That's the setup I use. The amount of shmutz that comes from the decapping process is amazing and I'm more than happy to keep that out of my progressive.

I tumble w/SS media.
For rifle brass, I tumble, decap, resize and then tumble again.
For Pistol, I tumble, decap, resize, bellmouth and load.

Everything gets cleaned before it touches my dies. Only my rifle primer pockets get cleaned and this is only because my son shoots competition, so we want everything exactly the same round to round. Well, I do the same for plinking rounds too. . . .

Jack

Dillon 650 with a Lee universal decapping die. Unless you run a 1050, you cannot process this much brass. Polish tumble after decapping.

Oddly enough that little press is cheaper at Cabelas. I'm kind of thinking something similar but almost like the idea of depriming/sizing then tumbling better, like was mentioned already by someone. I thought i read somewhere that it was frowned upon to size before cleaning though, but then some people say it doesn't matter.

For me it depends on what I'm processing as to which press I use. If it's .223 I lube up the cases and run them through my XL650 that has a universal Depriming die in Station one, a Rapid Trim sizing/trimming die in station 4 and a mandrel type expander in station 5. Fill the case feeder and start cranking.

I then tumble the cases in SS Media prior to loading.

The sizing die gets cleaned periodically but shows no signs of scratching or wear. If my cases are really dirty they get a "slosh bath" in a 5 gallon bucket and then left overnight to dry before processing. The dirt, sand, and gravel, are removed this way.


For 9mm cases I have an old lee Progressive that's worthless for actual loading. I have a .223 shellplate installed and a universal depriming die. I fill the four tubes with cases and pull the handle. As I pull with one hand I drop cases into the tube as it empties. If I get behind I switch to a full tube and just keep on going.

The Lee Progressive is a better "depriming" press than a "loading press". That is unless you want to pre-prime all your cases first.