Process 223 Brass on Mark VII Apex 10

[@LordPerique]

My club recently pooled our money to buy an Apex 10, your tips and tricks have been invaluable in helping us get everything squared away.

[@devinbates6529]

Glad it’s been helpful. Great idea to come together as a group.

[@johnwest9786]

Several somethings useful. Thank you sir. Videos are well done.

[@projectturbocoupe4897]

Really enjoyed this. Subscribed. Hope to see more content soon.

[@devinbates6529]

Awesome, thank you!

[@stevefranks9239]

Very helpful getting ready to buy one

[@jeffreydutton7285]

This is a great video and do hope you make more. I too have an Apex 10 with the same setup you have but have yet to try rifle loads. It is a great press, but I have had my fair share of challenges with it. It has been back to Ft. Myers once and to Lyman once as it had indexing problems from day one. On the first trip, they changed the priming system as it was out of spec but I found that the top stop wasn't touching the crank and the root cause hadn't been addressed. They also removed the internal guide rod and installed a newer design roller system and I discovered that on my own when I tried to figure out all that they did (or didn't) do to the press. When it went back to Lyman, they found a pressed cup that the pawl index screw fits in somehow came out and they fixed that. I am putting it all back together again and hopefully this fixes the problem. It seems to index correctly now and I have some adjustability. They have a new primer shuttle disk as the old design was pushing the bearing down and in my case, it caused the foot to cut on the primer express. They will swap it for free if you haven't swapped it out yet. I am becoming an expert the hard way, although it has forced me to learn the press quicker than I may have otherwise. Thanks for making this video and at some point after I retire next year, I will try .223 and maybe .308 at some point. Have you found more consistency in COAL with the heavy duty jack bolt? I have one on the press now but have yet to load with it.

[@devinbates6529]

I have had a few issues with indexing as well but not to the degree that you have. I have to adjust the index adjustment screw a fair bit but it is easy to do. After awhile the screw would not hold for very long so support instructed me to pull the adjustment screw out completely and put Vibra-TITE 213 VC-3 Threadmate Threadlocker on the screw and let it "cure" for around 24 hours and that helped. I believe that I will have to do that every so often. One suggestion on removing that adjustment screw is to use a magnetic Alan wrench as the screw is not very big and it would be a pain if you dropped it down into the press mechanism. I have found the support group to be very helpful and responsive when I've called or emailed. On the primer shuttle and the primer express I sanded down the tab that goes under the shuttle disk some and that solved my shuttle sticking issue. I definitely like the heavy duty jack bolt as it does make the toolhead more rigid and I find better consistency all around. I'm using the Lyman pro dies for seating and crimping and they do a nice job of providing a consistent COAL and are easy to adjust if you need to tweak it.

[@jeffreydutton7285]

@@devinbates6529 I went to Ft. Myers and took their commercial course as I wanted to know as much as I could about the press prior to loading and they recommended that we pull the pawl screw and do as you suggest. Interestingly, mine would not come out and I suspect it had something to do with the pressed cup that was awry. I was able to get to the back of the screw from under the shell plate, but my screw was always all the way clockwise so it never did anything. I ended up moving the top stop several times and finally it too was out of adjustment and that caused the press to go in the first time. I too have found tech support to be very helpful and quick to respond. I'm glad I was a mechanical engineer many moons ago as others may have found this overwhelming and become really discouraged. I do hope that Lyman will help them get from what feels like a start-up to a more mature company as it is a great product. I met Tom and John in Ft. Myers and they were really great. I appreciate the help!

[@WvMnts]

Thank You for sharing. Been thinking about automating my apex 10

[@devinbates6529]

Go for it! You'll love it and you will be able to get more done quickly.

[@FWARMS]

Thanks for the shout out!

[@devinbates6529]

You guys make great products that are very well built. Keep it up. I'm processing some 9mm brass right now and I'm at around 17,000 rounds and I'm still on the same decapping pin.

[@MealTeam6_]

Great video! If you reload 9mm or 40 on this press with range pickup brass, What i do is set up a DAA powder check. I set it up for 9mm or 40S&W and set the sensitivity. I always decap my brass before cleaning. What the DAA Powder check does is sort out any 9mm Tokarov or 10mm brass. You will have to slow down your press just a little and watch for the Powder check to alarm, but it is way better than hand sorting!!!

[@devinbates6529]

Thanks so much for the tip. I also pre process my brass for 9mm which makes the loading process much smoother and more consistent. I have the powder check sensor for the Apex 10 so I will definitely give it a try and it should stop the press on an alarm.

[@jeffreydutton7285]

@@devinbates6529 When you process the brass, do you have a seperate toolhead set up for this, or do you pull the dies? Just curious..

[@devinbates6529]

@@jeffreydutton7285 At the time I switched I did not have a spare toolhead so I pulled the dies but now I have enough spares to leave my toolhead that I am using to load 5.56 setup and when I need to process brass again once I have it setup I will store it ready to go as well. It is not the end of the world to pull the dies but it is definitely nice to just switch out the toolhead and be ready to go quickly.

[@williamfox248]

Great video That really helped me a tremendous amount. Keep them coming thank you very much

[@williamfox248]

Great video that really helped me a tremendous amount. Keep the videos coming if you can.

[@Customs8317]

Inside the Lyman universal hold down die is the pin, unscrew that pin and you will see the standard cleaning rod thread now you can install a short 223 bore brush to remove any brass shavings.

[@devinbates6529]

I will check that out. Thanks for the tip. After I process the brass I wet tumble them with stainless steel pins which also helps to remove any burrs but this sounds like a good idea that I will probably use as well to ensure clean necks for loading.

[@elkhuntergene]

Devin I just purchased my Apex 10 and I have 2 questions. #1. I am resizing and trimming range brass , but when I trim I don’t have a clean cut on some and the trim length is 2-4 ths difference.#2. What is the secret on loosening the spring. I have watched your episodes ,they are gold to me full of experience and knowledge. God Bless!

[@devinbates6529]

For your first question, I would try increasing the "Pause at Bottom" setting a bit and see if that improves the cut on the case. Also make sure that your vacuum is clearing out the brass that you are removing. If that gets clogged up I've found the trimming will suffer. I also wash my brass after processing so you can add some stainless steel pins to help cleanup the ends if you have some burrs. As far as length I opened a bucket of brass that I processed awhile back and checked lengths. I checked two random groups of 10 and I found that my average length was 1.74945 and 1.74875 with a standard deviation of .0025 on the first group and .0048 on the second. Of all 20 the minimum length I had was 1.742 and the max length was 1.7555. When you look the trim length for 223 is 1.75. The max and min for the cases is 1.76 and 1.73 or 1.74 depending on source. While there is variation in my case lengths I'm well within spec. I expect the short cases that I had were not even trimmed and were short to begin with. For your second question you will see that the spring is held by some very small Allen screws on the left and right of the case feeder mechanism. The holder on the right is not adjustable and just holds onto the end of the spring. The holder on the left has a through hole that allows you to pull the spring through so you can loosen that screw and change how tight the spring is. I would just loosen that screw on the left and push the spring in a bit until it is loose and doesn't cause the cases to tip inward and then tighten it back up once adjusted. Hope this helps and if anyone else has suggestions please share.

[@elkhuntergene]

@@devinbates6529 Thanks Devin for the help. Maybe I can find a Allen wrench that will fit those small screws. Thanks! God Bless

[@gregswalton]

Great video! Do you chamfer/deburr after trimming the brass?

[@devinbates6529]

Since all of the cases have lube on them I wet tumble them after processing. I have stainless steel pins in the tumbler and these take off any burrs that might be left. The trimmer does a nice job of cleanly trimming the case so there is not much to remove anyway.

[@elkhuntergene]

@@devinbates6529do you have the size of the Allen wrench to loosen the screws on the spring. Is it metric or standard. Thanks God Bless

[@devinbates6529]

The size is .050 and it is standard. I'm adding a link to an Amazon set that I have that is both metric and standard that includes this tiny Allen wrench. These are ball end wrenches which I prefer but there are other sets out there with straight ends. Hope this helps. www.amazon.com/Eklind-Ball-Hex-wrench-Combo-22-piece/dp/B000189RGO/ref=sr_1_5?crid=2XI5CF6APW94J&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.lRt1JEXoEBhZ6iwa7WhWYPTJEvmt2v5iPM0-egvdUGnSX9z_2UtRFRpZJ4cGp5bo4yzPoYhaDdbJXSUuBOOzsz0eshu9lyL-rSCike85gqMYY7tTjAZtgx2eKWWszHPm9E1dwgmPup0Ul4iLhMza0GwW-HlHOJaqDPcoIx3P13S1RhETgcG2e7buQlkYagqEk-_kTskFlHW4SCL4XmB3xUH4CDqRYi76sAYTlPa9hZU6DgSY5akRgD9q2j15qeOua44wGWLXZX4fyWXr4Dt6iVJnlzs_fdbZRhHTgUhw9is.5R30xjNCzbHy11PO0eo75mrV3nxYhao3P_CS2ombZBQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=eklind+allen+wrench+set&qid=1710860611&sprefix=eklin%2Caps%2C228&sr=8-5

[@elkhuntergene]

@@devinbates6529 Thanks for the help. God Bless

[@rodgerbooth1064]

How is the priming system ? I have one for 9mm and it is an absolute DISASTER!!!

[@devinbates6529]

Are you referring to a priming system on an Apex 10 for 9mm or another Press? The only issues I've ever had on the Apex 10 is when I tried to use their Primer Xpress product. It did not work well for me so I replaced it with the original primer tube system that the press came with. I use a Dillion RF100 printer filler to load the primers in a tube that I then drop into the Apex 10's primer tube. This works great for me and I rarely have an issue. Maybe one or two upside down primers per 1000 rounds loaded and that is most likely due to the RF100. I use a FW Arms hold down die in the priming station to ensure consistent seating depths and it works great.

[@physikalx]

How do you lube your brass before running them through a process like this?

[@devinbates6529]

I use Dillion Case Lubricant and a cookie sheet. You can use any alcohol based case lube or even make your own, I just happen to have several spray bottles of the Dillion D.C.L. After cleaning the brass, I wet tumble and then dry it, I put brass on the cookie sheet until is is almost full but only a single layer. After that I spray 5 to 6 sprays and then shake it back and fourth a bit and then spray an additional 3-4 times. I let it sit for 15 minutes then I dump it in a bucket and repeat. You can do this well before you need the brass. When I'm at the shop and I have brass to lube I will just do this no matter what's going on until I have it all lubed and then I don't have to worry about keeping up while processing the brass. After I process the brass I will clean the brass again by wet tumbling and drying it and then I am ready to load.

[@jawsmod]

Is is possible to process 223 brass including trim AND load in one pass?

[@devinbates6529]

While theoretically possible I would not recommend it. The advantage of having the Mark VII Apex 10 is the speed at which you can process/reload ammunition without trying to combine steps. Some of the issues would be that you lube the brass when you resize it and it is nice to remove this lube after the trimming/resizing process as well as remove any burrs that might have come about with the trimming. I prefer to wet tumble the brass using stainless steel pins to clean and de burr the brass prior to loading. That being said it might be possible to trim the brass at station 5 prior to dropping powder and expand the neck at station 7. I have not tried this and again I don't recommend it. I'm not sure if the trim motor will fit next to the powder drop but if you use the Mark VII trim motor it is smaller and will typically only take up one station. This would also cause you to not have the powder level sensor to make sure that you have a proper powder charge, I believe this is one of the most important sensors to make sure you have a good load. If anyone else has thoughts I would love to hear them. While you can definitely reload 9mm or other pistol cartridges in one pass, I still prefer to make it a two step process since the Apex 10 offers great speed and ease of operation. The less that you have going on at one time the more likely you are to have consistent ammo without making a mistake that could be problematic in the field.

[@MichaelWilliams-te5dw]

this is bad advice sorry but stay away from processing

[@LordPerique]

How so? I don't think it's right to call someone out for being incorrect without explaining how/why you think they're incorrect.