Since this is a new forum I felt compelled to be among the first to contribute to it. There are many people on Cast Boolits who have more experience loading shotshells than I do especially in the volume loading for the serious Clays Shooter for Trap Skeet and Sporting Clays where they may go thru 100,000+ rounds a year.
Producing that many rounds to keep your habit going requires a serious commitment. Progressive Loading Machines like Spolars or Ponsness Warrens or MEC 9000's or Dillon SL900's, or even Pacific/Hornady DL366's can easily load between 400 - 800 rounds per hour. That is depending on YOUR stamina and ability to stand there and pull the handle. 400 rounds per hour = 6.6 rounds per minute,,, every minute for an hour. This is not easy to do and requires more concentration than most are willing to expend. Myself included. And of course some machines are faster than others. But acceptable numbers can be loaded without going insane. 200 rounds in an hour is 8 boxes, which is more than enough for a day at the range for most people.
When you consider that you must also keep the machine fed with primers, powder and shot it becomes more like 8 rounds per minute (actual rate of pulling the handle) to make your 400 per hour quota. 8 rounds per minute is one round every 7.5 seconds while you are actually running the machine producing loaded ammo!
Please note: For every few seconds you aren't pulling the handle you are losing production. Unfortunately times stops for no man! However man stops for time, all the time! Also known as "Wasting Time?"
On the other end is where most people begin and that starts with a Single Stage Loader like a MEC 600. These machines outsell all others combined. You can do 100 rounds per hour on just about any Single Stage Loader. My first choice for that type of machine is the Pacific DL266. This is what I started with and I have a 12 ga and a .410 version. IMHO these machines are arguably the best Single Stage Loaders ever made, but Hornady chose to cease production because of broken tooling they didn't want to replace. Luckily there are plenty of used ones out there.
Then on to Progressive Loaders which produce a loaded round with every pull of the handle and the Hornady DL366 and MEC 900 are the entry level machines. I have a DL366 that I got cheap and did some clean up and it works OK, but you really have to pay attention because if it fails to drop a primer the next pull on the handle will drop powder right thru the hull and you've got to stop and clean the machine out and then start over again. Most Progressive Machines will drop both Powder and Shot with no Hull present! I consider this to be a serious design flaw and to my knowledge the only machine that won't do this is the Dillon SL900. As such, I consider those machines to be the best out there. YMMV!!!! They are also the fastest as with the Case Feeder all you have to do to feed the machine is to put a wad into the wad guide and pull the handle. They are also super fast to reload primers shot and powder. YMMV!!!.
Now back to the beginning. There were/are Hand Tools made that will reload shotshells. Lee Loaders were made at one time to do this. These are made to do a few rounds and have their place. They also require quite a bit of cooperation and effort to get really good quality ammo from, the final crimps being the main problem. I have had one for many years and occasionally load specialty rounds with it just for the heck of it. For the cost of these types of tools you are better off finding a used MEC 600 or similar for $50 and going with that as they will make better ammo faster and are alot easier to use.
So this was a synopsis of the different types of tools used to make shotshells. Hope this brings some understanding to this subject.
Randy