Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles .223 on a progressive?

I'd like to buy a progressive press to speed up my .223 production. It's the cartridge I shoot the most of by far. I'd like to stay around $1000 +/- for the press, what would you buy?

All of them are pretty good. Ford/Chevy kind of thing. I have a Hornady LNL and like it. Big step up from single stage.

Dillon 550

Dillon 750 unless your brass has crimped primers than a 1050 with a price increase!

I try to avoid crimped primers by sticking to .223 brass if I can. I can swage or cut the crimps out, but that adds steps off press. I'm trying to do as much as possible on the press.

I have tried loading on a Lee Classic Turret press, but the primer system sucks. I found myself decapping, resizing, and priming off press. I then use a mandrel neck die, powder charge, bullet seat, and crimp die on the four stations on the press. I'll still decap off press, but I'd like to resize, prime, and possibly add a bullet feed die.

So I think I want at least a six station press, so that has kind of lead me to Hornady LNL, RCBS PC7, and possibly Lee Pro 6000. I'm also kind of interested in the Frankford Arsenal X-10, but it may be more back end expense than I want. I imagine cartridge changes will be more expensive than others if I want to add more cartridges down the road.

The Dillon 750 has no peer for what you are looking for. It is 2-3 times faster than a 550 and well worth the money…

Another vote for Dillon!

Listen to this:


Look up pics of Shrapnel's loading room. He knows about volume production.

Dillon is the way to go, the rest are just imposters
750 for quantity, 550 if you like to be a bit more in control

Continued with the 650…

What do you guys do about lubing I cases? Spray? Neck size only?

Dry lube spray. Then I vibrate the cartridges clean in a Lyman Turbo Tumbler and go shoot them.

Neck sizing doesn’t do as much for case life as some people think. I full length resize all the time, every time…

I use a 550-B, for streight J word loadng but I do have a PW also set up that I use fot the 223 TCU cats with cast.

Thanks Shrapnel.

Lee collet die or Redding bushing neck die with ti ni bushing, no lube

Thanks for the videos Castle_Rock and shrapnel. Both are way faster than how I reload .223 currently.

I do all my .223/.223AI on a 550.

It's a tad slower than a 650 but not by much when cranking out varmint ammo.

Precision stuff goes through twice as I prefer to anneal and run a mandrel in the necks.

Dillon is hard to beat imho, but I'm certainly biased as I have several.

Can't fault my Lee 6000.


I bought a 223 shell plate and will try it this summer.


I will let you know how it goes...if I can remember that far.

I'd be interested in a report. It is way down on my list, but its price point makes it interesting. If it could be made to swage, it would be nice for processing brass.