Are there reloading things you can do that don't take so long?

Are there reloading things you can do that don't take so long?

I find that when I do reloading I spend hours at it. I enjoy it so that is great. But I would like to do it more often so I need to know how to divide it up. I don't reload much except on weekends because I don't want to get part way into a tray full of a bunch of cases with powder in them and no bullets seated and have to leave it like that to go to bed.

How do you do it? Are there things you can do that take just a little while? Maybe some things that can be done in less than an hour or less than two hours?

well I size my cases one day
clean primer pockets another etc
i use my rcbs hand primer tool and prime while watching tv with the fam.
the only thing i make sure i sit down an do in one session is charge and seat my bullets.

Reload3006 wrote:well I size my cases one day
clean primer pockets another etc
i use my rcbs hand primer tool and prime while watching tv with the fam.
the only thing i make sure i sit down an do in one session is charge and seat my bullets.

Reload3006 Thanks. Do you label what you have done? Do you somehow keep track that these cases have been sized and these have been primer pocket cleaned? Do you keep it in separate bins or separate zip lock bags? With labels?

yea i keep them in separate bins as far as cleaned sized etc.
the first thing i usually do is just decap and toss in a tumbler
after i get them out of the tumbler i put them in a bin for sizing
then in a bin for primer pocket cleaning (a step you probably could omit)
then seat the primer. dont need to seperate that you can look at it
then i bell the mouths if its pistol or chamfer the bottle necks
the rest is just charge and seat the bullet.
if I am loading some general purpose ammo that im not too worried about accuracy will set up my uniflow powder measure and get the charge set and just drop into the case and seat the bullet. If I dont get done I just go to bed. then come back later and finish. what I do is keep the container of powder sitting on my bench that I have in my powder measure. I am comfortable doing that. But if you arent then do what you are comfortable with.

I usually toss my brass in the tumbler and let them tumble. Then when they are done, I size them all and throw them in coffee cans or bins or whatever you have to store them. You know they are sized when the primers are gone unless you use a universal depriming die.

They usually sit there. When I am ready, say I know in advance I am going shooting, I will see what I already have loaded. I will use my Lee hand primer, and like reload3006, while I am watching tv, I will prime all my cases and retain them in their storage. I also try to do this if I am not going to the range so they are ready.

Then when I am ready, all I have to do is sit down and charge and seat the bullets.

Rifle is a bit different. You have to size the cases, trim the cases, I do tend to pay attention to the primer pockets on rifle. Then the rest is about the same. Using the Lee hand primer (btw if you don't have a Lee hand primer, I would look closely at them. Great quality and are faminominal to use), sit down watching tv and prime my cases and store them till ready...

With all that being said, I am going to have to change a few of my ways now with the handguns. Using a progressive press, I do not have to pre seat primers in advance. I imagine I will simply run through the tumbler, then straight to the press. That will cut down time tremendously... But that is handgun. Not much attention to them like rifle. Just inspect the cases for splits and stuff...

I remember it taking forever at first, you get a rhythm going eventually. and it just takes time to do sometimes. the progressive and even turret setups tremendously improve your ability to manage time. i made the hand press to single stage phase... and now I'm at the turret stage phase, keeps getting better

Depending on what I am loading I will do it in steps.
I usualy tumble to get the big dirt off first. (I dont like to get the dirt in my dies)
Then I resize the brass, If the brass is still a little dirty I will tumble again. (often times I have more than one caliber I am loading for, or brass that is for a different gun that I dont mix, it might be in the tumbler or in coffee cans)
I will measure the brass or use a gauge to check case length if its in spec it gets loaded if it needs trimmed it goes into a to be trimmed can. All rifle brass gets trimmed to max OAL everytime weather it needs it or not I want them the same.
Next I go to the trim mate and clean the primer pockets, and debur and chamfer the mouth.
I prime with my hand primer either while watching TV or whatever.
Next step is to charge the cases with powder, depending what I am loading I charge differently, plinking pistol ammo gets charged with the uniflow and I weigh every 6, accuracy ammo and all rifle ammo gets trickled with my Lyman DPS. If I dont have time to seat the bullets at the time I stack the loading trays 180* of each other so they set down on the case under it and set an empty loading tray on top. I never let them set charged more than overnight without seating a bullet on top.
Then I seat the bullets and pack them in ammo boxes.

No matter what steps you take if you are not 100% sure of yourself keep notes. Its also a good idea to keep the bottle of powder that you are using on the bench right next to the powder dispencer so there is no chance of mixing up or forgetting what powder is in the hopper. (or a tag hanging on the dispencer works) I have thrown many of hoppers of powder away when loading more than one caliber because I want 100% sure what I had in the hopper. Another tip I learned was that if there are primers left in my hand primer I put a little stickie on it stating what primers are presant. I also do this when I store primed cases, I usualy throw the primer sleeve in the can or bag with the cases that are primed.
Tripples

What I normally do is the throw the brass in the tumbler and let them get good and clean. If I don't get to do anything else to them that day I leave them in there until I can get back to them. Next chance I get I will size, chamfer, debur ever how many I want to fool with. If I finish the lot , fine. If not I can pick back up at that point later.When I get finished with them I will prime the cases and store them in the MTM case with the primer up to keep any stray debris from getting into them. When I get a chance to get back to the reloading bench I will measure / add powder and add the bullet in one setting. If I feel like doing 20 I will get them done, put them in the same MTM case they came from with the bullet up. The next time I want to work on them I pull some more out of the MTM and do ever how many I want to do that day. I'm not a volume loader by any means. My time is limited and could be interrupted at any time because of being on call at the plant. This is the way that works best for me. The trick is to find what the best stopping place is for you so you can keep up with where you are at and go with it. A little slip of paper with the info on it kept with the batch doesn't hurt.
I track mine with a database that I built. I issue each batch of brass a lot number so I can track it. I didn't much care for most of the reloading software out there. Don't worry, you will find the sweet spot of what works for you..

Reload3006 wrote:well I size my cases one day
clean primer pockets another etc
i use my rcbs hand primer tool and prime while watching tv with the fam.
the only thing i make sure i sit down an do in one session is charge and seat my bullets.

yea thats what i do to i break it down into sub groups i resize all brass in one session the i do all my prep work tumble ( if needed) trim clean primer pockets etcs then i install primers and just like reload i set my charge and seat the bullets some times this takes as many as four sessions (4 days) others i can do it all in one day!

It's a little different for me.. well, some say that I'm a little *different* to put it nicely

It's different because i'm running a turret press. I usually do batches of 50. cleanup of brass is done separately. I cast bullets in a separate session. I lube bullets in a separate session.

Sessions:

1~ cast-up a storm of bullets
2~ lube bullets and store them
3~ prep cases
4~ load 20-50 cases (depending on the size box I'm loading).
5~ sometimes I'll hand polish and RE check the loads for quality.

I mark each box for the number of reloads that the brass has had so that I can keep track of how it is holding up and when it may need to be replaced. I also make a slip that says the primer type, powder, bullet weight, powder quantity, and date. After firing the loads, I add comments to the slip and file it away with other slips. That way I can go back through all my slips and find a load that worked-out well and duplicate it in the future.

Which parts seem to take the longest for you? Brass prep or charging and seating?

Like some others have said, prep your brass ahead of time. I usually place my deprimed and tumbled brass in a ziploc bag and labeled as to what stage it's in. Otherwise I will forget and have to check to see if they have been trimmed, tumbled, ect.
I also save lots of time trimming brass by using the Lee case trimmers and an upright drill press. I try to spend as little time on case prep as I can get by with because I hate that part. So anywhere I can cut corners to make it go faster I'll try it.

To speed up the actual loading process I use a Lee perfect powder measure to drop my charge within a couple of grains, then trickle the rest in on my digital scale. If your just using a beam scale then I can understand how it would take a long time to charge cases. I probably cut my reloading time in half when I switched to a digital scale and started using the Lee powder measure.

If I have my brass prepped and primed, I can normally load a box of 20 rifle rounds in less than 30 minutes, and that's if I'm taking my time with it.
If I hurry......which I rarely ever do........I can load 2 boxes in a half hour.