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Normal Topic reloading time (Read 139 times)
Joe_S
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reloading time
Today at 8:39am
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I know this sounds crazy but I can't help it. 

The shooting season is almost over for me. Last night I noticed that the pile of empty brass is pretty high, so the reloading season is about to begin. We still have a few weeks of good bullet casting weather so I have been trying to catch up on my casting before winter sets in. 

I didn't do much rimfire shooting this year, which means a lot more bullet casting and reloading this winter. I'd like to know approximately how much time is required to cast and reload a cartridge. Everything I do for reloading is done in batches so unless I want to spend a lot of time undertaking a time study,(no sense in re-inventing the wheel) I dont know that I will ever get an accurate estimate of how much time is actually involved. 

So the question is: Does anyone have an estimate as to how much time is actually involved in reloading, including the following steps:
Casting the bullet, including setup and cleanup,
visual inspection and sorting,
weighing, lubing and sizing
 
Case prep, including de-priming/sizing, case mouth flaring, re-priming 
powder loading
seating the wad
Any other steps such as primer pocket cleaning, trimming, etc.

I think the answer is a lot more time than we realize. Fortunately its a hobby that we enjoy, but sometimes it borders on actual work!

Thanks!

Joe S

  
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Schuetzendave
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Re: reloading time
Reply #1 - Today at 9:17am
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Speed up your process by doing the visual inspection of the bullet as you drop it out of the mold.
Throw all bullets back into the pot where the base is rounded and not sharp from not properly filling out the mold.
Use a powder measure using finer ball powders (AA #9, AA 4100, H108, MP300) to drop accurate loads faster.
Use a Lyman or RCBS luber-sizer to properly size your bullet and lube it. I find this is quicker and produces a more precise bullet than pan lubing. But only use a H&I die that is the exact diameter of your bullet or .001" wider to properly shear off any cast flashings. 
Do not get a die that will shear your bullet diameter down.
Match quality bullets are considered plus or minus 1% in weight.
For years I precisely weighed my bullets for accuracy.
Then I tested the extremely poor variable weight bullet outcasts against the precisely weighed bullets.
Funny but ABSOLUTELY no difference in accuracy in the testing no matter how many times done.
Please note I have been the International Schuetzen Benchrest Champion on two occasions (using unsorted bullets) and my skills and equipment are more than acceptable to do these tests.
So the biggest WASTE of time is weight sorting your cast bullets.
However accuracy is greatly improved if you weight sort your rimfire ammunition including the best TENEX.
I use a primer pocket uniformer to properly clean my pockets before cleaning the case in a vibratory cleaner before reloading.
I anneal my cases after the first firing and then trim to precise length. I have shot cases over 100 times without needing to redo this (low velocity smokeless powder).
For smokeless powder my wad is always placed at the mouth of the case - never place a wad directly on top of smokeless powder to prevent the chance of barrel ringing.
However for black powder I use a specific black powder drop measure, then weigh each load with a trickle charger for a precise load, then use a drop tube, and use a proper compression plug on the wad to compress each load precisely.
Cases for BP need to be immediately cleaned with soapy water and cleaning out the inside necks with a brush before cleaning in a vibrator.
I find annealing cases after every 10 BP firings is adequately sufficient and not required after every firing. But I reload fired cases without full length sizing. If you FL size you will get more case working of the brass and increased hardening which may require more frequent annealing.
I retrim my BP cases at the end of each season
« Last Edit: Today at 9:39am by Schuetzendave »  
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gnoahhh
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Re: reloading time
Reply #2 - Today at 9:42am
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Time is relative. Churning out .38 Specials on a Dillon progressive press = seconds per round of ammunition. Creating perfectly precise centerfire rifle ammunition involving the most anal protocols (ie: tumbling and annealing the brass, uniforming the flash holes, measuring/turning/reaming case necks, weight sorting brass, etc. etc.), will take infinitely longer - doing an in-depth time study could leave one a gibbering mess when it's learned that it takes 20 minutes total time per case before powder is even dispensed and a bullet is seated. 

Two extremes that illustrate why it's impossible to universally answer the question of "how long does it take?" 

And then there's those of us whose match and practice shooting consists mainly of breech seating with no real "handloading" in the accepted sense involved. I've shot an obscene amount of .32-40's over the years and two weeks ago was the first I'd ever loaded and fired fixed .32-40 ammo.

Truthfully it usually goes like this: I decide I want to shoot X gun when I hit the range in two days so I'll scramble the night before and load a bunch of ammo. Then the empties languish until the next last minute effort. (Never mind the obscene amount of handloaded and factory ammo for said X gun already gathering dust on shelves, that's an obsession for another topic altogether. Grin )
« Last Edit: Today at 9:54am by gnoahhh »  
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Schuetzendave
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Re: reloading time
Reply #3 - Today at 10:03am
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I also do custom loading for high pressure jacketed bullets for hunting.

I used fired cases to reload the rifle they were fired in without sizing after annealing the cases after every firing and trimming to length after every firing.
I load cases .010" off the lands for hunting or on the lands for target shooting.
I use a factory crimp to properly hold the bullet in the fired neck mouth.

I found there is a sweet spot every 0.3 grains of powder so when doing your testing you may miss the sweet point of the barrel if you do half or full grain test loads.

I use a fine RCBS 10-10 scale to weigh each stick powder load precisely to closest stick weight. I use a powder measure, trickle charger and tweezers. Time consuming but precision accuracy is demanded by some.

Animals shot at over 400 yards with my custom ammo.

Note: Paul is President of the Alberta Wildlife Federation.

I also custom  built Paul's .30-06 Mountain rifle. Yes it has a RKS gain twist barrel.

Kyle's Ram was shot with a 7mm Magnum.
« Last Edit: Today at 10:26am by Schuetzendave »  
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GunBum
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Re: reloading time
Reply #4 - Today at 12:26pm
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I looked at the time it took to load in a pseudo scientific manner several years back, and was surprised how much time it took versus my perception of time in the loading room.  I recorded time into the room, and out of the room along with a brief description of what I was doing.  It was a little complicated to sort out since I generally work on several things at once.  For example: take brass out of vibratory cleaner, separate media, load different brass into vibratory cleaner, sort and size brass taken out of the cleaner, etc….  About half of my time or more wasn't actually pulling the handle on the press.

Rough results:
For pistol ammo loaded on the Dillon 550B was about 300 rounds per hour if I included all the steps from emptying the range bag to filling ammo boxes.  Actual time on the press was closer to the 400-500 rounds per hour that Dillon advertises.

For rifle ammo loaded on the Dillon 550B it was a little slower than the above pistol example at about 250 rounds per hour because I size bottle neck cartridges separately from the progressive press so I can clean the lube off before they get loaded.   

For rifle ammo loaded on the single stage press, and this includes all the steps, I’m between 10-100 rounds per hour.  Actual time sitting at the press?  I can load 100 rounds with 4 die operations (size, flare, seat, crimp) including priming and powder dropping in less than 45 minutes.  All that brass fiddling beforehand takes a lot of time and has huge variability.

Casting bullets takes any of the above round per hour counts and cuts them at least in half.  It’s hard to quantify how much time casting takes because there is such a big difference in how different bullets are treated.  For example, powder coating bullets takes a lot less time than lubing bullets.  It’s easily possible to spend more time on bullet prep than the rest of the loading steps combined.

After I did that pseudo scientific study, I dropped a lot of the nonsense I was doing in loading.  The “blasting ammo” I was making on the Dillon usually shot as good (or at least good enough) as the “precision ammo” I was making on the RCBS Rockchucker.  BUT, I’m pretty sure dropping a lot of nonsense didn’t dramatically speed up loading.

And with all of that, I reload because I enjoy it.  The time it takes is irrelevant.
  
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Skalkaho
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Re: reloading time
Reply #5 - Today at 4:18pm
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I cast 100 bullets and pan lube and bagged in little over hour.Then size later.I keep in small plastic zip lock bags,50 per bag from that session. Then put in cartridge box before a Match...maybe,or just use outa da bag.........
  

May the Bullet Gods be with you.......
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