How long does it take you to reload?

wild1

wild1

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I took the day off today to get some stress relief. Been shopping a little and doing some reloading for this weekend. I am currently reloading 80 rounds of .308 and going to start some .223 after. So without any tumbling, how long would it take you to reload 80 rifle rounds from start to finish?

I tumbled in my new tumbler for about 2 hours. Could go longer and will next time. I fl resized and deprimed, trimmed to length, chamfered, didnt do the primer pockets this time but usually do, primed, powder and bullet. I am using a new powder so I am doing 41-44.5 steps plus coal for each starting at 2.800, 2.815 and 2.830 which is my max mag length. Measured to my lands today also which is 2.900. This is going to take me about 5-6 hours-ish by the time I am done. Not including breaks or tumbler time.

So how long does it take you?
 
It takes me about an hour for a 50 round batch, going from fired brass and bare components to loaded catridges, assuming I don't tumble or trim the brass. That does include cleaning out the primer pockets and randomly measuring COL every few rounds and double checking proper powder charges every few rounds as well. This is with a single stage RC2 press and an RCBS chargemaster combo.
 
If I don't have to do any brass prep and just add primer, powder and bullets....I can do 100 rounds in about 1:15

If I have to deprime & clean primer pockets add another 20 minutes

If I have to trim and chamfer on top of that it another hour.

I usually have all my brass pre prepped if I can. I do all my brass prep at once when I m in the mood to do so.
 
Me 3.

It depends what sort of result you're after too. For my M14 and all my hunting ammo, I use a volume dump for powder. I figure a .3 grain difference out of ~47 grains isn't a big deal at all!!

I can fill 100 cases in a couple of minutes. Seating 100 bullets takes maybe 10.

For matches, i use an RCBS chargemaster combo. I can fill a case with powder and seat the bullet at a rate of almost 2 cases per minute.

Brass prep such as priming is not a biggie. I do ultrasonically clean my cases from time to time which cleans the inside and the primer pockets better than anything out there. The time consuming thing there is drying time. I use a bed of nails that I constructed and just put the cases on nails to dry and I leave them overnight. I tried using the compressor to blow dry them, but it left a fine film of oil that caused powder to stick to the case mouths.... I'll not be doing that anymore.
 
Maybe I am being to anal. LOL. I am measuring each load to the 0.02 of a grain. I find my rcbs thrower out alot. Like about 0.1 or 0.2 of a grain. Once I find a good available powder that works well for me and stock up on a crapload of the same powder I am going to play around and see how important measuring it is. Some people say it is some say it isnt. I have to find out for myself. I know it cant hurt.
 
To me, the most painful and time consuming step is measuring the powder. But... I only use the "Lee Safety Scale" for now, which requires a lot of measuring with each round, mainly because you have to wait for it to stabilize itself for every reading.

I also have the "Lee Perfect Powder Measure", but haven't used it yet... I just don't see how that thing could be accurate enough to measure each round within 0.1 of a grain. My next purchase will be an automated electronic reloading scale, that should speed things up quite a bit.

As for the case preparation.. I don't think that there are any shortcuts. Only practice can speed things up, I guess. :p
 
762mm said:
I also have the "Lee Perfect Powder Measure", but haven't used it yet... I just don't see how that thing could be accurate enough to measure each round within 0.1 of a grain.
Click to expand...

I find that my Lee measure is very consistent especially with ball powders. Once I have it set I usually throw every 3rd to 5th charge on the scale as a check and have had no issues.
 
If you don't trim / chamfer / clean primer pockets you can do 100 an hour on a single stage press. This is using a powder measure like the one from Lee. If you have to do all the case prep, triple your time unless you have some sweet machinery.
 
Oh man......it's a loaded question for sure (yea, pun intended :D)

If I'm just tossing out charges from my measure, I could probably do 50 in an hour including deprime, neck size, prime, fill, insert bullet and crimp.

If I'm being anal about things, those 50 could turn into 6 or 7 hours if I'm weighing bullets, charges, cases, measuring neck runout...etc. I rarely get that picky about things though.
 
I'll go on a big splurge and do all my case prepping for all the rifles I own. This the the biggest time part of loading.

I'll finish later when needed.



.
 
wild1 said:
Maybe I am being to anal. LOL. I am measuring each load to the 0.02 of a grain. I find my rcbs thrower out alot. Like about 0.1 or 0.2 of a grain. Once I find a good available powder that works well for me and stock up on a crapload of the same powder I am going to play around and see how important measuring it is. Some people say it is some say it isnt. I have to find out for myself. I know it cant hurt.
Click to expand...
Most benchrest shooters use a powder measure.

I used to load .223 for a custom AR15 match rifle on a Dillon 1050. That rifle would shoot under 1/2" all day, most groups were 1/4" at 100yds using 36X B & L scope for load testing.
Powder was thrown from Dillon measure for all loads, not weighed, the powder was H4895 which is a stick powder.

FYI the .223 recipe; 52 or 53gr Sierra hp, 26.5grs H4895, Rem SR primers, in new RP brass.

IMHO weighing each charge is a waste of time. :wave:
 
Jesus, 50 rounds an hour? I'd go nuts, pure'n simple.

I do 200-300 rounds an hour loading pistol rounds, and it takes THAT long 'cause my Dillon was designed specifically to drive me nuts. My buddy Drucker can load 700 in an hour with his 650.

I was considering reloading for rifle cartridges once the issues with my 650XL are resolved (if that ever happens :mad: ). But if I have to start trimming cases as well chamfering etc, I dunno......
 
chise said:
If you don't trim / chamfer / clean primer pockets you can do 100 an hour on a single stage press. This is using a powder measure like the one from Lee. If you have to do all the case prep, triple your time unless you have some sweet machinery.
Click to expand...




Should I be prepping new brass? Winchester, in my case?
 
firemachine69 said:
Should I be prepping new brass? Winchester, in my case?
Click to expand...

most likely, yes

I've had winchester brass too short according to saami specs! (but we can't do anything about this, it'll stretch out) I have no doubt some could be too long, you'll have to measure them all.


as for my time, well I'm pretty slow but I love reloading, I'll stretch out a session as long as I can
 
Thanks for clarifying. I was going to err on the side of caution anyways, as these are "virgin loads" :)D), just getting into loading. Not reloading yet though, I still have a mental barrier of something going "boom" in thin brass, then that very brass being re-used. Yes, I'm aware it's very common to reload. No, it's my phobia, and you can't change it. :p
 
Took me about 7 hours to load up the 80 rounds for testing. Did everything but weighing brass and cleaning primer pockets. But they are as exact as I can get them down to within .04grain or powder of each each other and coal of .002" of what I wanted. After my testing I am going to make some quick loads of the ideal load and see if it changes any.

As for loading for handgun I with be loading alot quicker. No need for that kind of accuracy. I havent started yet though.
 
Sorry for the noob question. I still don't understand the reason behind trimming .223 cases or others. Say I have a bunch of factory ammo that I fired in my rifle, can't I just take the brass and reload them again and not worry about trimming?
 
The brass stretches from shooting and fl resizing. I trim back to length to keep everything consistent. There are people that dont and do fine. I am sure there are people that have a crap load more experience then I do that could be more specific.
 
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