Reloading .223 for AR's

[Tyler Durden]

at billt...

yeah, the Giraud and Gracey trimmers are nice.....

however, in my particular situation, I already have a $250 floor model drill press that sits idol 99% of the time.

I just needed a means to spin up a cutter or a trimmer, so I couldn't picture spending another $250 plus on another tool (errr....a motor basically) that would sit idol, again, for 99% of the time.

[Tyler Durden]

but I got tired, literally, ....I was bored out of my mind and my fingers would hurt after a while with the Possum Hollow Cutter/Trimmer when trimming brass with it chucked in a drill.

I had some money burning a hole in my pocket, so I splurged and bought the Dillon 1200 trimmer that fits in the tool head of a reloading press, in my case a 650 with a casefeeder.

Now, no more handling each piece of brass by hand.
 

[robert69]

More than likely, most of us that reload subscribe to two magazines, The Rifle, and The Handloader.  They are published by Wolfe Publishing, and are excellent.  Alot of Information about handloading, etc.  Very good reference material.
They recently had an article about using the RCBS Precision Mic.  They are caliber specific, and as a result of that article, I purchased them for .308 win, 22-250, and 6mm remington.  What they allow you to do is adjust your sizing dies to match the chambers in your rifles (rifle specific, all chambers are not the same), and then size the brass down to .002 less than the fired brass dimension. The fired case dimension is taken with the Precision Mic, and you then size the brass down to .002 less, using the mic to take the sized measurement.  Its really simple, and once your die is adjusted for that rifle, you are done.  Of course if you have several rifles of that caliber (I have 3), you need a die for each rifle, unless that all have the same measurements (unusual if they do).
The process is simple, and it works.  What it does is allow you to NOT oversize your fired brass, and thus you will have longer brass life (more reloads). If you oversize your brass, the headspace dimension will be too small, so when your fire the round, the brass expands (as normal), and then you work the brass excessively. Neck sizing works well, but there will come a time that you will have to full length size neck sized brass, because of brass flow. I shoot 2 bolt Savages and one AR-10, all .308 win.
One thing about reloading for AR type rifles, be it .223, or .308, etc, you should taper crimp the bullets.  This involves a separate die when reloading, but works well.  You can purchase a RCBS die direct from RCBS. The same thing applys to any straight wall pistol round that does not crimp in a crimping groove, like 9mm, 40, 45, etc. This is necessary due to the violent loading process in an AR style rifle. It is usually NOT necessary to use small base dies for AR's, if you do this.
I have been doing this for two years now, with excellent results in group size and consistant velocities.