High volume pistol shooters, do you spend more time shooting or reloading?

[wally]

Weather has been great and temperatures have been such I can comfortably be out in the garage reloading whenever I have an extra hour or two to kill.

Having had some recent 500 round steel plate outings and reloading the empties shortly thereafter (usually this time of year I'm about finishing up reloading all the rounds I'll need for the up-coming 8 month summer when its just to hot and humid to be out in the garage reloading) got me thinking, if this was the normal situation, would I spend more time shooting or reloading?

With a sample of three sessions and near perfect temperatures (no sweating even with significant activity) I've come to the conclusion its about equal time spent shooting and reloading for me.

Takes me about 1.5 hours to shoot up 500 rounds at the steel plates (pre-loaded magazines for three or four different guns) and pick up the brass. It then takes about the same time to crank out 500 rounds on my Dillon XL650 including the time filling and emptying the vibratory tumblers, filling primer tubes, case feeder & powder measure, and cranking out the rounds. I just dump the completed rounds into .30 cal GI ammo cans. None of this is done with any sense of urgency, its a hobby, I'm retired and don't need to finish any of these tasks to any deadline, just going along at an enjoyable pace.

Just curious how this works out for other high volume pistol shooters.

 

[Chuck R.]

I go through a about 1500-2000 rds a month in pistol when the weathers decent. I'm probably about even with time.

I buy my components in bulk and usually load 1-2000 rds at a sitting before changing for calibers. Winter and in the heat of summer is when I do the bulk of my reloading, as I have a gun/reloading room on it's own HVAC zone. Loading alone takes me about 4-5-6 hrs, policing brass about 10-20 minutes per range session, actual cleaning is about 15-20 minutes of my time (don't count machines running.

Shooting sessions really depend on what I'm working on, normally I'll work some accuracy and run some drills. Normal session is a couple hundred rounds and I usually shoot a couple times a week approx 1hr per session. I also do 2-3 dry fire sessions a week of about 15-20 minutes. A couple times a month I'll have friends out and we'll set up IDPA stages or run more complex drills.

Chuck

 

[thomas15]

Reading your post, I got distracted by the fact that the weather is nice in TX and we have 2 feet of snow on the ground.

 

[wally]

Reading your post, I got distracted by the fact that the weather is nice in TX and we have 2 feet of snow on the ground.

I feel your pain I used to live in snow country until I became an adult and could move away.

 

[Doublehelix]

I found that my reloading just can't keep up with my shooting, even in the winter months since I can shoot indoors. I find myself llately having to supplement my handloads with factory rounds, and that is just not acceptable from an accuracy/consistency/cost standpoint.

I just purchased a Dillon XL650 to help with my throughput (I had been loading on a LCT with the Inline Fab Ejector mod). Hopefully, I'll be able now to load enough to actually build up a backlog instead of cramming a bunch of reloads in the early morning before a steel match like I did a few weeks ago...

 

[nettlle]

I have been shooting 1k a month pistol for the last four years and reloading with a Redding T7. I could barely keep enough ammo loaded and I was constantly reloading on the weekends. I bought a Dillon RL550B about 4 months ago and I can easily keep my reloading caught up now. Reloading now is a lot less time consuming and more enjoyable.

 

[Havok7416]

I was shooting very high volume for awhile (1,600k/month) and I always spent more time shooting than reloading. That will temporarily change once I move to my permanent residence in a few months.

 

[cfullgraf]

(usually this time of year I'm about finishing up reloading all the rounds I'll need for the up-coming 8 month summer when its just to hot and humid to be out in the garage reloading)

You need to put HVAC in your garage.

When we lived in New Orleans there was no way my garage would not be heated and cooled as I did lots of things out there with cars and guns. Wasting much of the year due to the high heat and humidity was not an efficient use of the space for my recreational activities.

I probably load more ammunition than I shoot in the same time period, but I do not participate in high volume, rapid fire type events.

When I shot competitive skeet, I could load a months worth of practice ammunition shooting only on weekends in two or three evenings of reloading. But, I was on temporary assignment away from home and needed something to occupy my time.

 

[FROGO207]

These days it is about even, though I can burn through the ammo a LOT faster when I get together with friends and we shoot a bunch. I do not shoot competitively for now so there is no pressure to load up anything unless I want to. Presently these activities both are a hobby and done for fun in a relaxed manner. If I got into shooting competitively now it would take all the fun out of it again.