Completed winter project!

[Chainsaw.]

Nicely done!! And all on a hand press. Thats aloooot of work. I guess I won’t complain if sitting at my progressive.

Where up in the hills are ya? Wife and I just picked up a new spot outside twisp. Hear theres still 3’ of snow!

[Bookworm]

Back when I first started reloading, about 30 years ago, all I had was a Lee hand press. I loaded 9mm and 38Spl.
I would load up a couple hundred 9mm, put the thing down and walk away from it for a week or so.

When I git a single stage press, I'm not sure it went very much faster, but handling a charged case to seat a bullet was certainly easier.

I haven't loaded on a hand press in at least 20 years. I don't think I miss it.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Nicely done!! And all on a hand press. Thats aloooot of work. I guess I won’t complain if sitting at my progressive.

Where up in the hills are ya? Wife and I just picked up a new spot outside twisp. Hear theres still 3’ of snow!

Near Chemult, OR. Yes, we still have 3 ft. But the weather is warming during the daytime, and it's starting to melt. By the middle-end of April it will be 85% gone. The Wikipedia says that it's the snowiest place on the West Coast, similar to Flagstaff, AZ, which of course is not on the West Coast.
I'm at 4,600 ft. elevation. Frankly though, I love it here and moved here with my eyes wide open. Discounting late Dec. through March it is a great place to live. Lots of wildlife, fresh air (when the folks farther down the hills aren't having forest fires!), trees, excellent water, great lakes for fishing, and not many people. The post office is 5 miles away and the grocery stores are 37 miles away. Being an "old timer" I don't know how many years the Good Lord will give me to enjoy it, but I'm thankful he has given me at least a few. Some say that the two best places to live are by the ocean or in the mountains, and I've done both and prefer the mountains. But I had to spend enough time in the cities to make it happen. This will be my last stop, and I'm where I want to be.

I do have a large shop on the property, big enough to park a tractor inside along with two pickup trucks. It has a wood stove, but at present there's just too much "stuff" piled around it to take the chance of using it. I moved here about 18 months ago and brought along a lifetime's worth of "stuff" that will take another year to completely sort through and store and to get a decent reloading area set up. This project was really just a way to pass some time during the winter. It was productive, and I enjoyed it; but yes, I took breaks from it. When I worked on it I loaded 1-2 boxes a day. My wife is disabled and I'm her caregiver, so it had the added advantage of being nearby when she needed my assistance, besides staying warm.

As for the Lee Hand Press, I saw another thread recently with some disparaging comments, but it works fine for me. I've owned 4 of them over the years and have given two of them away to new reloaders to get them started. The third is somewhere in the pile in the new shop. This one is the current model with the bushings for rapid die changes. If you want to achieve a satisfactory level of production, then you have to buy enough bushings to have one on each die so you can just set the dies to the proper depth to accomplish their tasks, and then swap them in and out of the press. Fortunately they aren't very expensive, and come two per package. There is nothing at all inferior about the end product ammo, as you're using the same dies you'd use in a bench mounted press, just squeezing the press together rather than pumping a handle.

Some of the bushings have slightly looser tolerances in the machining of their threads and don't fit into the press as tightly as one would like, so you have to set them just right or they'll eventually turn a little and pop out the top. It's just an annoyance, and easily reset with a little twist.
All in all, a good tool.

I guess part of what "works for you" is how you approach shooting and what you shoot. For myself, I rarely shoot more than a box of ammo in any one shooting session. I'm too old to be running, ducking and dodging while firing multiple rounds; and my shooting years were all spent shooting for score on silhouettes and bullseye targets. Cans work well too! Just be sure to pick them up after you kill 'em, and drop them in the garbage can. I just can't personally imagine shooting a case of ammo at a time, but "different strokes" as they say. I'm a little slower but enjoy every round.

DG

[Chainsaw.]

Nice! I went through La Pine on my way down to Lakeview to go to Thunder ranch. I really like that part of Oregon. Especially that close to the Oregon outback. Wife and I keep threatening to move somewhere down there but the rat race keeps us near Seattle for now. Hope that snow melts soon!

[Reverend Al]

I wish that I had completed some of my winter projects ... I just seem to keep getting more and more projects!

[dverna]

I loaded around 500 .38 Spl's on a Co-Ax before giving up and loading on a progressive. I admire your tenacity. That is an outstanding achievement.

[15meter]

I thought I was doing good with:250 222, 300+ 7mm Mauser, 400 30-06, 140 450 Bushmaster, 150 22 Hornet, 250 204 Ruger, 100 8mm Mauser, 60 318 Westley Richards, 150 220 Swift, 100+ 303 British, 80 375 H&H, 20 300 H&H, 60 9.3x74r, 40 8x60s, 40 416 Rigby, 50+ 43 Spanish, plus a half dozen+ more calibers in small lots-20 to 40 rounds.
All done on an RCBS Rockchucker.

Wouldn't want to do it on a hand press.

Still have 100 204 ruger, 200 hornet, 40 450 nitro express, 20 375 h&h and 20 6.5 carcano's to do on the rockchucker.

Did ~70 boxes of 12 gauge trap/skeet/sporting clays on a Mec 9000 progressives really shine when you get into the high volume stuff.

Have 500+ 30-06 and 750+ 30 carbine to do on the Dillon 550 with 500+ 38 specials on the square deal.

Have to lube/size/GC the boolits for the 06 and the carbine, the 38's are just getting BLL.

Then I think I'm ready for the shooting season.

Back has been bothering me so much I never put a boat on the ice this year, first time since the 70's I didn't hard water sail. Stayed in the WARM shop. At times I think the wife thought she was a widow.

Hope the back straightens out in time for motorcycle season.

Forgot the 100 30-30, 400+ 6.5x55, 6.5x53 and 6.5x54r.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

You're doing alright on the reloading! Best wishes about the back -- been there and done that!

[osteodoc08]

That’s a lot of work really. My hats off to you. I got a wild hair and reloaded about 1k 45 ACP but that was on a Dillon 650. I could only imagine itnon your press. Hope you enjoy a safe and fun filled summer.