My beginner reloading questions.

[Glockdude]

So for brass prep, I am best off cleaning, depriming and resizing, then trimming? So I should use the lee turret as a single stage for this and deprime and resize all the brass and then remove the die when i go to load the brass ? I guess I am at bit confused here.

[Meketrefe]

The first time you have an opportunity to resize, deprime and then take and trim accordingly. Then you can wash the brass to clean the dirtiest part that is the primer pockets. you can rotate so while you work on a 200 batch for example you can have another one drying and getting ready to finish the process.

Here things that will make life a lot easier and pretty consistent for the money....

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/476...ProductFinding

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/107...ProductFinding

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/439...ProductFinding

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/254...ProductFinding

Or when you can afford a power station but folks have adapted several power drills running at the same time with the above.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/565...ProductFinding
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/145...ProductFinding

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/244...ProductFinding

Might want to add a screw driver handle to the case holder that makes the trimming much faster.
Again the power station will require you adapt the lee cutter to the therad that can be done with a bushing adapter.

Or save money and go for the forster trimmer system. Lots of fast cutters there but this is the only one that works really well.
So for starters the lee gauges for cutting are pretty good and inexpensive and help great deal.
Brass preparation is key towards consistency and accuracy. Some folks will tell you just toss all the brass in there
and reload and go shooting. don't do it. Aside from safety issues (murphy's law) your results are proportional to the
attention to detail and consistency. So you get what you pay for. In this case your payment is extra time and attention.

That is what I suggest to introduce some motorized methods to make life easier yet still preserve quality preparation
w/o killing yourself at preparing brass.

Priming can be as easy as a hand tool while you listen to your favorite show. This is hard to get wrong. It is more a tactile
feeling for the primer than anything else. Well make sure it goes in the right way too. LOL.

[Glockdude]

Thank you.... I will check out all that. Appreciate the input.

[Meketrefe]

I didn't know they had this adapter too if one wants to do it....

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/983...ProductFinding

Here you can do all operations easy with a power drill. A small inexpensive handy one better.

So in a metal bracket using some nuts and bolts you can setup all your trimming, chamfering and whatever you need.

2 drills might be perfect and inexpensive too.

[thughes]

$60 Harbor Freight drill press, Lyman hand prep tool, Lee case trimmer, locking pliers:

Chuck up the Lee trimmer in the drill press (the part you are supposed to hold with your hand):





Lock the pliers on the shell holder (the part you are supposed to chuck in the drill) and load up a piece of brass:





Spark up the press and have at it:





I got the Lyman hand prep tool:



I use it by hand to remove primer pocket crimps as necessary and chuck up the chamfer tools in the drill.


Internal chamfer tool (just hold the bras by hand, really should not be exerting any pressure as you are just deburring):





and the external chamfer tool chucked up and ready to go:





I can get through a lot of brass in a hurry using my method. Normally I tumble for a bit to get the worse of the crap of the brass, then bulk lube with the alcohol/lanolin mix, decap/size, trim, chamfer, and then tumble one more time to get the lube off and the primer pockets cleaned up. After this final tumble I inspect each piece under a lighted magnifier and use a torch tip cleaner to make sure there isn't any tumbling media stuck in the flash hole. After the final inspection the brass gets bagged and labelled....ready for the next rainy day reloading session.

[Glockdude]

Thughes, that is impressive. Thanks for that.

[camper4lyfe]

Thughes, that is impressive. Thanks for that.

That's what she said!

[Glockdude]

That's what she said!

lol did not know reloading could turn dirty.

[Glockdude]

This is a bit overkill for case prep, but damn i fell like it would go quick. http://www.amazon.com/Lyman-Case-Pre...G617DASVM9K709

[24Pink14Stink]

Actually saw that in my midway ad I got in the mail last week.

[Meketrefe]

I use the press drill for trimming wildcats, sometimes super magnums that are hard to form.
The RCBS prep center works just fine. I don't know the lyman but should be fine too.
The only thing there is a screwdriver handle with the hex socket ($3) to put the shell holder and the rest is easy.
After chamfer and deburring you can turn it around and do the primer pocket if needed with military brass and
also clean with the wire brush. ...all pretty quick.

Or you can use a power drill, a small handy one and attache the holder there and then use the attachments on a solid plate
and move also fast that way. Since the gauge self aligns that is not an issue. Some folks put two so they can do the pocket last.
This is even faster than the press drill and cheaper to start too. you can get a metal bracket or something you can attach to a
piece of wood scrap and drill and tap or simply find a washer and nut on the ACE store so all the needed heads are stationary while
the case rotates. A small drill is very cheap if you don't already have one.

The best method is the Forster 3 way but that requires cutters for every caliber and a very precise trimmer like a little lathe.
They are not cheap but this is the fastest and more consistent way as it is the system used by match competitors to produce
amazing consistent brass. All I did was to add a power unit and a carrier to travel making the sizing, chanfering and deburring of the brass
all in one pass in 2 seconds, literally.

The RCBS 3 way is also fast but doesn't produce the consistency of forster. And it is expensive too with all the cutters and pilots, etc...

But the lee will do the job w/o going nuts about brass preparation and/or getting carpel tunnel. LOL