[AndABeer]

Yesterday was my highest round count ever as far as quantity produced by my 550B, 1200 total (various .45 and 10mm loadings). I imagine this is pretty paltry compared to some of you guys and gals but it got me thinking as to where I stood so I thought I'd do a poll. Please forgive. :D

[HSMITH]

I have done 3000+ a couple times, 1K 9mm, 1K 45acp and 1K 38 with leftover bullets used up and such making totals somewhere around 3500 if I had to guess. I have a round counter now but have not gone on a loading binge since I got it working. I have also reloaded well over 2000 shotshells in one day, I never counted them out but 10 bags of shot in one ounce loads makes 4000. I have used 10 bags of shot in a day several times.

[Steve Smith]

Just did my Camp Perry loading on Saturday. Cranked out about 600 rounds in about two hours, including resetting my seating die for two different loads and doing some press cleanup about halfway though. Did it on a 550B. I've done that much before, but I avoid doing more at a time because I get bored.

[Dave R]

Never more than 100. I'm still a newbie at this. Still developing loads I like, so I never load large quantities of them.

Also doing this on a shoestring. My powder measure is the Lee set of powder scoops. I weigh each charge on the scale. That takes a bit more time than a good progressive press.

[Chugach]

I'm a relative newbie too. Been reloading since mid-February. My best so far has been 200 rounds on an RCBS Rock Chucker single-stage.

Hand primed 850 cases yesterday...does that count for anything? :p

[Intel6]

Well I will have to chime in here. I worked for a commercial reloader when I was in college and used to load large amounts of ammo each day. Spent one day on the 9mm machine and loaded 29,000 rounds. Since the machines were so fast it would have been possible to load more but I didn't need to load any more as I had done 15,000 the day before.

[Edward429451]

The most ever in one day was nine hundred sixty some on a 550B. I average two to five hundred per day usually. That day I did the 900+, I wanted them to be all the same lot. (223's).

[happy old sailor]

Intel6. could you tell us about the powder dispenser on a machine that will load tens of thousands of rounds per day.

am actually curious about the whole process as in how the hulls, primers, and bullets are fed into it. at that speed, everything had to really really be in the right place at the right time.

and, yes, i can take the short answer, as in: don't bother me.

ty anyway.

[444]

I loaded 1500 .38s in one day on a Dillon 550.

I have loaded 3-4 hundred in one day on a single stage.


"Hand primed 850 cases yesterday...does that count for anything? "
Holy Cow, you are a mad man.

[Chugach]

Nah, just got bored! Did it while supposedly watching TV...probably drove my bride crazy with the "tink" sounds as I dropped cases into the box.

[agony]

I have loaded 1600 rounds of 9mm on a Dillon once.

It wore me out.....maybe I need the roller handle?

[AndABeer]

It wore me out.....maybe I need the roller handle?

Oh hell yeah, you do. Some of the best money I ever spent.

[larryw]

Filled two ammo cans and a bunch of 50-round boxes with 45ACP last Sunday, 3000 rounds. Most of the time, it seems, was spent filling primer tubes. Think I'm gonna break down and get a roller handle for my 550.

[444]

I have roller handles on both my 550s.

What I want is that primer tube filling gizmo.

[benewton]

I try not to let the per caliber, on hand, ready to fire, inventory fall below a K or so, thus making the required time on the 650 about a morning or so. I like to check the rounds post load. It's my face, after all...


Guess I'm not all that hot on the speed to load thing, since I probably fire less than 10K/year and so there really isn't any rush.

Too, I trust nothing mechanical beyond the point that I must: I'm not walking!
But each round I load on the 650 is checked for gross crap, and for high primers: I use the 650 for pistol ammo, and the RC for rifle.

[Intel6]

Happy Old Sailor,

The machines I used were basically commercial grade machines. They are an in line machine, the rounds move in line to each station entering from the left and dropping into the bin on the right. We had the contract for LAPD to load their pratice ammo when they were still using revolvers. We sent down 350,000 round twice a month. These machines had a collator to feed the cases and bullets. The powder hopper held a few pounds of powder and the primer feed was fed by tubes.

Basically the operator would keep the brass and bullet hopper filled and check the powder every so often. We has those automatic primer tube fillers like Dillon sells and you would have to keep the primer tube filled up.

So it wasn't like you dumped in a buch of stuff and turned it on, you had to have an operator keeping and eye on it.

These machines were all timed to to do all the different things at once and when they crashed it was a big mess. You had to pull all the stuff out and clean it all and reset it to start again.

When they worked good they really cranked out the rounds. You could vary the speed of the cycle depending on the experience of the operator and the type of round you were loading.

It was a great place to work, I got all the free .38's (blems) I could shoot and was shooting 600-800 rounds a week in an indoor range for nothing. Me and a buddy shot up 1,200 rounds of 38's one day on top of all the other caliber's we shot.

[P0832177]

On more then one occasion I have done 2K of 45ACP either LRN or FMJ of the 230gr variety. But, there were the obligatory breaks for filling the primer tubes, and stuff like getting the ammo into the ammo cans. Starte about 830 and was done around 2p. No races to be won, so liesurely pace.
I prime my 308 and 223 away from the Dillon, and I do other case prep while watching TV. I sort brass watching TV.