How long DOES it take?

[armoredman]

No, we aren't talking about how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop, and if you remember the owl commercial, you be old. ;D
What I am talking about is a question I get from a lot of people, "How long does it actually take to load ammo?" Well, I had 83 deprimed/resized brass from yesterday, so I started from there.

Forgive picture quality - this was serious spur of the moment, so this is actually my phone's camera.


I decided while I was going to trim and prime all 83 I'd measure the time it took for 50, as most people load established loads 50 at a time. If you buy brass in boxes you really should still trim and size it, and if you get Winchester baggied brass, it needs to be resized as well. Here is my Zip Trim setup at work. This thing is great - I used to do it by hand with the Lee hand tools - 20 brass trimmed and my hands were done for the day.

ALWAYS WEAR EYE PROTECTION WHEN GRINDING, TRIMMING OR OTHERWISE SHAVING METAL. METAL SHAVINGS IN YOUR EYES WILL RUIN YOUR DAY.



I love that bright ring from trimming/chamfering.



Trimming for 50 brass, start to finish, 12 minutes. After this picture was taken I trimmed the rest, only to find one with a neck crack...off to the recycle bin it went. Life is too short to shoot bad brass.

Time to get ready for priming. Tool is the RCBS Universal Hand Priming Tool. As someone who used the press mounted priming arm for years, this thing rocks.

ALWAYS WEAR EYE PROTECTION WHEN PRIMING - A PRIMER EXPLOSION IS SMALL, BUT CAN DO DAMAGE TO THINGS WHICH CAN FLY INTO YOUR EYES, CAUSING THAT PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED "BAD DAY".



Primed brass are upside down, after each one is wobble checked on a flat surface for proper seating. This allows me to see at a glance that they are ready for the next step.



Total time for priming, 8 minutes.
BTW, all the extra brass was primed right after this and placed in storage, as I normally do all brass prep as a separate step, then start loading from there. Just took this opportunity to show off some of the steps.

[armoredman]

Time for powder. BUT FIRST, I need to select a bullet and load data. I went to my computer and looked up saved data from my Load Sheet for the 155 gr Lee cast hard lubed load, as it works well. Now I know I need 21 grains of Accurate Arms #1680 powder. Note - only one jug of powder within arms reach at a time. Also note the excellent Winstead Peters electronic scale from Berry's Mfg. I never knew I needed an electronic scale until I got one - great time saver.



Charging the way I do it is one at a time under the spout once the proper grain weight has been set on the RCBS Uniflow, great powder measure.

Separate the charged from empty, note upside down is kinda a dead giveaway it's not been hit, far lowering the chance for a double charge.



Also included in the time is the check - call me paranoid, but I use a flashlight and visually inspect each and every case THREE times to ensure it's charged with powder. Simulated here with flash camera. Note nice uniform powder levels. Side note - if you really worry about double charges, deliberately double charge one case and set it far aside, so as to have "wrong" to compare with "right", but make SURE it is NOT with the brass you are going to top off...double charged loads can destroy rifles, hands, finger, eyeballs, all those lovely items I am so fond of.



Time for powder charging including triple check, 11 minutes.

I can't stop now, not with cats in the house, so I have to go to the next step right now. If you are reloading a place where you can leave charged cases with no fear of them being knocked over, I still wouldn't recommend it - who knows what might float in there, and make life 'interesting. Better get that little lead pill in there right away.

First I start by setting up the bullet seating die with my dummy round, (note no primer), with the bullet set to the right length.



Moving right along...one after another get filled.

[armoredman]

I am a double/triple checker, so I am often checking for proper COAL with my Frankford Arsenal dial calipers. The astute will notice the dial face is upside down...go figure.



And here we are, 50 fully assembled cartridges!



Time to seat all bullets, 16 minutes.

Now this is where most lead loaders stop, but I am about to make them moan in terror, and clutch their Lyman's Cast Bullet Handbook in a warding-off manner...



That's right, the infamous Lee Factory Crimp Die. What I have discovered with cast lead in 7.62x39mm is with supplied crimp grooves, they benefit from a SLIGHT touch of the FCD, simply to ensure uniform neck tension. It really is light, and only by seeing a tiny bit of lube moving can I even note that it's done.

Time for FCD for all rounds, 5 minutes.

Finished product.



Total time from beginning to end, 52 minutes. I am, as shown, using a single stage press - if on a progressive, your time will shrink DRASTICALLY, but I still consider myself to be a beginning loader, having just under 10 years experience, and like to play it safe. Besides, this time was already slated for "entertainment" on my day off, and could have been wasted watching Japanese anime or something equally asinine.

Hope this was informative for somebody, as I enjoyed doing it. Be safe, load often and well, and shoot safely.

BTW, if anyone more experienced than me sees room for improvement, don't hold back, always willing to hear more viewpoints than my own...I tend to get a wee bit wind baggy sometimes. ;D

[Nathan]

Nice! What are we shooting these through?

[g.willikers]

That's pretty good time, actually.
When I used a single stage press and hand primer for pistol rounds, it took about that long, even without trimming.
On the other hand, a friend once decided to use up all his 9mm supplies and, with the help of one friend, managed to load, on a single stage press, 4,000 rounds over a weekend.
With time outs for the lav and pizza, of course.

[Don P]

The astute will notice the dial face is upside down...go figure.

When the caliper is closed does the dial zero out?
This site may offer some help.
http://www.tresnainstrument.com/

[Chaz88]

The astute will notice the dial face is upside down...go figure.

No that is a special set of left handed calipers. They are hard to come by and valuable cost at least $0.0005 more than a right handed set. That would bug the crap out of me. I would have to figure our how to fix it.

Nice write up by the way.

[armoredman]

The caliper does zero correctly - I dropped it and for some reason it slipped a notch, so to read correctly I had to turn the dial 180 degrees. $20 calipers, almost 10 years old. I guess I should buy another set someday. But it does absolutely read correctly.

The loads are 7.62x39mm and get to be used by this wonderful rifle.



CZ 527 CSR.

Thanks for the positive comments.

[Nick_C_S]

(I remember the owl and the tootsie pop commercial.)

I did my own personal time study on 100 rounds of your basic 38 Special target ammo. I recorded the time it took to tumble the brass (putting into the tumbler, taking out - didn't count the actual tumble time, as it doesn't tie up my time), resize/deprime, flair, prime, charge, seat, crimp. Single stage press.

I forget the exact amount of time, but it was just over 100 minutes. So it was just a little over 1 minute per round.

[armoredman]

Something like that. I don't mind, keeps me out of trouble.

[chris in va]

I use the same exact bullet for my CZ. Curious what accuracy you're getting with those? I haven't had a chance to bench rest mine, just plinkers.

BTW do you gas check those?

[armoredman]

Yes, they are gas checked and hard lubed with a home brew lube made by the same guy who made the rifle stock, actually, LAGS.
I've been shooting at steel with it so far, but it seems to do quite well. Yesterday from a standing position on a one chain spinning target, (the thing kept jumping one chain, so I said to heck with it and kept going), I would tag the thing about 4 out of 5 at 100 yards.

I really do need to get it on a real paper target, though. With the newer alloy, (not wheelweight lead), there is no leading whatsoever.

[FrankenMauser]

Very nice.


Sometimes it takes me 3 hours to load 20 rounds.
Sometimes it takes me 1 hour to load 400 rounds.

...it just depends on my mood, what condition my components are in, and how the press is set up before I start.

[Nathan]

Look at post#8

That is the method I used to relocate my 0 to the correct spot.

[MTT TL]

I just figured out I am really slow....

[JimDandy]

To be fair, I could spend all day loading 100 .223 rounds. Or I could load 100 in probably 10 minutes. The more brass prep you want to do the longer it'll take. How you lube cases, if you lube necks, trimming method, deburr and chamfer. Flash hole uniforming, neck turning, if you tumble the lube off after resizing... and on and on.

[tlm225]

Several years ago I determined that I take an hour to load 100 rounds of pistol ammo on a single stage Bonanza press that I've had for 30 years. I do process my brass in batches and don't count my tumble/polish time. Loading rifle rounds I'm a lot slower.

[reloader28]

If I read right, it sounds like you didnt figure in the time to set up the powder measure, change dies, get things out and ready to go, resizing the brass or any of the in between stuff.

The actual time would start when you get a bag of empty brass out and stop when you close the lid on a box of loaded ammo.

[armoredman]

I did figure in the setup time. Doesn't take me long to change out a die. Everything is right in front of me on my converted TV stand "bench", right at knee level.
I didn't figure in the first brass prep stage of tumble, deprime and resize for a simple reason - I did all that the night before, and I decided to use the camera the next day, after I did that.
This wasn't meant as a serious tutorial, just doing something fun and deciding to share what I did. Besides, 98% of reloaders will never, ever load the cartridge I just finished putting together - 7.62x39mm with a home cast lead bullet.

[Guilty]

During a reloading break today, I figured approximately how long it takes me from start to finish to reload 5.56 77gr Nosler using Varget or H322 with a RCBS Rockchucker single stage press and quick change dies. I never actually reload anything start to finish, I have steps that I perform in bulk, for example cleaning 500 pieces of brass at a time, or depriming 1000 pieces of brass at a time, or trimming all of the brass in the bucket in one sitting, anyhow, you get the idea.
I have timed myself on different functions of the reloading processes, just not all together so I used my best estimates based on memory, now I forget what I was talking about, oh yeah, based on my memory of how long the different steps took and the OP's time per bullet is close to what I figured, the time it takes to reload 1 bullet fully depends on how easy the powder is to weigh. Varget takes me longer than H322 for rifle reloading and for handgun reloading, WIN 231 / HP-38 takes significantly less time to weigh the powder. Since I am reloading 5.56 ammunition today, I only estimated the time that it takes to reload rifle ammunition. Here are my estimates...
Using Varget, 100 rounds takes me about 170 minutes (85 minutes for 50)
Using H322, 100 rounds takes me about 125 minutes (62.5 minutes for 50)
Reloading handgun rounds is much quicker because the brass prepping takes significantly less time and the spherical powder measures much easier than extruded rifle powders.

[reloader28]

My bad, I meant no offence.

I dont reload the SKS, but I do put home cast bullets in everything else I shoot.

[armoredman]

None taken, amigo, and you should try a good hard cast in that SKS - they can really work well.

[ATPBULLETS]

Nice tutorial.....I cant load that fast yet.
Not enough rounds under my belt yet.

[Brian Pfleuger]

Reading it all spelled out it seems like it takes you forever but it really doesn't. Loading rifle rounds, I ultimately do about 1 per minute. I must be doing some parts a lot slower than you though because I don't triple check anything once I've got it set.

[armoredman]

I triple check powder levels, because once that bullet is set, it's a wee bit hard to see it again.
Like I said, I just did that photo set for fun, nothing more.