RE: holding the bullet - I’m in the habit of holding on to the bullet until the last second, ‘course there is the occasion of holding on a spit second too long. :-) Haven’t loaded any .223s but that bullet would be a challenge to hold onto.
I mounted my single stage on a piece of boiler plate and used to C-clamp the plate to the work bench but then said, what the heck and used some of the plate holes for lag bolts and it’s now semi-permanently attached to the work bench.
Glad to hear Dillon survived the intial mounting unscathed.
Yah. When I had my Dillon I think the only rifle I loaded for was my .270. I didn't have a .223 back then or even a 30-30. And yeah, I'd just hold it, though boat-tails will sit in there pretty nice. Of course, for something like 270 there's never quite the volume that you'd load for 223. My loading for that was only ever in the hundreds for the rifle. Not like the many, many thousands of 357. I keep wondering whatever became of my Dillon setup. A friend has it because at the time he was the only one that had space to set it up and we did all the loading then over at his place. I suppose it's been long enough that he just considers it his now. :-) But ammo prices are so darn high now... I ought to get back into it. Plus now I have lots more toys to load for... :-)