Seth Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 How many cartridges do you make in an average loading session? 300 How many cartridges do you make in an average week? 500 Which press do you use? 650 How many cartridges can you load in an hour? NEVER load for an hour. I load for what I need that session. How long is your average loading session? 20 min Knowing what you know now if your reloading equipment was lost or stolen what would you buy today? 650 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GForceLizard Posted December 8, 2010 Share Posted December 8, 2010 How many cartridges do you make in an average loading session? 300 How many cartridges do you make in an average week? 150 Which press do you use? LNL AP Knowing what you know now if your reloading equipment was lost or stolen what would you buy today? LNL AP Reloading 9mm, 40S&W and 45ACP. No case feeder or bullet feeder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshF Posted December 8, 2010 Share Posted December 8, 2010 How many cartridges do you make in an average loading session? 300 (beyond that I lose concentration) How many cartridges do you make in an average week? 300 Which press do you use? Dillon 650 How many cartridges can you load in an hour? 500-600 depending on brass quality How long is your average loading session? 30 min Knowing what you know now if your reloading equipment was lost or stolen what would you buy today? Dillon 650 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AzShooter Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 How many cartridges do you make in an average loading session? 500 How many cartridges do you make in an average week? 1000 - 1500] Which press do you use?Dillon 650 and Dillon 550] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-JQ- Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 (beyond that I lose concentration) I think this is the reason your see most everyone loading in short sessions. I'm a fairly new reloader and I'm glad to hear others are not doing 2-3 hours loading sessions. I can only concentrate for so long...at the level I feel reloading requires. I love my SDB... To do it again...another SDB for each caliber...follow the KISS rule I've often wondered this same question as the OP. Good post. ymmv Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CocoBolo Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 (edited) How many cartridges do you make in an average loading session? 500 How many cartridges do you make in an average week? Consumption is 2000 per month. Which press do you use?Dillon 650 and Hornady LNL How many cartridges can you load in an hour? 300 including filling primer tubes Knowing what you know now if your reloading equipment was lost or stolen what would you buy today? Hornady LNL I just added a bullet feeder so this could change things. Edited December 9, 2010 by CocoBolo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dansy Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 (beyond that I lose concentration) I think this is the reason your see most everyone loading in short sessions. I'm a fairly new reloader and I'm glad to hear others are not doing 2-3 hours loading sessions. I can only concentrate for so long...at the level I feel reloading requires. I love my SDB... To do it again...another SDB for each caliber...follow the KISS rule I've often wondered this same question as the OP. Good post. ymmv The lost of concentration depend on the amount of automation and the specific press that you have(1050)....I'm not home very often (Flight Engineer) but when I'm I take care of the family, the house and of course I shoot a lot and clean and reload for our shooting....I don't like reloading or cleaning but I only shoot sparkling ammo with sparkling gun's so I have to do it when I can .....if that mean being in the reloading shop for an all morning thing then be it... I know shooters that cannot concentrate long enough to do a course of fire, everybody is different Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BayouSlide Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 I consider 500 at a stretch plenty for pistol calibers on my 550B, 50 rounds of .308 at a time on my single stage (with pre-sized brass). Curtis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duct tape Posted December 22, 2010 Share Posted December 22, 2010 The Dillon RL550B RL550B is manual-indexing four station progressive press. The Dillon RL550B is the workhorse Dillon press line. It can load almost any center fire rifle or pistol cartridge. It has 120 caliber conversions available for it. In the Dillon line the Dillon RL550B is the most economical add calibers to. It has less expensive caliber conversions than other Dillon presses. If you were buying just one Dillon press and wanted the most bang for the buck, it would be a Dillon RL550B. According to Dillon more RL550s have been sold than any other progressive machine in the world. One Hour Production Rate 500 I've posted this elsewhere but I'd sure like to see how the "average loader" gets this many rounds per hour from a 550. Maybe if five primer tubes were preloaded, brass lubed and in a large holding bin, and one never felt the need to check the occasional powder load or measure the COAL. Not to mention the not infrequent gremlins which seem to visit during an evening loading session. My hats off to them. That's 8.33 rds/min or one every 7.2 sec! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M-Bear Posted December 23, 2010 Author Share Posted December 23, 2010 The Dillon RL550B RL550B is manual-indexing four station progressive press. The Dillon RL550B is the workhorse Dillon press line. It can load almost any center fire rifle or pistol cartridge. It has 120 caliber conversions available for it. In the Dillon line the Dillon RL550B is the most economical add calibers to. It has less expensive caliber conversions than other Dillon presses. If you were buying just one Dillon press and wanted the most bang for the buck, it would be a Dillon RL550B. According to Dillon more RL550s have been sold than any other progressive machine in the world. One Hour Production Rate 500 I've posted this elsewhere but I'd sure like to see how the "average loader" gets this many rounds per hour from a 550. Maybe if five primer tubes were preloaded, brass lubed and in a large holding bin, and one never felt the need to check the occasional powder load or measure the COAL. Not to mention the not infrequent gremlins which seem to visit during an evening loading session. My hats off to them. That's 8.33 rds/min or one every 7.2 sec! 500 rounds an hour was quoted from Dillon. I have timed myself for an hour straight several times and each time I get above 400 and below 450. I have 6 primer tubes and place the brass and bullets were I have to move as little as possible. I have had several people tell me that they can load faster then I do. If I managed to get the bullet seated right the first time everything and didn't have any primer issues I could see another 50 to 100 round an hour. But I certianly would hate to do it for an 8 hour shift. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duct tape Posted December 23, 2010 Share Posted December 23, 2010 The Dillon RL550B RL550B is manual-indexing four station progressive press. The Dillon RL550B is the workhorse Dillon press line. It can load almost any center fire rifle or pistol cartridge. It has 120 caliber conversions available for it. In the Dillon line the Dillon RL550B is the most economical add calibers to. It has less expensive caliber conversions than other Dillon presses. If you were buying just one Dillon press and wanted the most bang for the buck, it would be a Dillon RL550B. According to Dillon more RL550s have been sold than any other progressive machine in the world. One Hour Production Rate 500 I've posted this elsewhere but I'd sure like to see how the "average loader" gets this many rounds per hour from a 550. Maybe if five primer tubes were preloaded, brass lubed and in a large holding bin, and one never felt the need to check the occasional powder load or measure the COAL. Not to mention the not infrequent gremlins which seem to visit during an evening loading session. My hats off to them. That's 8.33 rds/min or one every 7.2 sec! 500 rounds an hour was quoted from Dillon. I have timed myself for an hour straight several times and each time I get above 400 and below 450. I have 6 primer tubes and place the brass and bullets were I have to move as little as possible. I have had several people tell me that they can load faster then I do. If I managed to get the bullet seated right the first time everything and didn't have any primer issues I could see another 50 to 100 round an hour. But I certianly would hate to do it for an 8 hour shift. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't questioning anyones claims, or at least not intending too. Just impressed with their expertise. In fact afterwards I talked to BE about a possible new order for a 650 and he gave me some tips to improve my efficiency loading with the 550. Apparently many experienced (and coordinated) loaders get well above 500 rds per hour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dansy Posted December 23, 2010 Share Posted December 23, 2010 I'm surprise that not that many peoples loads ton's on a single seating....personally I don't really like reloading but I need too in order to feed my gun's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillD Posted December 23, 2010 Share Posted December 23, 2010 (edited) The question of which press should I buy gets asked in reloading forums several times a week. I decided the best way to deal with this was to wright a more in-depth response and save it on my hard drive. then just cut and paste when appropriate. I am including more than just Dillon units so just pointing them to Brian's answer isn't what I want to do. In an effort to refine the which press for you paper I am curious to know. How many cartridges do you make in an average loading session? 1500 cause I got 15 primer tubes How many cartridges do you make in an average week? 1500 Which press do you use? 650 How many cartridges can you load in an hour? 700 How long is your average loading session? 2.5 hrs Knowing what you know now if your reloading equipment was lost or stolen what would you buy today? 1050 I really don't care for reloading. I have to to shoot as much as I want. If I hit the lottery, I'll buy WWB by the pallet and leave the brass at the range! Edited December 23, 2010 by BillD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmurch Posted December 23, 2010 Share Posted December 23, 2010 I reload .223 2k at a time. Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prreed10 Posted December 23, 2010 Share Posted December 23, 2010 Before kids, I used to go out on my day off and load 1K in the morning. Now that we have 2 boys, I have to go out at night, usually 3 times a week and load 100-200 at a time. How many cartridges do you make in an average loading session? 100-200 How many cartridges do you make in an average week? 500 Which press do you use? Two Dillon 550's How many cartridges can you load in an hour? 500-600 How long is your average loading session? 30 min Knowing what you know now if your reloading equipment was lost or stolen what would you buy today? Dillon 650 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmantwo Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 How many cartridges do you load in a session. 4-600 How many cartridges do you load in a week. Summer Very Few Winter2000 Which press do you use. 2 550's How many cartridges can you load in an hour. 500 easy How long is your average loading session. 1-2 hours What would you buy if your equipment was lost or stolen. 2 more 550's I load too many different calibers to use a 650 or 1050 I usually load 200 rounds, case gauge them, then load 200 more and repeat until I'm done for the day. I do 90% of my loading in the winter months when there's very little shooting going on. I load .223, 9mm, .40, .243, 7mm BR, and now .270 and .380. I'm at work for 28 days and then off work for 28, so lots of time to load when I'm home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunslingerDK Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 How many cartridges do you make in an average loading session? 500-1000 How many cartridges do you make in an average week? During winter I only load about 300 a month. During summer 500-1500 each week. Which press do you use? XL650 How many cartridges can you load in an hour? 400-500 How long is your average loading session? 2-3 hours Knowing what you know now if your reloading equipment was lost or stolen what would you buy today? XL650 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Z Sr Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 I try to do 500-1000 per sitting, about 1-2 times per week. I will load for one caliber/gun, then change over for different one. Most is done on a 550, but I have many single stages set up for various rifle rounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sargenv Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 I sat down to crank out some ammo last night... and now I sit here with a sore elbow from tendonitus and a sore shoulder blade from.. well cranking out 600 rounds of 40's. Likely why a lot of us only do 200-300 in a sitting.. or we simply don't have a lot of time to crank out lots and lots of ammo.. Some of us have spouses and children that want/need our time with them also, so having a press set up to crank out a match and/or practice ammo in a hurry without too many issues is pretty much a given. I tend to set up my press for different things and leave it like that for months. Last year after I was done competing for the year, I switched over my 650 to seat cores for my swaging project. If I wanted to shoot practice or a match, I thankfully loaded ahead just in case. With shooting season starting at the first of the year, I still had some ammo from last season, so I used that till the other day when my swaging process was over, and switched the press back to loading minor 40's for my revo. It will likely stay that way unless I have a need to crank out something else (usually something else with small pistol or small rifle primers, so that part stays put). I have a single stage press for really small batches (under 50 rounds), but right now it is set up for swaging.. so I'd have to monkey with it to do anything. If I could have another 650, or rather if I had the room for another 650, I'd buy another just for convenience sake.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suzuki94 Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 Hi, would you be willing to share some of those tips Brian had given you about increasing production . I would really appreciate it. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garmil Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 How many cartridges do you make in an average loading session? 100 How many cartridges do you make in an average week? 400 Which press do you use? Lee classic turret How many cartridges can you load in an hour? 225 How long is your average loading session? 30 min Knowing what you know now if your reloading equipment was lost or stolen what would you buy today? Not sure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Youngeyes Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 Hi, would you be willing to share some of those tips Brian had given you about increasing production . I would really appreciate it. Thanks! Competition Reloading w/Brian Enos Detailed and informative information for competition pistol reloading. Although Dillon's XL 650 is featured, the reloading info is not press-specific. Also includes an excellent Tips & Techniques section, and general reloading "insider tips" not found in manuals. 80 Minutes DVD Qty: Price: $19.95 Price: $24.95 It's on Brian's store site, http://www.brianenos.com/store/dvd.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannybot Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 I'm pretty new to the reloading scene. I load low pressure rounds to run through my suppresssed SBR and 300 blk. I decap and size, then clean and prime off the press. By the time I get around to loading, I have primed brass. I load about 150/ hr of either .223 or blk on a Lee single stage press. Could I have more press? You bet, but do I need more press? Not really because I'm about a thousand rounds ahead of my usage. I use factory ammo for anything beyond 100 yards, (my low pressure rounds are too slow out of the SBR) and currently have plenty if that too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Tompkins Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 How many cartridges do you make in an average loading session? 500-1000 (sometimes 1500)How many cartridges do you make in an average week? Most weeks 0, when my stock of a cal gets low (under 1000 rnds) I'll set up and load until I get 2k-3k loaded up. If I'm working up a load for a new powder or bullet then its 100-150 experimental runds once a week or every other week depending on range time to chrono then I'll do a 2k-3k batch over a one or two week period.Which press do you use? LNL AP w/ case feeder. Had a Hornady bullet feeded but it was not a net improvement in productivity and was loud.How many cartridges can you load in an hour? With QC checks (powder throw weight checks, COL measurements, and primmer tube filling it ranges between 300-500 rnds. I use range pick up or bought "once fiored" brass. If I get some crap brass mixed in I have to clear jams, if I'm loading 40 I run it through a bulge buster, et.c. Many non-press issues crop up. How long is your average loading session? I'll spend 2 to 6 hrs in my reloading room at a time doing reloading tasks. Of that I'll spend 1-5 hrs at the press, it depends on what I'm working on.Knowing what you know now if your reloading equipment was lost or stolen what would you buy today? LNL AP most likely, since I know the design and how to set it up but I would price shop and if a good deal on a 650XL showed up I might go that route. Both machines have pro's and con's. For me it's kind of a coin toss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motosapiens Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 These are good questions: How many cartridges do you make in an average loading session? I'm not sure what a 'session' is. I usually load 50-100 at a time, either in the morning with coffee, or in the afternoon, after my dryfire but before mrs moto comes home. 10-15 minutes.How many cartridges do you make in an average week? 500-1000/wk for a few weeks, then none at all for a month or so.Which press do you use? Dillon 550How many cartridges can you load in an hour? ( not loading 100 and using math to get your answer but how many in a real hour if you were going to load for 2 or more hours straight? Burst rates are fine but the are a lot higher than you would get if it was your 8 hour a day job. 300-400/hr includes time to top off powder, open more boxes of bullets, refill primers, go get another beer, etc... If I hustle it takes about 11 minutes to load 100 rds. If i'm lethargic, more like 13-14.How long is your average loading session? 10-15 minutes.Knowing what you know now if your reloading equipment was lost or stolen what would you buy today? Same stuff. dillon 550. I like it because it's simple and as fast as I need it to be. If I only loaded once a month and had to do 1500 rds at a time, I might try to increase efficiency. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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