Minimum starting equipment, specific question.

[jmorris]

Kevin,
How long does it take you to load with the lee classic once you get going?

 

[poor_richard]

Kevin,
How long does it take you to load with the lee classic once you get going?

I am also curious to know how much he can put out in a certain time period. I know the difference between my Hand Loader, and my Dad's Classic Turret is enough to make me opt for the Turret. If I had room for a bench, I would have bought the Classic Cast when they were on sale about a month or so ago.

 

[Werewolf]

I am also curious to know how much he can put out in a certain time period.

After setup is complete I can load about 100 rounds per hour with my Lee 4 hole Turret press and be 99.999% sure every round was built right.

I've seen it claimed that 200 rounds/hour is possible with the Lee Turret - that's one round every 18 seconds without stop - but I'd be leary of shootin' 'em. Too easy at that speed to get a double charge, and/or no charge, loads.

At over a 100 rounds per hour rate I go into what I call automatic mode and eventually have a brain fart where I wonder if I missed charging that last round and have to go back and check. A 100 rounds/hour is slow enough that the brain farts are avoided. In almost 5 years of use I've built exactly one squib load out of thousands and thousands of rounds. And though it would be a less serious error, skipping the factory crimp die is even a possibility (I know - I've done that too).

NOTE: At one time many years ago I ran a manufacturing department. Keeping employees out of automatic mode was a big deal because once they got into it if they made an assembly error they kept right on making the same error until busted out of automatic mode. Mindless, repetitious work - which is exactly what reloading is once one gets into the swing of it - can produce some bad results if busting the routine isn't done regularly. The only other way to prevent errors resulting from mind numbingly repetitious tasks is to do them slow enough that one consciously thinks about each and every step before executing it.

Y'all can probably tell from the above that unlike some here who actually enjoy reloading - I don't. Reloading is work. I do it because I'm a cheap SOB who can make better ammo at way less cost to me than the factory.