How many rounds per hour do you make?

[qajaq59]

Shucks... nobody told me we were racing!!!!!

 

[shootinxd]

I reload to save money(right).Yesterday it was raining steady most of the day,so I cranked out about 300 rnds in couple hours.Nap to follow all the hard work you know.

 

[joed]

Interesting, I see some posts are gone, particularly one that I posted on Friday. I have to ask a question at this point about censorship. Are we being censored?

 

[buck460XVR]

Interesting, I see some posts are gone, particularly one that I posted on Friday. I have to ask a question at this point about censorship. Are we being censored?

Did you make more than one post on Friday? I still see your post on page 2 about the Dillons and 1200 rounds an hour............

 

[HighExpert]

If I have the primer tubes full, I can do 450 to 500 rounds per hour. I use a Dillon 550B and it takes a little practice to get that fast a still be reliable. I am much slower doing .38 full wadcutters or .380 Hardball.

 

[LiveLife]

Interesting, I see some posts are gone, particularly one that I posted on Friday. I have to ask a question at this point about censorship. Are we being censored?

I consider the job THR moderators do quite good at keeping the threads pertinent to OP, civil and in line with THR principles and rules.

Just about every forum has own rules/moderators and posts are often edited/deleted at the whim of the particular moderator's mood that day. Compared to what I have seen at other forums, THR moderators are definitely "High Road"

Keep the posts in line with THR rules and you won't have to worry about edited/deleted posts.

 

[RB98SS]

I totally disagree. If you spend that much time on prep, than you have a lower round per hour production. I take spent cartridges straight from my range bag and into a tumbler. I do not count that time in my loading, as it is not time spent loading. I dump them in and let them run for a hour or two. When they come out they go into a bin, then from the bin to the press, no more prep needed. The only exception would be rifle rounds that get trimmed, and that is usually just after the first firing.

There are exceptions of course. Doesn't setting your powder charge fall into the "reloading time"? Some powder droppers are easier to set than others -- like the Lee Pro Auto -- but unless you are always throwing the same powder and the same charge there is time involved in getting the charge set correctly. What about primers, doesn't it take time to setup the correct primers in the tube or tray? Maybe as I load a wide variety of calibers it does indeed take me more time, but if you just want to count the time once the handle gets pulled, then my numbers appear to be in line with everyone else. For me though, it's not my actual time if I don't add the time prior to the handle pull.

I also only load about 100 rounds of each caliber at a time because with that, my ammo box is full to capacity.

 

[ljnowell]

There are exceptions of course. Doesn't setting your powder charge fall into the "reloading time"? Some powder droppers are easier to set than others -- like the Lee Pro Auto -- but unless you are always throwing the same powder and the same charge there is time involved in getting the charge set correctly. What about primers, doesn't it take time to setup the correct primers in the tube or tray? Maybe as I load a wide variety of calibers it does indeed take me more time, but if you just want to count the time once the handle gets pulled, then my numbers appear to be in line with everyone else. For me though, it's not my actual time if I don't add the time prior to the handle pull.

I also only load about 100 rounds of each caliber at a time because with that, my ammo box is full to capacity.

I usually would count the time spent to set up the measure and fill the primer feed. My system is usually just a fill the hopper and adjust the knob, so its pretty fast. Same with my primer setup, I load 100 at a time, and it takes less than a minute. I just cant see counting time to tumble, which is the only thing I left off. My brass is tumbled immediately after sorting, and put into bins. Grab it out and reload. What else is left to count?

 

[RB98SS]

I usually would count the time spent to set up the measure and fill the primer feed. My system is usually just a fill the hopper and adjust the knob, so its pretty fast. Same with my primer setup, I load 100 at a time, and it takes less than a minute. I just cant see counting time to tumble, which is the only thing I left off. My brass is tumbled immediately after sorting, and put into bins. Grab it out and reload. What else is left to count?

IDK, when I come back from the range, I have a pouch of all sorts of brass. 50, 44, 357m, 357sig, 10mm, 45acp all mixed together. I tumble them all together so I need to make sure the 50 gets in the tumbler 1st, then 45, the 44 next, then the 10mm, then 357sig, and finally 357mag or they all end up inside of each other. Ha, there's got to be a better way though Once done tumbling then I need to sort, it all takes time.

 

[ljnowell]

IDK, when I come back from the range, I have a pouch of all sorts of brass. 50, 44, 357m, 357sig, 10mm, 45acp all mixed together. I tumble them all together so I need to make sure the 50 gets in the tumbler 1st, then 45, the 44 next, then the 10mm, then 357sig, and finally 357mag or they all end up inside of each other. Ha, there's got to be a better way though Once done tumbling then I need to sort, it all takes time.

I can see that being time consuming. I like to take a few ziploc bags with me to the range and keep the brass seperate, then when I do tumble them I will only tumble one bag at a time, then they get dumped into a bin. Either way, sorting brass is a pain in the neck, for sure, especially when the little ones hide in the big ones!

 

[jmorris]

I only counted actual loading time in my first post; however, that hasn’t kept me from devising ways to speed up all of the processes needed to obtain complete reloaded ammunition.
As far as my time goes everything from harvesting, sorting, cleaning, sizing , annealing (if needed), loading primer tubes, feeding cases and bullets and most all of the other tidbits count and I strive to make them all as fast and efficient as possible. That is no small task in reloading where “good enough” doesn’t exist.

 

[HOWARD J]

I loaded 4/500 per hour when the kids were home.
Kids are gone (somewhat)
Now I am lucky if I load 50 in one day---no rush anymore,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[rkammer]

After I started shooting 300 rounds every weekend I decided it was time for a progressive. My first was a Dillon 550B, that press did 300 rounds an hour. My second press was much more impressive being a Dillon 1050. With the 1050 I can crank out an honest 1200 rounds an hour before my arm gets tired. I soon sold off the 550B for a 650XL. The 650XL produces about 400 to 500 rounds an hour. This is all quality ammo that I would put up against anyone else's.

I also don't agree with Oneounceload's comment about checking the powder charge. My presses are equipped with powder check dies and will let you know if the charge isn't correct.

I warn anyone thinking of going progressive to be sure and invest in powder check dies. It's not 'IF' you are going to get a bad load but more 'WHEN'. I want to know about it on the press not in the gun.

I grant you that a powder check die would be the bottom line for safety but, how bad a load can I get if I eyeball every charge as I'm putting the bullet on? I can certainly spot a no-charge or a double and am almost guaranteed to spot an out of tolerance charge that would be of a sufficient amount damage my guns. At least that's my logic.

 

[CHEVELLE427]

never kept up with it i normally will resize and prim then go inside to had prime and store them in an air tight case till i feel like powder and bullet seat.

guessing if i stayed at it with my set up 3 presses
(pro 1000 (only use it for 3 stages i don't trust the powder any more.
powder and seat i do on my rcbs uniflow and rock chunker) i look in every case now after some no charges other press is a rcbs Jr for crimp)
200-250 an hour pistol 380-50ae and alot in the middle, 9mm, 38 spl, 40, 10mm, 45acp,44mag, 44spl,

100 rifle 223-45-70

 

[oldreloader]

speed

Now all you folks with the progressive presses don't stone me. There is nothing wrong with progressive presses and making ammo.
I have a RCBS RCII and a Mec 600JRV that I reload on. EVERYTHING is singlestage. I LIKE to take my time and really do enjoy reloading. I find it relaxing.I perform each step on every cartridge because I enjoy it. I started reloading in the 1960's with an old Lee Classic (Whack-a Mole) and have always enjoyed reloading. I like it slow, but if I needed a super high volume I'd probably go progressive, I just wouldn't enjoy it as much. To each his own.

 

[RustyFN]

Now all you folks with the progressive presses don't stone me. There is nothing wrong with progressive presses and making ammo.
I have a RCBS RCII and a Mec 600JRV that I reload on. EVERYTHING is singlestage. I LIKE to take my time and really do enjoy reloading. I find it relaxing.I perform each step on every cartridge because I enjoy it.

Heck there's nothing wrong with that. In fact I'm with you on that one, that's why I don't own a progressive. I do load on a Lee classic turret though because a single stage won't keep up with the volume of the few competitions I like to shoot.

 

[CHEVELLE427]

norm is when i start to reload a cartridge I'm going to re load at least a 1000 before moving on to the next one (hand gun's)

rifle will be 2-3 hundred at a time.

not too fond of pulling a single stage press 4-5 thousand times (if i crimp)for that 1000 rounds.
arm gets tired

now just a few to test and work up, GREAT,

JUST ME AND THE AMMO/

all others stay away i get distracted easily

 

[ultralightbackpacker]

I do 400 an hour on my dillon 550 if I don't have to change calibers. Could do faster but got to check powder throw every 100 rounds, but thats just me. Got kids to support oh yeah and the wife too.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I agree with "oldreloader" and "RustyFN" and like RustyFN I use a Lee Classic 4 hole turret press because I like to shoot a lot (but on in competitions) and a single stage press just won't keep up with my needs. I do load rifle rounds on a single stage or the turret press minus the auto-index rod. I usually reload 50 or so rifle rounds at a time from start to finish but I'm thinking doing things in stages might be more efficient. I just might start to process the brass in advance of actually loading the ammo.

 

[TonyAngel]

I did post before about my rate of loading, but I actually thought a bit about it and realized that I spend a lot of time reloading rifle and a small fraction of that time loading handgun. Loading for handgun is easy. I never worried about brass length because it splits before it needs to be trimmer. For all practical purposes, I tumble the brass and load it. The only other prep time is in loading the primer tube and adjusting the powder thrower.

With rifle, it's a whole different story. Even with new brass, you have to size and trim the cases, which also means chamfering and deburring. With military brass you have to ream or swage the primer pockets too. When I have a batch of dirty rifle brass that's going to need to be trimmed, it usually involves lubing, sizing and decapping, tumbling, trimming, chamfering/deburring/swaging, then loading. The case prep takes LOTS of time. In fact, I'm really considering spending the $500 or so to buy one of those case trimmers that chamfers and deburrs.

I'm still using my Dillon 550 to load my precision rifle rounds, but I just got a Hornady Auto Charge dispenser, so I'm trying out a new routine. I made an adapter of sorts by putting a funnel on top of the Dillon powder die, which allows me to drop powder into the funnel on the downstroke of the handle. So...I'm semi progressively reloading my precision .223 on my Dillon. It's semi progressive because I manually drop the powder charge after the Hornady dispenser measures it out. Last night I made up 100 rounds for my .223 with every charge having been weighed in about an hour. BTW, I'm also priming when I load. The big slow down is that I usually have to wait 5 to 10 seconds for the dispenser to finish weighing out the charge before I can drop it.

 

[qajaq59]

I just might start to process the brass in advance of actually loading the ammo.

I think you'll find it a lot easier if you do it that way. For one thing you can do some, stop, and then pick it up again later on. Without having to leave the powder hanging around on the bench. Also it allows you more time to inspect the cases a little better as well. I used to do it the other way, but now all my rifle brass is prepped ahead of time.