How long does it take you to load ~80 to 90 rounds?

[CA_Shooter]

Curious how long it takes others to load about 80 or 90 rounds. It takes me about 4 to 5 hours to load 90 rounds for an FClass match.

What is the amount of time it takes you for brass prep, and loading for a specified (please specify to amount) amount of rounds?

 

[jelenko]

Starting fired brass, it would take me ~ an hour 15 minutes throwing charges by hand; a bit under an hour if using a progressive for powder charge and seating bullets. This does include the wait times for the cases to tumble clean or tumbling to get the lube off after resizing and trimming/deburring/chamfering.
I always resize on a single stage press, use a Forster 3-way cutter to trim, debur and chamfer in one operation and manually prime using a Frankford with a primer tray. It does include time to load and unload the tumbling.

 

[Mauser06]

Hard for me to say. I do stuff in stages and batches.

And I've been utilizing my Dillon 550. Manual powder drop through the die. But it really speeds up my process.

If I had to guess, maybe 2 hours for 100rds of what I consider match ammo. But I shoot steel. Don't care where I hit it. As long as I can hit it consistently.

I will say that switching to the 550 freed up a lot of time and made loading more enjoyable for me. Example...my final stage, I do 4 processes at once. Instead of handling a piece of brass 4x I handle it once. Or, I've removed 300 times of moving pieces of brass around.

 

[MikeMcCasland]

If I did it all in one sitting, and you exclude the tumbling time, ~3 hours sounds about right for one match worth of ammo.

I could probably cut an hour off that time if I had another auto-trickler; easily my most hated/monotonous part of the process is powder charging.

As far as brass prep though, not long. From fired brass the process is as follows:

1.) Vibratory Tumble
2.) Amp anneal
3.) Lube w/ Imperial
4.) Bushing size
5.) Mandrel expand
6.) Tumble
7.) Mandrel again after tumbling
8.) Chamfer (or giraud)
9.) Prime
10.) Charge
11.) Seat

Edit: I actually like the case prep aspect of reloading; it's strangely relaxing. Priming and powder charging are what I really don't care for. I need a second auto trickler, and someone needs to figure out a way to motorize/automate a CPS.

 

[mac86951]

I'm in stages too:

Brass prep:. ~an hour and a half of my time, that's decapping, wet tumbling (not counting the wait time or drying), and lube, size, inspect.

Blasphemy I know, but I set up the trimmer, and do progressive. Trim, deburr, chamfer, into the progressive it goes. Next, get the chargemaster to throw a charge a little lite, trickle up on my Ohaus and progressive is handling the seating.

Lots of moving parts; but there's a smooth rhythm to it. Say ~ minute per round, so 100 mins and add 20 mins for equipment set up verification. I'm usually done in half that. Less if trimming isn't needed.

If loading crimped mil brass for plinking, I do same, and cut crimp out with chamfer tool, which is near equal to charge master time (I'll throw those charges with progressive).

It's the brass prep part that takes lots of waiting, so I rotate thru "batches"

-Mac

 

[Retired Grunt]

I don't do it all at once, I am usually prepping 100 at a time. I would say all the steps combined are 4 - 6 hours. even when charging the cases and seating the bullets, I take a break at 50.

 

[Big Mc]

Curious how long it takes others to load about 80 or 90 rounds. It takes me about 4 to 5 hours to load 90 rounds for an FClass match.

What is the amount of time it takes you for brass prep, and loading for a specified (please specify to amount) amount of rounds?

As you can see this is not a timed event. Find somethig that works for you . Just my two cents Tommy Mc

 

[Richard Coody]

I do it in stages and only 50 round batches

Deprime with Harvey and hand clean with ballistol on a rag. Doesn't take long and gives me a chance to inspect my brass. Run them through the AMP.

Next time I clean primer pocket, run a Wilson depriming rod through the flash hole, do a light chamfer and debur and lightly brush out the necks.

Next time lube and size, wipe off the lube with a clean rag. Might prime with hand primer at this stage.

Next time run a final sizing mandrel through the necks, crank up the autotrickler and charge cases and seat bullets.

I have different batches at different stages all the time.

 

[Shooter13]

Well that is a great question!
Deprime
Anneal (amp)
Resize
Trim
Tumble
Prime
Charge
Seat

Doing 100-150 rounds is about 4-5 hours! What?? WOW! Granted 90 minutes are used tumble and it's all on a single stage press.

 

[PopCharlie]

I must be really OCD. It takes me 6 hours to load 75 rounds. That is 3 batches of 25. Usually 3 different powders, primers, bullets, powder charges. I do all the case prep the same, however.
Case prep is:
Clean (corn cob media with polish. I didn't count this time, about 3 hrs per batch, because I do other things)
Clock starts here:
Clean off polish, Decap
Anneal (AMP annealler)
F/L size with bushing die (Harrells or Whidden die, caliber dependent)
Note: I measure each case to check shoulder bump
Deburr, brush out neck
Clean primer pocket
Neck size with Porter pin die.
Note: I measure the ID of each case with a Ballistic Tool comparator.
Clean lube (Imperial) inside and out.
Prime (Sinclair hand priming tool)
Charge (weigh each charge twice. Once on electronic scale to get it close. Then on beam scale, trickle in to get it exact. This step takes most of the time.)
Seat on K&M Arbor press with force pack and Wilson die. Each round is measured for correct seating depth. I also record seating force and CBTO of each round.

PopCharlie

 

[boltman13]

I do my reloading in stages like almost everyone. For brass prep I sonic clean or sometimes tumble with corncob media. About every third firing. Resize on a Redding single stage press, clean off lube with hot water and dish soap. Dry cases by wiping outside with towel and air dry the inside and primer pocket. I trim case length and camper and debut of needed on a Franklin Armory machine if needed otherwise just clean primer pocket. Prepped brass is done in batches of 100 and kept in MTM boxes. I do a lot of brass prep in the Winter when I can't shoot. I probably spend 90 to 120 minutes per 100 cases. When ready to reload out comes the Autocharge. I seat primers with a Lee Autoprime and charge powder. About 90 minutes total. I seat bullets with a Wilson Seating Die and arbor press. About 50 minutes. I shoot F-Class , Varmint for Score Benchrest and IBS 600 yd. Benchrest.with 6.5 Creedmoor and 6BR Norma. With practice, load development and matches about 1,200 rounds a year.

 

[KMart]

It takes me all day long

To do what I use to do all day long

 

[joshb]

Are we including coffee breaks, pee breaks and time lost when searching for “lost tools” that wind up being right where they should be?

 

[wkdickinson]

I try to work in batches of 100. Assuming I have brass that has been only loaded a couple times since being "prepped" (trimmed, inside/outside chamfered) and I have already sorted bullets, about 2 hours (not including tumbling). My normal operations - decap (Lee universal), anneal (Annealeez), clean primer pockets (Sinclair "uniforming" tool), lube (body with Imperial, neck with graphite dip), size (Whidden FL bushing die), clean with cloth, finish neck size w/mandrel, prime (Lee Bench Auto-Prime), charge (Chargemaster 1500), seat bullet (Whidden Micrometer).

When I prep brass I utilize my drill press a lot. I find that mounting my tools in the drill press chuck and running the drill press at about 1/3 speed (I have a VFD), not only speeds thing up a lot, but also gives me a very smooth and consistent finish on the primer pockets and case mouths.

 

[Dgd6mm]

During commercials.

 

[NorCalMikie]

Probably an hour and a half+ or a little more. Brass is already "cleaned, resized and primed", ready to go shortly after it's been fired..
RCBS Rockchucker press. No hurry on my end. Each time I touch each piece of brass, I have another chance to inspect for problems. Best to find problems BEFORE I get to the range.

 

[Timberyote]

I don't have that answer because after cleaning they will sit untouched. When I'm ready in days/weeks, I batch trim, maybe the same day I will prime (RCBS bench APS priming tool). Later I will load a lot of 20-30 rounds, and then onto the next 20-30 rounds.

 

[WyleWD]

When doing 80-100 6br, or 6 ppc it takes me about 2-3 minutes per round from fired case to finnished round with a Rockchucker and weighing each powder charge. WD

 

[DiffEQ]

Did a calculation based on my last set.

Action​	Time Per (sec)​	x100​
Sort & Deprime​	12​	1200​
Wet Tumble & Dry​	18​	1800​
Lube & FL size​	15​	1500​
Case check & 2nd Sort​	8​	800​
Trim​	5​	500​
Anneal​	20​	2000​
Prime​	8​	800​
Charge​	15​	1500​
Seat / wipe clean​	10​	1000​
Concentricity check​	4​	400​
Final case check​	4​	400​
Time per 100 cases :​		11900​
Setup :​		7200​
Total Seconds :​		19100​
Total Time :​		5:18:20​

 

[Ned Ludd]

I must be really OCD. It takes me 6 hours to load 75 rounds. That is 3 batches of 25. Usually 3 different powders, primers, bullets, powder charges. I do all the case prep the same, however.
Case prep is:
Clean (corn cob media with polish. I didn't count this time, about 3 hrs per batch, because I do other things)
Clock starts here:
Clean off polish, Decap
Anneal (AMP annealler)
F/L size with bushing die (Harrells or Whidden die, caliber dependent)
Note: I measure each case to check shoulder bump
Deburr, brush out neck
Clean primer pocket
Neck size with Porter pin die.
Note: I measure the ID of each case with a Ballistic Tool comparator.
Clean lube (Imperial) inside and out.
Prime (Sinclair hand priming tool)
Charge (weigh each charge twice. Once on electronic scale to get it close. Then on beam scale, trickle in to get it exact. This step takes most of the time.)
Seat on K&M Arbor press with force pack and Wilson die. Each round is measured for correct seating depth. I also record seating force and CBTO of each round.

PopCharlie

I'm the same way, and that doesn't include any brass prep. I prep my cases in large batches so they're essentially ready to go when I start reloading. I believe some might describe this behavior as "slow as molasses". LOL. However, I prefer to think of it more as "creating a work of art". Rome wasn't built in a day. I do not believe that you can win a match at the reloading bench; however, you can lose one at the reloading bench.