I have never used a progressive press so I'm trying to get some onto on how you all do your case prep. I have a friend who's buying a Dillon 650 and he's new reloading and is asking for info. With my single stage I have been using only new brass and after a couple firings I full length size and remove primers then run brass thru stainless tumbler. He's trying to figure out how get his brass as clean as possible and run thru press in the least amount of steps. I do ,one the way I do because with primers removed the pockets are cleaned also.

If he's wanting speed. Throw the fired brass in a walnut or corncob media, vibratory tumbler. Go do something else for several hours, come back, separate, and go to loading.

He's mainly going to be loading 9mm and some 223. He shoots in some 3 gun competitions sand doesn't have nearly as much time to spare as I do.

For rifle ammo, I usually set a toolhead up with only a sizing/ decapping die and run my cleaned brass through it. Then I check the length of each case with a pair of calipers set at SAAMI max case length. The ones that go through the calipers are ready to load. I trim the ones that won't fit. Once everything is sized/trimmed, I put a toolhead on with everything but a sizing/decapping die and load away.

For pistol ammo, I just tumble the brass in a corncob vibratory tumbler like JG mentioned and get to loading.

It's also worthwhile to mention that I load range brass and don't have any idea how many times it has been fired.

I do everything as it doesn't take much more time and it protects the ammo against things that will keep it from going bang.

All we are talking about adding is:

• decapping before tumbling
• trimming
• chamfering/deburring
• cleaning the primer pocket

I use a Lyman Case Prep Express with a Lee case trimmer for the trimming which normally would occur after resizing but in that I do this task every cycle, the case lengths never get too long.


Cases that have bent mouths or something else that would foul the loader or firearm are set aside to be corrected or tossed. The others are immediately tossed in the case collator on the press.

This is actually how I do pistol ammo on three Load-Masters. I'm setting one up now for my Mini-30 (7.62x39) and will do everything the same way. I load 32 Auto, 380 Auto, 9mm Luger, 9mm Makarov, and 45 Auto on the progressives. Just bought the shell plate for the 25 Auto and will start that and move it from a turret press.

I like how Tactical Cowboy mentioned the source of his brass. My is all once fired by the same firearm that shot it.

Which is better for range pickup brass, walnut or corncob.

I always believed that walnut is a more aggressive case cleaner and that corncob does a nicer job for polishing to a nice shine.

When I load 223, I make one run on my progressive for sizing and getting the brass exactly how I want it. I'll tumble the brass shiny clean. Then, I load the ammo on the second run. If you size in position 1 on the 650, you will have lube on the cases that will eventually start to get into the case necks. This lube will collect powder on and inside the case neck and will start to gum up the powder thrower. It makes for sloppy ammo and varying powder charges. This adds a run on the progressive press, but sizing on it will speed things up on the second run when loading ammo. Pistol, I will size and load at the same time.