Effortless .308 Brass Processing with the DA3000

Case preparation can take forever and you’re lucky if you find this monotonous process particularly fun. We’re automating it with the Dillon DA3000 and CP2000!

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Automated Brass Prep

Our beloved .308 Shorty got a new set of “clothes,” now sporting an Ultradyne UD3 chassis. To test it out, we needed to reload some more ammo (.308 subsonic and tracers), starting with prepping .308 military brass. Our DA3000 and CP2000 were set up to convert .223 to .300 blackout, so we had to start by adjusting the machine.

I retained the special toolhead with lowered step so I could get the RT-1500 low enough to trim cases, though I did have to remove it and the dies during set-up.

I swapped the trimmer I had installed with another RT1500, complete with trimming die.

I also had to convert the CP2000 to .308 with a caliber conversion kit, add an RCBS small base resizing die, and swap out the small primer pocket swaging rod for the large one.

When all together, case insertion claimed station 1 and a RCBS small base sizing die took station 2. I removed the rod from the mandrel die I used during .223 to .300 blackout conversion, repurposing the die as a hold down station over swaging in #3. (I added this after noticing flex in the shellplate.) I incrementally adjusted the trimmer in station 4 until I achieved the SAAMI spec length (2.000”).

Dialing in the Trimming Distance of the RT-1500 Trimmer

Another mandrel in the last station opened up the case neck.

I also took some time to verify my .209” pin gauge fit properly in the swaged primer pockets.

It did, ensuring my full-auto-fired brass were in good shape for their new life. After lubing cases with lanolin, I dumped them into the case feed bowl.