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View Full Version : It takes me one minute forty to do it



Limey
11-23-2007, 04:25 PM
I reckon on average, it takes me one minute forty seconds to make a completed 45/70 round starting from the point of collecting a pile of wheel weights from the tyre depot.

Please note, I have a single station press and a single cavity mould and a full load from my lead pot can make 170 405 grain bullets, I swirl lubricate my bullets with Lee Alox .....I'm sure folks with multi gang moulds, nuclear powered smelters and progressive presses etc will be a lot quicker......still, it's a labour of love....isn't it??

Here are my timings:

Collect wheel weights from tyre depot, one hour....they give me enough for 4 pot fulls so that is 15mins per pot and that works out at 5 seconds per bullet (spb)

Melt weights, clean out steel clips and flux....21 spb

Cast bullet, cooling time, empty out mould...15 spb

Lube bullet for sizing...2 spb

Size bullet...5 spb

Lube bullet (again!)...2 spb

Clean cartridge case. lube, re-size, flare mouth, clean primer pocket...25 spb

Fit new primer...5 spb

Load powder into case...5 spb

Seat bullet...5 spb

Apply Crimp...5 spb

Wipe resizing lube off of case...5 spb


...now, I employ myself in our own little holiday busines and I pay my self nothing an hour....so that means all my time is free .....

....so therefore the moral of this foolish tale is that all my home loaded ammo costs nothing...(yeah, right!!)

.......so, how long does it take you to do it?


Safe shooting and enjoyable reloading


Limey

NVcurmudgeon
11-23-2007, 06:47 PM
A limey in France? I know you moved to avoid the legendary English rain. You have to watch that more complex equipment. Last week, I set out to load nearly 700 rounds of .45 ACP on my Dillon Square Deal machine, about a three hour undertaking for me. All was well up to about 250 rounds, then the machine would not feed primers properly. I had to resort to sizing, decapping, and expanding on the RCBS single stage press. Then I moved to the RCBS hand priming tool, then the Hornady pistol powder measure. The last move was back to the Dillon for seating and crimping. I had phoned Dillon, and the tech told me that I was using primers with protruding anvils. I told him that I was using Winchester primers on Dillon's recommendation. He maintained his position, so I countered by saying I would try a different lot of primers. No joy. This operation took all my spare time for two days. Oh, the progressive machine? When I finished loading the .45s, I still had to sweep up spilled powder and the primers that had been flipped all over the shop. To unload the primer magazine, I removed and replaced the primer magazine (again.) In the contrary nature of things mechanical, the Square Deal had fixed itself! After nearly fifty years of reloading, I have learned to never time myself.

Buckshot
11-24-2007, 07:11 AM
I reckon on average, it takes me one minute forty seconds to make a completed 45/70 round starting from the point of collecting a pile of wheel weights from the tyre depot.

...now, I employ myself in our own little holiday busines and I pay my self nothing an hour....so that means all my time is free .....

....so therefore the moral of this foolish tale is that all my home loaded ammo costs nothing...(yeah, right!!)

.......so, how long does it take you to do it?


Safe shooting and enjoyable reloading


Limey

............Well ya know I've never thought about it that way :-). If I charged what I was worth I couldn't afford myself! But time spent on something you enjoy doesn't cost you anything so far as your own time goes. Looking at the prices for jacketed bullets and loaded ammo recently, those poor sods shooting that stuff must be rich, or not doing much shooting!

Some jacketed bullets are a buck apiece and I'm throwing a fit because GC's are $20/1000.

................Buckshot

Mk42gunner
11-24-2007, 07:20 AM
Some jacketed bullets are a buck apiece and I'm throwing a fit because GC's are $20/1000.

................Buckshot


Isn't that the truth.

Robert

dale2242
11-24-2007, 07:53 AM
Just found an old box of Hornady 35 cal. GCs marked $6.00. Don`t you love inflation?

Freightman
11-24-2007, 11:26 AM
Found some 30 Lyman GC at the last gun show marked $2 with the origional stamp from a store that went out of bussiness 25 years ago, the man ask if I would give him his money back? well "DUH"

JohnH
11-24-2007, 03:25 PM
Found some 30 Lyman GC at the last gun show marked $2 with the origional stamp from a store that went out of bussiness 25 years ago, the man ask if I would give him his money back? well "DUH"

Good thing he only asked for his money back, and didn't correct his price for inflation.... you'd prolly have walked off.

1Shirt
11-24-2007, 04:52 PM
Never bothered to figure out time per load. I have sometimes over 1000 sized, cleaned, primed, ready to load cases, and when I have time to charge them, seat blts. record the data etc. I could care less about how much time it takes. As long as I have a couple of thousand rounds of various 224's and 6mm's of of Prairie Dog weight blts loaded for next spring I am satisfied. Also need at least another thousand cast loads for rifle, and probably that much for hand gun. Time when you are retired is a moot point!
1Shirt!:coffee:

NVcurmudgeon
11-24-2007, 06:42 PM
............Well ya know I've never thought about it that way :-). If I charged what I was worth I couldn't afford myself! But time spent on something you enjoy doesn't cost you anything so far as your own time goes. Looking at the prices for jacketed bullets and loaded ammo recently, those poor sods shooting that stuff must be rich, or not doing much shooting!

Some jacketed bullets are a buck apiece and I'm throwing a fit because GC's are $20/1000.

................Buckshot


I "had" to buy one box of .22 Hornet factory ammo for comparison to my future reloads in velocity, accuracy, and expansion. Sportsman's Warehouse had Remingtons for $44.95/50, so I got the "cheaper" Winchesters for $35.99! 94 and 78 cents a whack, no wonder I reload and cast.

grumpy one
11-24-2007, 06:51 PM
In practice all of my reloading is experimental - I've never found a load I've been satisfied with, so far. That means inspecting used cases for clues, after cleaning the carbon etc off them. Then slightly lubing the outside excluding the neck - I use a backed-off FLS die so the neck and base will be in a straight line when the neck gets sized, and I need to lube the case body (don't ask me how I found that out). Then brush the inside of the case neck to get the old lube with embedded carbon out of it, so it won't embed in the new lube and hone my barrel while I shoot. Then I dip the case neck in mica, then brush the inside of the neck with non-hydrocarbon lube. Again, don't ask me how I know I need to do these things. Size the case, wipe and inspect, clean the primer pocket, and trim (every single time I size - my FN military mauser's chamber is only .008" longer than SAAMI). Then I do quite a bit of record-searching and thinking about what to try next, and why. Write out a loading sheet and mark each row on the loading blocks. Sort out the various cast bullets I'm going to try, inspect them yet again, seat gas checks, size and lube without letting the bullets get mixed up, using different sizing dies for each rifle, getting lube over everything then cleaning it all up afterward. Then prime all the cases - the only quick and easy operation so far, I do that one for relaxation time. Then I start the really slow and tedious bit - weighing charges and seating bullets, with a different charge weight after every five loads, a different powder on average every ten loads, and a different bullet about every ten loads.

It takes me quite a few hours to prepare 75 rounds, spread over 15 different loads and two different calibres, for a trip to the range. It takes an hour twenty to get to the range, two and a half hours to shoot my groups, and an hour twenty to get home. I get there in a pooped condition and don't do anything more vigorous than lay on my back and read a novel for the rest of the day.

And this doesn't include the time to gather and smelt lead, cast and inspect bullets, and buy loading components from the discount gun shop way across town. I think we all do this stuff because we regard it as some kind of therapy. I go to the range and watch a group of teenage louts with 223 Remington pump guns all simultaneously shooting as fast as they can pump the slides and not bothering to pick up the brass, and I think, if I could take any satisfaction in that and valued my time at say $30-40 an hour, it would be way, way cheaper to turn myself into a teenage lout and give up all of my current practices. All I'd need would be a baseball cap, an inane grin, a loud voice and drag marks on my knuckles.

No_1
11-24-2007, 07:22 PM
All I'd need would be a baseball cap, an inane grin, a loud voice and drag marks on my knuckles.

Don't forget to wear your pants at the low tide level. Seems to be very popular these days. Makes me want to keep my staple gun handy when the daughters boyfriends stop by....