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lhrocker

How much do you reload at a time?

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When I go the range by myself, I usually shoot 30 to 50 rounds per caliber in pistols and rifles, double if my son comes with me.  I reload all calibers except rimfire and I usually reload what I will need for a given shooting session and will start the reloading process after i'm done.

Does everyone else do the same thing, or do you reload in bulk and wait till you run out before reloading again.

And for people who reload for one session at a time, do you reuse the same brass until it's no longer any good, or do you change out the brass to rotate your stock?

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I only reload 9mm, .45acp, and I just started .38 special.  I got to the pistol range at least once a week but I only shoot between 50 - 100 rounds.

I like to have a couple hundred rounds on hand at any given time, so I'll reload about 3 nights a week, but only about 50 - 100 rounds at a time.

For brass I have about 1000 9mm and 500 each of 45 and 38 special, and I rotate through it so that I reload the oldest first and newest last (I have a bunch of coffee cans that i use for this system).  This means that the brass I soot at the range tomorrow will go to the back of the rotation and not get used until the brass in front og it in line gets processed.

I also regularly scrounge for .45 and .38/.357 cases at the range to build up the supply.  I have a lot of 9mm so I typically don't pick that up anymore unless it's really shiny and looks like it's once-fired.

I'm pretty new to reloading, so take it for what it's worth.  If I move to reloading for rifle I may decide to build a stock of pistol rounds so I don't have to do a lot of component switching.

 

 

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I generally reload 500 rds at a time for pistol, less for rifle.   I kind of know what loads work for me after about 45 years.

I found some 357 Ioaded in 1978.  40 years old and it shot as good now as it did when it was first loaded.

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Once the press is 'fine tuned', I will reload that caliber over the next several days as time will allow until out of supplies.  That could go from a couple of hundred and up.  Winter time is great for mass reloading projects just sit there and load away.  Weekly range trips can see up to 300 rounds used.  Brass is on a never ending rotation by caliber and power factor.  Still reloading WCC Match brass from '88 for Bullseye.  Light and middle of the road loads do not stress brass that hard.  USPSA, IDPA, etc tend to wear out the brass faster giving about 5-10 reloads give or take.  Now with coated hard cast bullets things go a lot smoother than the old plain hard cast lead days.

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Great info.  So other than the match loads, do you guys also load "generic load" where you don't use more generic bullets, don't double check powder weights or super clean/trim cases.  I look over boxes of commercial ammo and see that OAL's can vary from bullet to bullet.  As long as the OAL is consistent, using generic stuff for rounds a good idea, to save time in loading?

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I have loaded thousands of 38, 9, and 45 and  never did any more than cull splits, badly dented, and resize the brass.  All loads go through a case gauge, if they pass they are fired, if not they are examined and corrected.  Reject rate is less than 1%. 

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3 hours ago, lhrocker said:

Great info.  So other than the match loads, do you guys also load "generic load" where you don't use more generic bullets, don't double check powder weights or super clean/trim cases.  I look over boxes of commercial ammo and see that OAL's can vary from bullet to bullet.  As long as the OAL is consistent, using generic stuff for rounds a good idea, to save time in loading?

Not sure what you mean by generic.

Powder and primer are always the same for any given batch (be it 50 or 500) and the bullets will be the same (I wouldn't mix 115 gr hollow point with 115 gr round nose for example), but I don't segregate brass cases by manufacturer so those can be mixed.

As to checking weights and measures, once my progressive press is dialed in for a load I just do spot checks.  I maybe measure and weigh 1 out of every 10 or 15 rounds I make.  One guy at the range laughed at me and said he checks 1 out of 50, but I wouldn't be comfortable with that.

I never trim pistol brass.  I look at each case as I'm sorting, anything that's even remotely questionable I throw in the bins at the range.  I always have hundreds of cases in the rotation so throwing out a handful every now and then is a non issue.  I always clean with a tumbler, but I'll do several hundred at a time, so I only do it when the "clean" bins are getting low.

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200-500 at a shot for bulk pistol, pure progressive. 

100-400 at a shot for bulk rifle. Semi progressive. Size and prime, then swage, then trim, then load progressive. 

Pretty much don't go below 100 at a go because I don't like leaving partial packages of primers around. 

QC is a vigilance task, and I find that somewhere between 600 and 800 it breaks down for me. So I usually just cap it at 500 which is what I have enough primer tubes to cover without a refill, and leave it at that. 

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No compromise for QC.

Developing a load I will weigh each charge.  After that it depends how reliably my powder measure throws the charge.  Maybe weigh every 5,10, or 20.

I use a chronograph when developing loads.  Beats guessing.

Always use good bullets.  Maybe 95% of my pistol loading is with lead bullets. I buy them don't cast them myself.

I usually clean brass well and sort out headstamps.  Not that that had anything to do with accuracy, just appearance.  I have been reloading for about 45 years and never trimmed any pistol brass.

I don't load for a specific firearm.  I know this can increase accuracy by doing this but not worth my time AFAIC. If you have 10 30-06s and develop 10 different loads that can be a nightmare to keep track of.  My loads shoot well in all firearms I have in that caliber.  Better in some.  

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Fully loaded I have 4000 9mm, 3000 45, 1000 22, 1500 223, 400 308, 200 6.5 grendel

I like to set up 1 process at a time. So once any caliber is getting low Ill load it to my max. This may take multiple sittings as I have a 6 month old baby that gets in the way :)

I usually shoot 200 9mm, 100 45, and 150 223 or 50 308

Ill sort after each shooting day and when a box is full Ill clean(wet in the warmer months and dry in the coldest months)

I used to go crazy sorting head stamps but now I only do that for 6.5 and 308

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Since I reload for so many rifle calibers, I keep a small stock (100) on hand. And a backup stock of commercial ammo, usually at least 500 per caliber. Reload for .223, 6.5x52, 6.5x55, 7x57, 7.62x39, 7.5x55, 7.92x57, 7.62x54r, 8x56r, .303, don’t reload for my handguns.


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On 2/2/2018 at 10:16 AM, BullzeyeNJ said:

Pistol I do about 1000 a session. Precision rifle 50-100 per session. Semi auto rifle 300-500 at a time. I like to break it down into brass prep then actual loading so it may be two separate sessions for one caliber. 

Yup.  Minus pistol.  I don't shoot them enough anymore to justify spending the time loading.  

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On 2/1/2018 at 11:36 AM, alec.mc said:

1,000-3,000 per session

 

 

How long are these sessions?   Curious that’s a lot of ammo.  

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40 minutes ago, alec.mc said:

Not very long.

Dillon 1050 with a Mark7 autodrive and Mr bullet feeder loads at about 2000 rounds per hour. 

Ah nice auto drive.  Progressive I’m on 650 and I can crank out a bunch but not like that.  

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On 3/27/2018 at 7:36 AM, alec.mc said:

Not very long.

Dillon 1050 with a Mark7 autodrive and Mr bullet feeder loads at about 2000 rounds per hour. 

If I buy another progressive, this is it. My LNL is nice to pump out maybe 500 rounds an hour when dialed in, but it would be nice to have a mini automated process. I do worry about not checking each round as they go through tho.

Would a lock out die work on something like that with the auto drive? I would assume it has some kinda clutch

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7 hours ago, JackDaWack said:

If I buy another progressive, this is it. My LNL is nice to pump out maybe 500 rounds an hour when dialed in, but it would be nice to have a mini automated process. I do worry about not checking each round as they go through tho.

Would a lock out die work on something like that with the auto drive? I would assume it has some kinda clutch

Th mark7 has various digital sensors that can be hooked up for checking things like this. 

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