A reminder for all the reloaders...

[DesertMarine]

For the guys that use progressive presses.  When reloading fired cases, do you prep your cases other than tumble clean prior to resizing?  By case prepping, I mean: cleaning and truing primer pockets, trim to length and deburr case mouth.  I do all of those and really don't mind doing them.  Consistent accurate loads are more important to me than fast reloading.  And also I do not reload in the quantities that a lot of you do. 

[MikeBjerum]

For the guys that use progressive presses.  When reloading fired cases, do you prep your cases other than tumble clean prior to resizing?  By case prepping, I mean: cleaning and truing primer pockets, trim to length and deburr case mouth.  I do all of those and really don't mind doing them.  Consistent accurate loads are more important to me than fast reloading.  And also I do not reload in the quantities that a lot of you do. 

Ture handgun loads I do not.  I do check each case to besure it is free of debris and not cracked, but I do not further process between cleaning and reloading.  Rifle cases are tumbled and then processed to what ever level of detail I wish prior to the press.

[DesertMarine]

I have considered going to a progressive press, mainly a Dillon, but have not due to the issue of case prepping.  Not sure if anymore but at one time New Zealand was loading ammo for use in Palma Matches with Dillon presses and match requirements are that you have to use issued ammo.  But with new brass.  To me that says a lot for Dillon.
What I have learned is that for consistent accurate loads, case prepping is a major factor. I prep new brass and always find variances in primer pocket depths, length, sizing, to me that makes for differences in performance.  I do not sort by weight.  At one time I was measuring case thickness just ahead of the web, marking the case and orienting each round in the rifle according to the mark.  The theory being that it would minimize performance variances caused by case thickness variance.  I would also sort by load round concentricity at the bullet.  Though I do not shoot for ity-bitty groups anymore, I still want my ammo to be as consistent as possible.  Maybe one of these days, I'll find the answer and go to a Dillon.

[MikeBjerum]

I have considered going to a progressive press, mainly a Dillon, but have not due to the issue of case prepping.  Not sure if anymore but at one time New Zealand was loading ammo for use in Palma Matches with Dillon presses and match requirements are that you have to use issued ammo.  But with new brass.  To me that says a lot for Dillon.
What I have learned is that for consistent accurate loads, case prepping is a major factor. I prep new brass and always find variances in primer pocket depths, length, sizing, to me that makes for differences in performance.  I do not sort by weight.  At one time I was measuring case thickness just ahead of the web, marking the case and orienting each round in the rifle according to the mark.  The theory being that it would minimize performance variances caused by case thickness variance.  I would also sort by load round concentricity at the bullet.  Though I do not shoot for ity-bitty groups anymore, I still want my ammo to be as consistent as possible.  Maybe one of these days, I'll find the answer and go to a Dillon.

I have a friend that has won several national matches, and he does zero case prep.  He cleans and inspects his cases and runs them through his Dillon.  Once he gets his charge, bullet weight and over all length dialed in for the gun, he just cranks them out by the hundreds.  Defies half of what many believe must be done, but it works for him and his gun.

[PegLeg45]

I have considered going to a progressive press, mainly a Dillon, but have not due to the issue of case prepping.  Not sure if anymore but at one time New Zealand was loading ammo for use in Palma Matches with Dillon presses and match requirements are that you have to use issued ammo.  But with new brass.  To me that says a lot for Dillon.
What I have learned is that for consistent accurate loads, case prepping is a major factor. I prep new brass and always find variances in primer pocket depths, length, sizing, to me that makes for differences in performance.  I do not sort by weight.  At one time I was measuring case thickness just ahead of the web, marking the case and orienting each round in the rifle according to the mark.  The theory being that it would minimize performance variances caused by case thickness variance.  I would also sort by load round concentricity at the bullet.  Though I do not shoot for ity-bitty groups anymore, I still want my ammo to be as consistent as possible.  Maybe one of these days, I'll find the answer and go to a Dillon.

I know a guy that only tumbles and cleans after several reloadings.
For now I still stick to my old single stage Lees.
I have a Dillon RL550 still new in the box. I have everything to load with it, just too lazy to clean off the space to set it up.

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[DesertMarine]

I have a friend that has won several national matches, and he does zero case prep.  He cleans and inspects his cases and runs them through his Dillon.  Once he gets his charge, bullet weight and over all length dialed in for the gun, he just cranks them out by the hundreds.  Defies half of what many believe must be done, but it works for him and his gun.

That's great and more power to him.  What kind of competition?  The needs/requirements say of pistol matches and rifle benchrest shooting or long range rifle, are very different.  In benchrest shooting, some competitors have their presses next to them and use one case and reload before each shot.   

[MikeBjerum]

That's great and more power to him.  What kind of competition?  The needs/requirements say of pistol matches and rifle benchrest shooting or long range rifle, are very different.  In benchrest shooting, some competitors have their presses next to them and use one case and reload before each shot.   

Service rifle.  Everything from 100 M to 600 M.

[DesertMarine]

M58, a key comment that you made was "it works for him", that's great.  What works for me is are the methods that I use, but I also want to learn as much as I can.  Maybe I can find something new or different that I don't know about and might help.  I have tried other methods like what have been talked about here, some work for me and some don't.  I like to share what I know and hopefully someone else can use it.

[Bill Stryker]

I use a Dillon 650 for handgun rounds and a Lyman turret press for rifle rounds. I have a powder checker -- powder cop we call it -- on the Dillon. Works great for my handgun rounds. I shoot more of them. But for rifle, where I only shoot a few hundred a year, the Lyman works for me. For rifle I weigh each charge.
I am considering adding a .223 kit for the Dillon, but I still have a few cases of factory .223 and 5.56 to go through first for the brass.
I seem to be shooting a lot of .223 and .30 M1 Carbine lately.

[tombogan03884]

It seems to me that the best method for each of us is the one that we are comfortable gives us the EACH the safest and most consistent acceptable for purpose results.  If you are observing what you are doing a double charge should be obvious. But a double charge should not have had that disastrous an effect as most fire arms are proofed with double or more charges. Was it ever determined what exactly happened ?