How Phil reloads on a Dillon:

[sdmc530]

OK so with all this talk about reloading I thought I would start a thread on my process of reloading. I was just going to do a video showing the operation of the Dillon 650 and still will but thought it would be better on the complete process.

Padre gave me the inspiration and thought I start a thread. It will probably take me a while to go through the complete process but will get there with a video.

***Disclaimer*** I am no expert. Not even close and if you see me say or doing something not quite right or you have a better idea of how it should go, speak up please. We all can use great advise from other perspective.

Here we go!

[sdmc530]

Being I reload on a progressive I only touch my brass once. This is just after I clean it. I collect the brass at the range usually only my own but will pick up others if its what I do shoot. I put it in a mesh bag until I get home then in storage containers. Repeat with next trip to the range. I only reload in the winter so I save brass all year round.

Winter comes and I get to it. I hate this process the most because its very messy. I put media in my tumbler. I use the Lyman Turbo 1200 tumbler. I dump in my media and a cap full of Nufinish car wax. I use Hornaday media because it gives off less dust in my opinion. There are many makers and types of media but this is what I like. I store the media in a big tote and just put in and out as needed.

Then I take the brass from the containers and put in the tumbler with the media and the wax. I run my brass for about 2 hours. Seems good enough for me. I am not worried about getting it perfect but clean enough to be able to visually inspect the case.

After the two hours I use a separator pan and then one by one examine each piece of brass because this will be the last time I handle the brass. Then I place the media back in the tumbler and do another cycle. I don't pre-separate case size I do that after I tumble it.

Picture 1: Tumbler loaded
Picture 2: Tumbler working
Picture 3: Clean brass in separator pan
Picture 4: Media container and separator pan

Just a couple more thoughts: I never do this process while doing any loading or handling anything that might go boom. The tumbler creates static and don't want to risk shocking anything bad. Also I do this in a separate area then my press because the media gets all over. By all means I should really do this in the garage but its winter in South Dakota. So after I clean, inspect, separate the brass I then clean up all the brass prep stuff. I want it out of sight.

I only load pistol rounds so I don't worry about cleaning primer pockets and all that stuff. If I loaded rifle I would probably tumble, de-prime, then use a multi prep station that gets all the nook and crannies. But with pistol I don't believe that is necessary and have never had an issue that I am aware of. With less than 50 rounds per rifle that I shoot or less there is no savings for me to load rifle. Pistol well worth it because I shoot thousands of rounds per year.

Thoughts?

Next step for me is prepping the press area for reloading (hopefully soon)

[DaFadda]

, good point concerning static electricity and things that can go boom. I'm looking forward to part two!

Michael

[pitor]

Originally Posted by DaFadda

, good point concerning static electricity and things that can go boom. I'm looking forward to part two!

Michael

Very good point raised about static electricity. I did a little bit of research and it seems that corn cob media produces more static electricity than any other media. If you buy crushed Walnut for lizard terrariums this seems to really produce good results, highly polished brass, and almost no static. All this information I was able to obtain by reading the various Amazon comments on the different tumbler media products. Amazing what you learn by reading other people's reviews . just thought I would share my findings here. I continue to learn so much from you guys and I appreciate all these threads about reloading.

[sdmc530]

So here is the filling up of the press. If you watch to the end I put about 400 cases into the case feed and it jams up. I did it on purpose to show you that is does that. You can only put in maybe 250 at a time or it fails. I think this is a problem but Dillon says that is what its supposed to handle. Just my opinon that its not large enough:

Funny is that I had the radio on in the background and my music is copyrighted so its muted by Youtube. I wish I knew that, the primer tube has an alarm on it you can't hear when it gets low, it beeps. Some music plays on some vids and not in others. No making fun of my music from the 90's ether!


Loading up:



Here is when primers get low, beeps and I reload the primers, start the case feed and carry on:



Press working from the inside view:

[sdmc530]

here is what I did in 3 hours with all the loading of supplies and dealing with the camera. Also I failed to put the pin in primer tube so I loaded 100 primers in and then dumped them all on the floor. Camera should have been rolling cuz I was cussing pretty good!

I load 991 loads of 45 185 gr plated round nose with 5.5gr of 231. My favorite range load to use. I always put them in the case upside down because as you can see I always load one or two per 1000 with the primer in backwards, not sure how I even manage this AND I have fat fingers so easier to get out too.



I will do one more video and that will be how to change heads and to do a caliber conversion. I have some 10MM to load so will do that hopefully soon!

[pitor]

Great thread . Thanks for taking the time to show us your process!

In the meantime I'm reading the reloading handbook from Lee, that our Padre very generously surprised me with. Thanks again Michael.

[sdmc530]

Originally Posted by pitor

Great thread . Thanks for taking the time to show us your process!

In the meantime I'm reading the reloading handbook from Lee, that our Padre very generously surprised me with. Thanks again Michael.

Oh yeah he is a hell of a guy. I too will copy what I have and email to you. Just need to get to an office with a scanner, hopefully in the next week.

Monday I have off! Kid will be at school, wife at work so that will be the day I attempt to film the press in action. Never done anything like this before.

Only hard decision I have right now is what color thong to wear

[Gatorade]

Originally Posted by sdmc530

Only hard decision I have right now is what color thong to wear

The Blue one . OBVIOUSLY!

[Sheepdog]

Set bullet, pull handle, repeat.