I usually don’t have enough time to get sick of reloading, maybe an hour at a crack, at best. I’ve started reloading in steps (days): 1. resize, deprime, clean 2. tumble, trim, prime 3. reload. I can usually only get about 200 done before I’m being “summoned”. It’s the trimming that gets me. After about 100, I’m starting to freak. I really need a better way.
I think the most I’ve done, on a weekend with no wife or kids around, was about 400 10mm from start to finish. I ran out of projos so I stopped because of that, not cause I was sick of it. I’ll update here when I find out… which will be when I retire and the kids are off at college.
Notice I didn’t say how F-ing long that took me! I go in stages, like you. I currently tumble (dry) then resize/deprime, then trim/prep/prime, then load, All in large batches of several hundred or up to a thousand. Only thing is, I really burn out quick on the prep steps, but I can usually hang pretty hard when finished rounds are going into the ammo can. I guess I’m more motivated when I see finished rounds as a result.
I need a progressive press, but my man cave is quite literally a spider hole & I do not have the space. I am, however, in the process of acquiring the needed gear for wet tumbling due, in part, to mark and others giving it such high praise. I can’t wait.
If I reloading on my progressive, about 500 is my max per session. I can’t concentrate beyond that. If I’m loading single stage, 100 rounds is my limit.
I just moved a single stage press to my garage workbench with trimming gear. I did it with the intent of mass processing .223 brass (about half of which need to have the crimps removed from the primer pockets). I find that as I am working around the house I can stop by the bench and de-prime/re-size a couple hundred at at time. It seems to be a lot easier doing this part standing up with a little music cranked in the background. After a couple of days I have a shit ton of fully processed brass. Trimming and taking out the primer crimps is a pain in the ass. Doing it this way (a little processing at a time) seems to make the actual reloading process go a lot quicker when I am ready.
I recently picked up a Lee Classic Cast Turret press that auto indexes. It’s simple, rugged and fast. I wanted a Dillon but they are way backed up on orders and I decided to stock up on components instead. If any or you are loading single stage you owe it to yourselves to try this setup. It’s made my life a whole lot easier.
For .223 or 7.62 about 200 at one whack is all I care to do, and that’s on a progressive. Brass has already been cleaned, sized and trimmed; everything else gets done on the Dillon. I usually get well ahead during the winter, especially on the brass prep.
For pistol, it’s and hour here and an hour there until I get a good pile.
I tend to have to split days between things like case cleaning, case prep, priming, and loading. If not days then at least an hour or two break. The tedious chores hurt my attention span and I try to speed it up. Honey-do list is not a concern as the wife is demanding I load more 45 for her new XDs haha.
With prepped 5.56 brass on my hornady lnl progressive I can do 500 in a couple hours and still be enjoying it. I went to 1000 on Monday and I started to get a little anxious to finish the last bit of brass in the bucket.
For the record, I’m only working with two primer tubes at the moment and I only have three brass on the plate at a time so I can monitor the primer feeder–I hate wasting a powder drop cuz my tube went dry. That accounts for some of the time it takes for me to load. Other than that I hand
feed brass and bullets into the red beast until I burn out.
Loading’s the fun part though.
It’ll take me the better part of the weekend to trim the 1,000 once fired brass I have polishing as we speak on an RCBS trim pro with drill attachment. That’s when the real work begins.
I usually load before I go shooting. I don’t like churning out large quantities of ammo just for the sake of doing it, because I often like to tweek my loads over time. The most I have ever loaded in one sitting was 600rds of .40S&W…and that took me about an hour and a half. Usually I will load 100rds on my 550b in 15min(my usual). 200rds in a half hour. It keeps my concentration sharp, and my equipment stays cleaner since I usually clean everything after each run of ammo.
I have a single stage press and usually load up 100 - 200 .223 rounds at a time. I basically load up whatever I think I will shoot during my range time.
When loading handgun rounds on my 550B w/5 primer fill tubes, I’ll fill the primer magazine on the press then all 5 primer fill tubes. After 600 rounds I’m ready for something else. On two occasions, I ran 1200 rounds which I don’t plan to do again any time soon. I take my time and between setup and cleanup, loading 600 rounds takes typically just over 2 hours.
9mm on my Dillon XL650 - 500 rounds a sitting takes me a casual 40 minutes. .223 on the Dillon RL1050B - 500 in about an hour. My brass is pre-sized trimmed on the 650 with a RT1200.
In both cases I preload 5 primer tubes with a vibra-prime which takes about 6-7 minutes.
I’m brand new to reloading, and working on a single-stage Hornady press with their shitty inaccurate powder measure, but I generally load about 50 rounds of .44 Mag at a time (and that’s start to finish, from decap/resize to seat/crimp). I spend most of my time trickling powder to get the charges right. I’m at the point where spending money on a more accurate powder dispenser is starting to appeal.
