.223 Rem on dillon 550

[HappyHunter]

I am planning on reloading Rem 223 for a Bushmaster Varminter (24 inch,9 in 1 twist).

I have the Dillon power trimmer on a single stage press and have ordered the conversion kit.  I am planning on using my Lee 223 carbide dies for this.

Is there a special die to use for semi auto ammo?

I will be loading 55 gr hollow point bullets, into remmington brass with winchester primers, powder will be determined later.  (I will start with Varget and 2230).

I hope to make good quality ammunition, any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks

Fred

[redial]

Naw, no special stuff needed for semis. I've probably loaded 50,000 rounds for self loading rifles on Dillons over the years, mostly match and practice loads for M1As and ARs.

One big HOWEVER that you'll quickly discover is that extruded powders and .22 cal case necks don't mix well in progressive setups. I won't even try to make it work anymore. Stick with ball powders or throw the extruded from a seperate measure then check or weigh each. No sense reinventing the wheel, eh?

Cheers!

Redial

[dallas44432]

Yea, your thinking of "small base dies"..They squeze the case down at the bottom and are necessary if the ammo was fired from a different gun at an earlier time. Even if the brass all came from the particular rifle your loading for it  will eventually get too big to be reliable.  I use them and before I got those dies my AR would not chamber the ammo I had on hand.  Use them all the time although I know it isnt necessary.

[HappyHunter]

dallal44432,,

That is it I was told about this and then promptly forgot all about it.  Who makes these dies?

Thanks,

Fred

[dallas44432]

Let me see, their pretty common.  Can't seem to find mine right now...I suppose there available for the semi-auto calibers for sure, not all calibers.  Do a search on Google for complete info...Dallas

[Thomas Krupinski]

The small base die sets I have are RCBS.

[HappyHunter]

I have found a RCBS small base die, with decapper/expander ball and a Redding without the expander ball/decapper.

Is it  resonable to use standard dies and use the small base die only after a feed problem occurs?  

From what I can determine the use of the small base die will shorten the life of the brass and tends to make it brittle.  

I plan to use the Dillon power trimmer which utilizes a special fl sizer die (no decapper or expander ball) in the process.  Later on the Dillon progressive press I will use another fl sizer die (turned out 1-2 full turns so as not to size brass again)  to decap and use expander ball.  The use of the small base die will complicate this process.  

So I was wondering if the use of the Redding FL small base die (without the
expander) as an occasional repair to the brass might be a reasonable as a routine?  I would only use this once the rounds begin to have feed problems and then size the entire batch.  

I hope this makes sense, sorry for the ramble.

Fred

[Iowegan]

I bought a .223 Redding taper crimp die for my Dillon 550. It's the best thing since sliced bread for auto loaders. I use a Hornady sizer and bullet seater. I back the seater die out so it won't do a roll crimp. Trimming is not critical and the bullets stay put when the action slams shut. Haven't had a failure-to-feed since I started using it.  Also makes for better accuracy.