How Do You Do It?

[hfl73]

Hello, I have never reloaded until I purchased a used 650 W/caseloader last spring. To date I have loaded around 2500 9mm rounds on it. It took awhile, but I finally have a pretty good feel for the machine. I have read that I should be able to crank out 400-600+ rounds per hour. Currently, the best I can do is about 200 rounds an hour and that includes filling primer tubes, dealing with the occasional jam, etc.. I am ok with that so far. My question is; how do you do it any faster? Is this something that comes with more experience? Is my current rate normal for a beginner? Or should you able to set up the machine and start producing large volumes right from the get go? Any tips, suggestions, or anecdotes detailing your experiences as you evolved from beginner to expert will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[jmorris]

These days I dump bullets and brass in the right collator and crank the handle. 25+ years ago it was much slower. Make good loads, speed will come. The last thing you want to do is start another "kaboom" thread, second to that is pull 1000 rounds "just to be safe".

Tips:

Don't try to "go fast"

start with well sorted clean (then lubed) brass

Have a primer tube filler

[Pop N Fresh]

speed comes and rates are different for everybody, you'll get faster but what is important now is having a safe routine so that when you do speed up it's done the right way.

[whistlepig]

Don't sweat the numbers if you are turning out good ammo safely. the rate may pick up as you gain experience, then again maybe not. The advertised RPM's are kinda like a machine gun's rate of fire. It assumes that the primer tubes are ready to go, no jams, that kind of thing. Just get a safe set of habits and enjoy. I would rather have 250 rounds of high quality ammo per hour than 300 rounds I wasn't sure about.

[Torogi]

nothing special that you need to do. make sure you push the lever all the way (for the primer to be fully seated), crank, check powder, seat bullet, crank, and repeat the process again.

it gets easier as you go, it gets boring though. its like, when it will ever end?? lol.

100 rounds, xl650, 5 minutes

prep primer, place in tray, shake, pick it up, 5 minutes

up to this day I tell myself $300 is a lot of ammo for the price of that primer filler thing.

[Reinz]

up to this day I tell myself $300 is a lot of ammo for the price of that primer filler thing.

And worth every penny!

Once you get one, you'll kick yourself for not getting one sooner.

Go ahead and give Brian a call - it's only money!

[Skydiver]

Go only as fast as you can safely keep an eye on quality. You don't want to produce 1200 rounds in an hour, but be wondering if you've got a squib or two in the finished bin.

Having said that, using case lube can speed up the production rate. Having at least 4 or 5 primer tubes will let you keep cranking away before you are forced to take a break. Or as mentioned above, an automated primer filler would be an alternative, but personally, I find the breaks useful.

[mizer67]

One tip is to get the bullets as close to the seating station (#4 for me) as possible. Dillon does a good job of this with the bullet tray if you have a strong mount.

The more efficiently, with as little wasted movement as possible, you seat a bullet (after checking the powder charge of course) the more speed will come.

[dover0020]

I also think the bullet tray is a must. If you don't have one get one. I just got a 650 2 months ago, after I got it set up and tuned the way I wanted it the first 200 rounds I loaded only took me 11 minutes. You may also want to think about have multiple primer tubes filled so you don't have to stop loading you can just add more primers. I have eight primer tubes so I fill them all then I can just worry about making ammo.

[Chris Keen]

Buy a bullet-feeder!!!!!!

[Sarge]

I'll add to the general opinions that it is most important to be safe and make absolutely the best ammo possible. I strive to make perfect ammo so that is one less thing I will have to worry about.

Speed is very subjective. I could do 400 an hour easy on my 550 yet I know a guy with a 650 w/bullet feeder who only does a few hundred an hour but he likes his pace. The equipment just simplifies it for him instead of making the machine go faster.

But basically once I am at the number of rounds loaded that you are at now I will be thinking more along the lines of 800 an hour for me. But like I said it's different for everybody!

[want2race]

I load 4-5 primer tubes before I want to start loading, usually days before. I put the bullets and cases as close to the press as possilbe. I can load 400+ in an hour on my Square Deal B. That is as long as I have enough bullets and brass sitting there. I look into every case for powder, and I'm pulling/pushing at a moderate pace. I don't like to throw the lever too fast because the shell plate spins too fast.

[Heckler]

I load 4-5 primer tubes before I want to start loading, usually days before. I put the bullets and cases as close to the press as possilbe. I can load 400+ in an hour on my Square Deal B. That is as long as I have enough bullets and brass sitting there. I look into every case for powder, and I'm pulling/pushing at a moderate pace. I don't like to throw the lever too fast because the shell plate spins too fast.

+1 Keep everything close and have extra primer tubes preloaded. I preload 12 tubes, so then all I have to do is get more brass and bullets during a loading session. I get in a nice steady, safe pace and go to work. When those 12 tubes are empty I have usually had enough loading for the day. Some time later, usually while watching TV I will load my primer tubes to have ready for the next reloading session.

[Mbauer67]

Try using the hornady bullet feeding die, it works awesome.

[Will_M]

Camdex.

[pmclaine]

Take your time, think of it as therapy.

I'm a new reloader with about as many rounds as you. I'm loading on a 1050 and I have the primer filler thingy. Best I do in a session is 500 rounds and it takes a good four hours. I just feel better about my product being really meticulous right now. I keep a log and write down what I do in order to start and than throughout the session. Start up - Pull ten charges and toss to settle powder, than pull ten to check charge setting, start running cases, QC first round through the machine, go to production and QC about every 75 rounds or so ( QC = check powder charge in bullet at seat die, pick three cases from loaded bin and measure COL, taper crimp, primer depth and drop in case gauge). I've got the highest rated production Dillon machine and I use an SDB loaded cartridge bin. Looks silly but it forces me to QC and it means I only have to toss max 100 rounds if something has maladjusted. I spend a lot of time doing other things besides pulling the handle.

I've caught one screw up, putting 10.6 grains into a .45 ACP which was supposed to have 5.3. My powder check saved me but if I was power loading like the guys in the Youtube videos I could see thinking "Oh there goes that top nut on the powder check walking again. I'll have to tighten/reset that next primer fill". It would have been ugly.

I spent four enjoyable nights loading after I put the kids to bed. I've got 2000 rounds of ammo in my cabinet now. Being a low volume shooter I'm good to go on .45 until late Spring. I get 4 months of shooting for 16 hours of fun doesnt seem like a lot of time to me.

Edited December 24, 2011 by pmclaine

[hankfan79]

up to this day I tell myself $300 is a lot of ammo for the price of that primer filler thing.

Kind of off subject but check this out. Comes complete with everything you need for like $50

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRqqZ9UkTW8

[98sr20ve]

Hello, I have never reloaded until I purchased a used 650 W/caseloader last spring. To date I have loaded around 2500 9mm rounds on it. It took awhile, but I finally have a pretty good feel for the machine. I have read that I should be able to crank out 400-600+ rounds per hour. Currently, the best I can do is about 200 rounds an hour and that includes filling primer tubes, dealing with the occasional jam, etc.. I am ok with that so far. My question is; how do you do it any faster? Is this something that comes with more experience? Is my current rate normal for a beginner? Or should you able to set up the machine and start producing large volumes right from the get go? Any tips, suggestions, or anecdotes detailing your experiences as you evolved from beginner to expert will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

My question is what is slowing you down? How often you getting jams. What kind of jams are they? It doesn't take long to load a primer tube. 500-600 a hour is very doable if you don't mind actually loading for a solid hour. I prefer to load in shorter runs. But when I load I normally have primer tubes filled.

Speed is about routine and consistency. Safety follows with those same two things but add Attention. So your machine has to be reliable to load that fast. My fairly new 650 seldom jams. When it does it normally due to the wrong case going in the hopper and jamming up the casefeeder. But besides that you should be able to fill the primer tube and just pull the handle 100 times. Each pull you seat a bullet. So your only attention is on grabbing a bullet and seating the bullet on the case after checking the case for powder. Everything else is done for you. If your doing other things your taking your attention away from checking the case for powder (which is the real important thing). It doesn't take long to seat a bullet and look in the case. You need to have a effeciant setup. Bullets very close to the shellplate.

[Skydiver]

Things that I've discovered that slow down loading 9mm in relative priority order:

- Following the Dillon instructions for going for the minimal belling. Go for a little more generous bell as if you were setting up for the Mr. Bulletfeeder even if you don't have one, keeps bullets from falling off or toppling over.

- CBC and S&B headstamp brass. I always run into problems inserting a primer and/or the case doesn't bell enough.

- Not using case lube. I go much faster with lube rather than without. ( Keep your mind out of the gutter. )

- .380 and 9 Makarov cases. When the bullet keeps falling off the case, chances are it's a .380 or 9 Mak case.

- Using a Lee decapping/sizing die instead of the Dillon die. This increases the 650's chances of jamming increases because it's more likely for the lip of the case to catch on the lip of the die. I found this out the hard way after loading a 400 9mm last night. I had traded my Dillon die for a Lee die. Had a hangup 4 times.

- Brass instead of nickel. Loading nickel seems to go a lot faster. It feels like I need less effort to size and bell the cases.

[Sarge]

- Using a Lee decapping/sizing die instead of the Dillon die. This increases the 650's chances of jamming increases because it's more likely for the lip of the case to catch on the lip of the die. I found this out the hard way after loading a 400 9mm last night. I had traded my Dillon die for a Lee die. Had a hangup 4 times.

Knock on wood but so far my 9mm EGW U-die has not locked up yet. I get the occasional bang against the case but it always funnels in after that. Make sure to run it onto a case before tightening.

As for the OP. I guess we all reload different but after finally getting my dies locked down and bugs sorted out I just did my first timed hundred. Just over 7 minutes. That is not rushing at all, eyeballing the case for powder and seating bullets by hand.

I have only ran about 200 total through the press but from what I see the 650 is made to mass produce ammo. It really seems to come into it's own when you just pull the handle and let it do it's job.