Finding reloading time?

[broomy111]

Was wondering when everyone finds time to do their reloading? I used to reload back in my 20's and was out of the hobby for about 20 years and decided to pick it back up now. I do have a lot of time demands ( wife, two daughters, house\yard work, etc, etc etc) and I know I'm not the only one with the time demands, so how do you guys do it? After everyone has gone to sleep at night? Scheduled time on the weekends? Do share.

Thanks

Kevin

[motosapiens]

You have a wife and 2 daughters? sounds like you should have lots of 20-30 minute intervals while you are waiting for someone to get dressed or do their hair. I load about 1 week or less per month, about 20-30 mins per day. I just leave everything set up.

[goldfish]

Right after dinner, prevents me from sitting down on the couch and falling asleep. Sometimes in the early morning hours. Breakdown different stages i.e. cleaning, sorting brass, case prep for rifle. An hour or two should be fine. Reserve the weekends to actual shooting at the range.

[RigPig]

I've got all those time constraints plus a job in which I'm on call 24/7. My wife and 7mo old daughter go to bed around 8-8:30p, I typically will reload for a couple hours after that.

[copecowboy22]

I usually load in the evening after dinner.

[broomy111]

Yeah, I do have some time intervals in between the woman getting dressed and hair , but I dont want to start and stop and be half way between stages of brass prep. I think the after everyone goes to sleep is the ticket.

Edited May 27, 2014 by broomy111

[Hi-Power Jack]

First thing in the morning - before the wife awakens. Priceless.

[RammerJammer]

Reload in a shed in the backyard. I volunteer to take the girls out to play and do my work then.

[Ultimo-Hombre]

I do all my match ammo (good bullets and N320) in one sitting about once a month, then switch over to PC bullets and whatever powder and leave that set up for the month... Then make training ammo in PRN quantities at night after the family goes to bed.

[Doc Neeley]

I have a gun shop and have a Dillon 550 set up in the back or when things get slow. I also let new reloaders learn on it.

[vetdocone]

In 2 hours I can load about 2000. If you have time constraints , get rid of 550. If I had a 550 I would have quit reloading. Get a super 1050 and spend 20 minute for loading primers and about 200 or so ammo.

[ZackJones]

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones. Our kids are all gone and now that it's baseball season if there's a Braves game one I'm guaranteed at least 3 hours of reloading time .

[joetsui]

If you set your alarm clock and do it first thing in the morning it's amazing how much stuff you get done. Especially if there's no interruptions from the wife or kids

[SilverBolt]

I tend to do it in stages. Stage #1 I will clean a few thousand rounds of brass. Stage #2 I will load primer tubes. My press is permanently mounted so I don't have setup to worry about. Typically I load after I get home from work before dinner. I will load until I run out of loaded primer tubes. I will then clean up and reload the primer tubes and be ready for the next session. I can crank out 500-600 9mm in about 45 minutes.

[basman]

I tend to do it in stages. Stage #1 I will clean a few thousand rounds of brass. Stage #2 I will load primer tubes. My press is permanently mounted so I don't have setup to worry about. Typically I load after I get home from work before dinner. I will load until I run out of loaded primer tubes. I will then clean up and reload the primer tubes and be ready for the next session. I can crank out 500-600 9mm in about 45 minutes.

My method also. Make it so the day you actually reload, the only thing you have to do is crank out rounds.

Goes without say, but i'll say it anyway, always check your press settings prior to loading.

[thermobollocks]

If you set your alarm clock and do it first thing in the morning it's amazing how much stuff you get done. Especially if there's no interruptions from the wife or kids

This is true for everyone, in my opinion.

OP, what kind of press do you have? With the 550 it's pretty quick to change calibers, but you do give up a little on the sustained rate of production. Leaving it set up I bet you can accomplish more than you think in those 20-30 minute spurts.

Edited May 28, 2014 by thermobollocks

[broomy111]

If you set your alarm clock and do it first thing in the morning it's amazing how much stuff you get done. Especially if there's no interruptions from the wife or kids

This is true for everyone, in my opinion.

OP, what kind of press do you have? With the 550 it's pretty quick to change calibers, but you do give up a little on the sustained rate of production. Leaving it set up I bet you can accomplish more than you think in those 20-30 minute spurts.

I have a new 550 that I just received the other day and I have a rock chucker as well. I am getting the garage set up for my area and I'm gearing up to get back at it. I appreciate all of the responses. I figure I can throw some brass prep into a few stages when I find some time, and then once everything is set, I can just crank out the rounds as Basman had suggested.

[Ultimo-Hombre]

I tend to do it in stages. Stage #1 I will clean a few thousand rounds of brass. Stage #2 I will load primer tubes. My press is permanently mounted so I don't have setup to worry about. Typically I load after I get home from work before dinner. I will load until I run out of loaded primer tubes. I will then clean up and reload the primer tubes and be ready for the next session. I can crank out 500-600 9mm in about 45 minutes.

What kind of setup?

I have a550 no case feeder. I'm loading about 25-30k per year.

I've purposefully not tried a snort of the 650 as I'm afraid ill have to have it

[wgj3]

I'm another with a couple little ones at the house. And, I do much like others have mentioned. Get everything prepped and ready in little spurts of time here and there. Then, put everyone to bed (wife included) and churn out a bunch of rounds in an hour or two. Leave everything set up if needed and repeat until I have loaded the quantity I need.

[SilverBolt]

I am running a 650 with case feeder. At the volume you are loading you really should give one a spin. Your 550 will get dusty and lonely though.

[KelsonAK]

I do things early in the morning, at lunch, between loads of laundry - whenever I can get 5-10 minutes. In the course of a day, I may get a grand total of 20-30 minutes in. That translates into a couple hours a week - and that stacks up pretty fast actually. Short bits of time make organization a bit more important, especially if you are stuck with a single stage. I've only recently started back into reloading a lot of pistol ammo. It seems every time I have the cash to buy a progressive I wind up spending that cash on primers, powder or bullets, magazines.... and not having a progressive means that I am forced to do more dry fire - never a bad thing. However - this year for my birthday I'm getting one.

I have a bunch of pretzel containers with lids that I sharpie 'staging' information on to keep track of where in the process the brass or round is at, and duct tape for MTM cases to do the same for some types of loading. I use Hornady L'n'L bushings for fast die changes and always use the same case holder to simplify setup - especially with rifle rounds. My staging for pistol is usually 'raw', sized, expanded, primed, seated, crimped. For rifle rounds in 'bulk' staging is raw, lubed, sized, trimmed, cleaned, primed, seated, crimped. For F-T/R it can get a little silly...so the MTM cases with duct tape is how I keep things organized.

Separate die sets for separate rifles. Set it up for THAT rifle and leave it alone. Resetting the head spacing on a rifle die is a PITA and takes a bit of time - once it's set, leave it. Mark it too - so if something gets knocked around you can visually check your set up. I've taken to doing the same thing with seaters/crimpers with pistol rounds also - set it up for a bullet/pistol combo and leave it. Used dies can usually be found cheap.

For rifle, don't cheap out on the case lube application. The time it takes to properly lube a 500 cases is less than the time it takes to pull one case stuck in the die. Don't ask me how I know. Huge time saver there. I lube a couple thousand .223 cases at a time - usually while watching TV. I also prime cases in 'bulk' and often while spending TV time with the wife.

[Nimitz]

I can load 100 rds of 9mm in under 10 mins. Just taking 10 mins a day that's 700 rds/week. Surely you can spare 10 mins/day which will produce 700 rds a week for you or 35,000 rds/year .....

[levinz11]

I'm new to shooting and reloading. I have 3 kids and not much time like yourself. I use a Lee Classic Turret w/Lee pro autodisk, 1200 tumbler, RCBS hand primer. I only shoot 200+/- per week.

I break it down like this.

-Sort and clean brass one day 1 hr

-Size and deprime another day 1 hr

-Prime at the couch another day 30 mins

-Charge, seat and box up the last day 1-1.5 hrs

Shoot on the weekend

[Nimitz]

How many rounds does that 4-4.5 hrs of work produce?

[SilverBolt]

If I allow 2 hours for prep time (case cleaning, loading primer tubes, etc) that leaves 2-2-1/2 hours of pulling the handle = 1200-1500 rounds for me.