders and they worked fine.
In fact, the Tula’s shoot as well as FGMM primers for me (w.r.t. ES, SD and accuracy), and they’re what I’ve been using in my “match” loads. They also give the lowest MV, and the bonus is they’re darn cheap.
Yup… Wolf 223 primers from lot 4-09…
I’ve pulled apart some of the misfires, the primer went off and there is partially burnt powder clumped up at the bottom of the case…
What kinda stinks is that I jumped on 10k of Tula .223 primers because Powder Valley has got free Haz Mat and shipping when you order 10k. I’ll try them out with the WC 844 but I’m a bit leary… I’m sure they’ll work just fine with TAC and H322…
Maybe I’ll whip up a load using the AA1680 as well…never did get into loading 7.62x39 and I’ve got 16 lbs in stock…
ETA… I’ve gone through 7k of the Wolf Primers between .223 and 6.8 spc, with no problems except for the wc844…
-dave
Nope the Wolf 223 primer is supposed to be slightly hotter that the SRM…
-dave
I don’t get it. Is it possible that your powder is contaminated?
I’m curious to hear if you’ll have better results with different (CCI) primers.
Davestarbuck
Really what your asking is a quality issue! Bulk steel cased ammo can not compare to reloads in anyway shape or form! One the accuracy will be way better! Two you’ll not have to worry about FTF,FTE with brass! Three one and two make it more then affordable then steel ! Four you can repeat the prosess over and over with the same brass which reduces the cost every time! There’s no comparison!
Think about it -buy some bulk brass ammo say 2000 round wurth! Now you got all the brass you’ll need for say 4-10 reloadings thats 8000-20000 rounds of high quality reloads at $.15-.20 a load depending on bullet used! 
markm was just telling me that he was having problems with his reloads the other day as well. I think he was using the same primers. I am going to point him over here.
Plus the cost of that R&D…
Yep. A “Progressive” reloading machine is not very progressive, when you keep taking the casings out of the machine to perform other tasks. I have a Dillon 550B and love it with pistol cartridges. With rifle, no so much. If everything is perfect with the casings from the get go, I can just reload the whole cycle, and everything is fast and good. But if I need to trim, deal with primer pockets, etc., I might as well use one of my non-progressive machines. If you do that very often, you begin to wonder why you bought a progressive to start with.
On the other hand, if reloading is your hobby, then you are getting pleasure out of doing the various steps. Especially when you save money. Even though I recently retired, and supposedly have more time on my hands, I hate spending more time than I think I should. Just my personality I guess.
I don’t know why you would do this?
I have a Dillon 550B and love it with pistol cartridges. With rifle, no so much. If everything is perfect with the casings from the get go, I can just reload the whole cycle, and everything is fast and good. But if I need to trim, deal with primer pockets, etc., I might as well use one of my non-progressive machines. If you do that very often, you begin to wonder why you bought a progressive to start with.
I find rifle still much faster on any of my Dillon’s than using my rockchucker. Much much faster.
On the other hand, if reloading is your hobby, then you are getting pleasure out of doing the various steps. Especially when you save money. Even though I recently retired, and supposedly have more time on my hands, I hate spending more time than I think I should. Just my personality I guess.
I don’t get it.
I’m not trolling, I’m trying to figure out how to set myself up to load .223 and .308, and your post doesn’t make any sense to me.
My impression is that I can use my Dillon 550B to punch primer pockets, size, and trim all at once with one toolhead. That’s two (or three?) operations at once.
Then I anticipate swaging primer pockets (I have a lot of LC brass). OK.
But then I can run them all through the 550B to seat primers, dump powder, seat bullets, and crimp simultaneously in another toolhead. That’s four operations at once.
How is that not better/faster than a single stage?
No, you do get it.
Brass prep with my 550 is at least 4 times as fast as it was when I was using my single stage or my turret press. From start to finish I just fully processed about 2500 pieces of brass in just under 4 hours.
If you invest in the right equipment, brass prep is a breeze…
Note I’m still using the first 5000 pieces of brass I’ve fully processed. I plan on getting at least 3 loads out of them, so in reality 15k rounds of ammo. I’m processing more here and there to refine my procedures and technique, practice makes perfect!!!
-dave
I guess I was not thinking it through as much as I should have, and dumbly overstated the case. The progressive is always faster, no matter what else you do, than a single stage. With pistol calibers though, I rarely even think of trimming, since I’m not using maximum loads to start with. Many times, if the cases look good, I don’t even clean the brass before I start. Just go from A to Z all on the 550.
Yes, you can size, knock out the primer, and trim if you have the attachment. If you buy Dillons trimmer and die it will set you back $285, and then you still need a vacuum and a hose to hook it to. I don’t know if I will ever buy one, since I have a manual trimmer and do the extra step of deburring the case mouths by hand. I’d also have to use hearing protection with the vacuum I have, but then again I guess you could buy a small, quieter dedicated vacuum for the task, for more money.
I likewise have a bunch of LC cases, and bought an RCBS swager for my single stage press. So there’s extra work that can’t be helped.
Sorry for the jumbled post. I should have made the simple point that reloading can be time consuming, even with a progressive system. If you run up a bill buying all of the available options, like trimmers and case feeders, then the economy of handloading isn’t as valid a factor as it was before. We are in a bad economy, but from some posts you would think money is no object. If you have it, more power to you.
Wolf primers HATE H335/WC844.
I did the math a while ago on reloading 223 and I came up with .20 to reload. I was buying steel case for .18 and brass for .28. While I am just a 100-200yd plinker it doesn’t make sense for me to reload 223 as opposed to the precision shooters from my club that need the accuracy that they can’t get from Russian steel. Everybody is different with different needs. Personally my range time is worth more that .08 a round difference for the good stuff.
Dave