.223/5.56 on Lee Pro 1000?

[taylorce1]

Is this a good or bad idea? I've inherited a Lee Pro 1000 progressive press, and I'd like to put it to work. It's set up in .45 ACP, but I don't have much use for that as I don't shoot it often. Ideally a press with more stations would be better for rifle, but I'm thinking of a work around and want some input?

My process I'm thinking of.

Toolhead 1
Station 1, Universal Decap Die
Station 2, RCBS small base Die with expander removed.
Station 3, Mandrel Neck Die

Off press.
Trim, chamfer, and deburr
Tumble off lube
Swage primer pocket if necessary
Hand prime

Toolhead 2
Station 1, powder charge Lee Autodrum
Station 2, powder check/or bullet feed die
Station 3, seat die and taper crimp

 

[MarkCO]

I loaded a LOT of ammo on Lee Pro-1000s in my college days.

First (and we are talking late 1980s) I found it did in fact work best with large primers.

I did get it to work reasonably well for .223 with a good bit of fluffing and buffing and maintaining the proper speeds. Within that, I paid to have my brass processed, so I was basically using full length sized, trimmed and cleaned 1 to 3 times fired brass on the Pro1000. If I could get 223 brass processed for $25/1K today, I still would.

If you want to resize on the Pro1000, use plenty of lube.

The 3 step process you have described might work just fine based on the issues I had. Namely too much bump and rattle for the priming with the sizing. Then again, I think I'd try to prime on press with the 2nd Toolhead. Big fan of Lee FCD over Taper on the .223.

 

[Marco Califo]

My suggestion is to do as much off the progressive press as possible. Specifically:
1. De-prime, clean, inspect, re-size, and prime cases in advance. In my experience this is when you will detect things you do not want interrupting your progressive session.
2. Sit down with primed cases and drop powder, and seat bullet. That is two stations. You could then add a FCD and/or powder cop die.

 

[taylorce1]

@MarkCO, I don't have the parts to change over to small primers. Plus the info I've found on the Lee progressive presses biggest issues are usually with the priming system. I thought about the FCD in station 3, but that would leave me reaching around to the back of the press to add a bullet to the case. This may not be an issue, IDK.

I've never used a progressive, so thanks for the caveat on resizing on this press. I do have a Lee Classic Turret press that speeds up .223 reloading, but I only use it with processed and primed brass. I run the mandrel die, auto drum, seater, and FCD on its toolhead. Everything else is done on a couple of single stage presses and hand priming. I try to avoid crimped primers as much as possible as well.


@Marco Califo, I'm trying to speed up the initial processing of .223. It is what I shoot the most of, and it is quite tedious at a single stage press.

 

[Marco Califo]

@Marco Califo, I'm trying to speed up the initial processing of .223. It is what I shoot the most of, and it is quite tedious at a single stage press.

I do all the tedious stuff on a Lee hand-press while watching TV.

 

[44 AMP]

My experience with progressives and rifle cartridges is that its best to size the brass separately. Not because of anything about the press, but because of the change in the feel of the process.

When you are sizing, priming, charging powder and seating bullets (and perhaps crimping) ALL ON THE SAME STROKE of the press, it changes the feel of each operation compared to using a single stage or a turret press.

For me, since I have decades of experience on single stage, I can tell by feel when something is "off". Seating doesn't feel right, or that primer went in too easy, or that crimp felt different...what ever is off, it feels different from when every thing is right. Frequently I'm able to stop and find out what is off, before damaging or destroying a case, primer, or bullet.

For example, bullets (especially flat base ones) can sometimes tip just a bit too much going into the seater die. On a single stage, I can feel this and stop right away. When it happens on a progressive, the effort needed to resize rifle brass at the same time hides the feel of the off normal condition, and the full stroke of the ram often wrecks the tipped bullet case and sometimes the bullet with it.

Progressives can do rifle brass but its a pain, for me, and I choose to "batch size" my rifle brass. I size all the brass as a batch, on a single stage press. And I prime off the press as well. Sure, its tedious for some. Personally I enjoy making ammunition.

 

[ghbucky]

I've inherited a Lee Pro 1000 progressive press

Sorry for your loss.

I recently went to a progressive press, and I'll add on to the comments to do as much processing off press as possible. I load straight wall pistol, so I'm not dealing with the complication of full length sizing bottleneck cases, but I'd definitely want to deprime, clean, swage and prime off of the progressive.

I like eliminate as many variables as possible on the progressive (I don't want to try de-prime crimped primers, or find out I have a pocket that needs to be swaged, etc).

 

[akinswi]

44amp, your process exactly what I currently do.

My current experiment now is setting up a RCBS X die to eliminate me from sizing on my Coax, then trim. My sizing die currently is using no expander ball and using a lyman m die to expand the case neck.

Runnout is excellent.

When my experiments is done I will report my results on here. If it works I can deprime size and prime on station 1 on my dillion. and will save alot of time with brass prep, more time practicing.

But I need to shoot these batch of 50 a couple more times too see how case length and accuracy progresses


The X die would work well especially for .223 on the Lee pro 1000 (which I have ) because its only 3 stations

 

[.45 Vet]

I've been using my Pro 1000 for right around 40 years. It's best kept to 2>300 round runs of straight cased pistol ammo. If you're hell bent on using it for .223/5.56 you can make it work, but there are better options available.

 

[taylorce1]

If you're hell bent on using it for .223/5.56 you can make it work, but there are better options available.

I don't have to use it for .223, it's just what I shoot the most of. I'm not really a pistol guy, unless you count my .300 BLK pistol. Only straightwall cases I shoot on occasion are .45 ACP, .30 Carbine, and .44 Mag in Ruger Carbine. Both the 1911R1 and Ruger Carbine were left to me by my friend, and I doubt I'll shoot a 50 round box through them anytime soon. My M1 carbine sees maybe 100 rounds a year.

 

[akinswi]

You could do station 1 RCBS X die, would eliminate the need to trim. you can lube each case and use something like imperial dry lube for the case necks, station 2 powder expander die. Then station 3 bullet seating.

The issue with bottle neck cases is the need to trim after resizing. You only have 3 stations, so the setup above would provide the quickest way to reloaded ammo.

Notice I said the quickest not necessarily the best but it would really save you time. If thats your main goal.

I would def only run 1 cartridge at a time after a few then start running multiples, I also only the case tubes for pistol cartridges.

 

[44 AMP]

The issue with bottle neck cases is the need to trim after resizing.

Unless you think it is, it is not necessary to trim bottle neck cases AFTER resizing. IF what you are after is precise trimmed to length, for crimping, (for example) then after sizing is best. But if all that matters is the cases are short enough not to protrude from the chamber, you can determine what length to trim them to before sizing so the stretch from sizing leaves them at the correct length, generally...

is it "sloppy"? some would say so, but for some things, "sloppy" works just fine. For other things, not so much.