How do you guys do it?

[44man]

I found 230 30-30 cases and tumbled them a little at a time, lubed them, sized them, washed them, trimmed and de-burred. I still want to clean pockets, some are cruddy.
I see some of you do 1 to 2,000!!!!
It is like getting 1000 CC'S of Novocain in the brain---zone out into a raging zombie.
I sure will not load them all but wanted them done.
I have a little baggy of boolits and little powder and primers. I don't even want to cast.
I had to read posts while going nuts. :roll:

[koehn,jim]

I punch out the primers than tumble the cases in walnut shells and than lube and size them. Even if I dont plan to load all of them, I still size and prime the cases than seal in plastic storage bags.

[btroj]

Time. I take my time.
Tumblers clean. Size them. Clean pockets. Expand case mouths. Actually load cases. Each step may be done in a day or over time. Rarely are all steps done in a day on large batches.

[Shiloh]

230 is a cinch.

Do them in batches. 15-20 at a time or however many you can handle.
I recently pulled better than 500 .40 S&W loaded cartridges. Loaded at old data, then the data changed. They were hot!! I did them in batches of 20 t0 50 0ver several days. These all done with Dillon inertia bullet puller.

This is new brass with Hornady EXT Bullets. Better than $220 dollars at current prices, and they are now unavailable from Obama's created panic.
Originally loaded in 1994. Finally got around to doing it after a knee replacement while convalescing.

Just like lubing 1200 boolits with a Lyman 450. All of them is overwhelming. break them into 25 or so at a time and after a short while, they are all done.

SHiloh

[Bwana]

Depending on the time of the day I will have the radio or TV on and sometimes both. Then there are the idiots speeding down the street visable through the window and the geese and ducks feeding in the yards across the street. And the hounds laying around in the reloading/computer room which give me "the look" when I need to move the chair to another position and they have to move. It's all good.

[44man]

At least some of you feel like me. Boring junk that if I had to do it at work for a living I would explode. Repetition is the worst thing ever.

[btroj]

I use a cordless drill for cleaning primer pockets and deburring case mouths. With a towel over my lap I can watch TV while doing this task.
I find that breaking the process into little bits makes it easier.

[mdi]

"There's only one way to eat an elephant, that's one bite at a time"...

[nhrifle]

Case prep is the parts that I think most of us will consider the "work" part of what we do. I hate deburring more than anything, but it has to be done. As said before, break it into batches and when the current lot is done, take a break. Background noise helps. Music or TV, just something that you can concentrate on other than, "Arrrgh, this sucks......."

And I do feel your pain. I have a box or 2500 9mm cases that have been glaring at me for a month.

[captbligh]

My least favorite part of reloading due to severe boredom and because of nerve damage in my dominant right arm and hand made the old deburring tool unusable. I bought a Lyman case prep center that deburrs, chamfers, cleans primer pockets (I actually use the RCBS wire pocket cleaner which fits one of the stations instead of the blade type that comes with the Lyman), has a primer pocket uniformer and an attachement to take out the military primer pocket crimp for large and small primer pockets. Also comes with various neck brushes. At around $100 is one of my favorite purchases for reloading equipment.

[Nocturnal Stumblebutt]

These sorts of tasks are what movies are for, like lubing boolits, I'll pick out a movie late on a weeknight, lube boolits until the movie is over, then just stop and go to bed. Same for de-priming cases. If I know I have a lot to do, I pick a long movie.

[GabbyM]

I setup around my lazy-boy chair in front of TV. Some Acro-Bins, tools and cases. Bins are stuck between my legs and chair arms. Newspaper on my lap to catch the chips. I use a 110V drill as the battery units just go dead after five years. For primer pocket cleaning I chuck a Sinclair carbide pocket uniformer into a drill. When pockets are done. If it’s not been done yet I run a flash hole uniformer, #1 C-drill , through the holes. I used to run those with power but anymore I just turn the tool by hand and don’t get to carried away with removing anymore than the occasional burrs. On military brass I still run power on them as you cut a lot of metal. Long ago on military cases I learned to deburr the flash holes before decaping. Have a RCBS uniformer with the point ground off the #1 c-drill just for that. You’ll nearly never break another decap pin. Then you still need to uniform the holes after decaping.

A few years back when I was laid off from the machine shop. I ran through a box of 5,000 pieces of 5.56mm LC brass. Plus I’ve about four thousand commercial cases in 1M lots. One Norma 150 piece lot for target matches. Man I’m done with prepping. Then I went and bought this 30-06 rifle and picked p 800 cases once fired. But the Rem cases aren’t’ much work. If I bought anymore LC brass it would me new unprimed never fired. Like they sell now. That mixed up lot blown to oblivion mill surp brass really isn’t worth the trouble considering how marginal it shoots. I just load it up with cheep J bullets for the kids to blast with. After FL sizing with a new tight die. The huge over length is filled off with a twelve inch 2nd cut mill file. With case held in a form trim die in my Rock Chucker. Deburred then run through my case trimmer hand lathe. Deburred again. Then I anneal all the necks. Like I said. It’s not worth the trouble. Even after weight sorting it’s not good enough to prairie dog shoot with. Just blasting fodder for 1 ¼ moa shooting. With the madness right now I could probably sell it for one dollar a piece.

[captaint]

Wow - I hope you guys are talking about rifle brass. All I ever do to pistol brass is polish, clean the pockets and deburr the inside case mouth. Once on the deburring. I guess if I was gonna load
up some long range 44 stuff or something, I would do the flash holes and all that. Rifle brass,
that's another story. Mike

[landers]

I agree that case prep is absolutely mind numbing. To keep focused and on track i do my case prep in large batches with a shooting buddy. By talking and working with a fellow shooter we stay focused, check each other’s work, and have a little fun in the process.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

I don't do much to my pistol brass, but I have set a 100 round limit for reloading with my Lee hand press. I could do more, but best to quit while you are still having fun!

[David2011]

Wow - I hope you guys are talking about rifle brass. All I ever do to pistol brass is polish, clean the pockets and deburr the inside case mouth. Once on the deburring. I guess if I was gonna load
up some long range 44 stuff or something, I would do the flash holes and all that. Rifle brass,
that's another story. Mike

Wow, Mike, that's a lot of work for ordinary pistol brass. :) I shoot, polish in the vibratory polisher using corn cob and Nu-Finish and declare it ready to reload. The Dillon does the rest of the work for me.

David

[runfiverun]

i bought an rcbs machine long ago.
it champhers and does the primer pockets and does the primer flash hole.
i just run each case through the sequence.
even with it a batch of 1,000 pieces of brass is monotonous.
i'll pick and poke at it here and there untill it's done.
i do the same thing with lube sizing rifle boolits i leave everything set-up.
when the dog wants to go out,or i go into the garage to smoke i'll do 25-30.
i'll get 100-150 done in a day like this,more if i spend an hour or so actually doing it.

[johnnybar]

Pockets do not need cleaning unless very dirty. It makes no detectable difference in precision. If you are just anal, like me :-), get 2 big bowls and fill one with brass. Kick back in that lazyboy and watch a movie or two with your bowls and a pocket cleaner tool. As mentioned, a cordless screwdriver/drill is great for a short low speed twist of the tool. High speed drills are too fast. After a little while you don't even need the lights on or need to take your eyes of the movie...all done by feel.

[mold maker]

At my age it is enjoyable work. It's low impact and takes little concentration. Accomplishing something while watching a good John Wayne is a piece of cake.
I have an RCBS case prep ctr that has 4 revolving stations and two for neck cleaning.
I use a lap set up with a LEE universal deprime die first. I can even finish the brass mouth prep while in my easy chair. The last operation is the polishing, and I have finished brass.
My wife allows me to keep it all in the den, as long as I keep it tidy. Thus I have only the actual reloading to do at the bench.

[dragon813gt]

I will do it in batches for as long as I can stand it. I don't find trimming brass that bad. But when I got through the 500 pieces of 357 mag I had, I was glad it's all I had. What I find the most monotonous is sizing/ lubing bullets. My shooting volume almost warrants a Star. And I tend to shoot a lot of different firearms. My checking account can't bear the tooling cost to switch from a RCBS LAM at this point.

I'm just trying to get as far ahead as possible. This way I can get buy doing small batches to maintain the stock levels.

['74 sharps]

Being a firm believer in keeping it simple...
1) deprime with a dedicated decapping die
2) wet tumble/ss pins 1 hr
3) size
4) flare + prime
5)load
6)repeat

[popper]

Just punch the primer & toss em into the US. Chamfer the inside on new rifle brass. Size, bell, prime and load when needed. Between the 10PM weather and 12 sack time I can get lots done.

[farmer1966]

My bloodhound and my daughters cat set and stare at me, while I listen to radio, between keeping cat off bench an my "3 year old mid life crisis" asking what's this do time goes fast.

[GabbyM]

OK
I have to get a nap. Then get up at 10 pm to drive to Decatur, IL . Make about 200 parts before sun-up.

Maybe you all can explain to me how bringing a flash hole up to tolerance is a big deal

[cbrick]

I still want to clean pockets, some are cruddy. I see some of you do 1 to 2,000!!!!
It is like getting 1000 CC'S of Novocain in the brain---zone out into a raging zombie.

First I highly recommend the Sinclair uniforming tool. I use that tool in this machine I built about 25 years ago. Does everything to brass that you don't need a press for. I can do about 450 primer pockets in an hour. I routinely uniform the pockets on fired brass rather than just clean it.

Rick

60919

[root]

I do the coffee can method.

Can do one in a day sometimes two.
Try to do one in a week though.

love the power trimmer.

beats my drill by miles....

[44man]

Rick, that is a wonderful tool. Great job.
I shoot mostly revolvers and when done shooting, cases go right in the tumbler. I then size, check length, prime and put them back in the box, ready to load. That keeps me ahead of the curve.
A bag of new brass or a pile of once fired is the biggest pain.

[Raven_Darkcloud]

Ultrasonic cleaner from hf with ipa in it for pockets

[Harter66]

I break it up into jobs depending on whether its new,new to me,or my brass.

I'll size/decap 50-200.
Tumble
Prime
Load.

I check a "lot" if its not out to max lengths I don't trim.
Doing the above its not unusual for me to prep and load myself right out of Boolits every week for a given round every week. It comes down to a couple of hours at a time.

[L1A1Rocker]

I found 230 30-30 cases and tumbled them a little at a time, lubed them, sized them, washed them, trimmed and de-burred. I still want to clean pockets, some are cruddy.
I see some of you do 1 to 2,000!!!!
It is like getting 1000 CC'S of Novocain in the brain---zone out into a raging zombie.
I sure will not load them all but wanted them done.
I have a little baggy of boolits and little powder and primers. I don't even want to cast.
I had to read posts while going nuts. :roll:

LOL! What's really fun is doing a 500 case run converting 223 to 300BLK. Oh the joy. . .

[dilly]

I watch Star Trek or some endless show with many seasons that is interesting enough to stave off madness but boring enough not to be a distraction.

Sometimes an audio book.

[joes29729]

The secret is to have lots of kids who then have lots of kids who...well you get the idea. It's amazing how much tedious work you can still get for a quarter and a promise to pull the trigger a few times from a future juvenile delinquent.

[lwknight]

It might take 1 or 2 weeks to load a batch but I won't even setup for less than 300 in a run unless its something like 30-06 then I will do 100 or so.
Best time to work on loading is when the wife takes over the TV to watch something like " don't you wish you could sing " or something like that.