Single Stage users... got some questions for ya

[FROGO207]

The time is in the case prep and charging for sure. You will not have to trim and chamfer/debur every time. Check them and unless there is something wrong it will be every other time at most. Some rifles I can go 3 reloads before all the fuss. You use the Lyman 55 that is good. You can experiment with what you use for adjustments for the particular propellant used. I will set mine up like a wedge with flake type and like a deep cavity with ball type. You have 3 planes to move to get your most consistent drop, some experimentation is in order and it will pay off. Invest in some spare brass to have prepped ahead in lots of whatever you want to load in that are primed, clean, and ready to just add a charge and seat the bullet. You can do some of this later in the evening at odd times if you have some extra brass and save it up to actually load just before you need it once you settle on a load. Keeping records will save you time in the long run. Ask me how I know this.

After reflecting on this a little I do use the knocker on the measure at the end of each drop and always keep the hopper between full and no lower than 1/2 full for good consistency of drops. I have not used a baffle yet, use a loading block with 60 holes and I am happy with my results.

 

[scythefwd]

Frogo - I found I got the most consistent results with the hopper between full and 1/2 as well. I'm still working on it though. I've found that using a deep cavity is the best so far for extruded powders. The two shallower cavities seem to cut too much powder and and gave me less consistent charges.

 

[Lost Sheep]

I load for straight-walled cases, so your rate will vary.

When I first started out, I dumped a slightly lighter than desired dipperful of powder into my scale and trickled up to weight. It is pretty quick that way. Not as quick as a powder measure, but accurate with no doubts. Later on, as I came to trust my skills with a dipper I only sampled weights while loading.

I used to set up with 50 fired cases in one loading block to the left of the press and an empty loading block on the right.

I would pick from the left, pass through the press and place in the right
1 - sizing/depriming/repriming
2 - case mouth belling

Then, charge all the cases with a funnel. As I remember, I weighed 1 of 5 charges, but came to trust my skills with the Lee Dippers and switched down to 1 of 10. But I always stared my sessions weighing at least 5 in a row to verify my dexterity had not deteriorated.

Pass all 50 cases through placing a bullet on the case mouth and in the press, seat and crimp.

I usually took about an hour, exclusive of setup time.

I use a Lee Classic Turret nowadays, having experimented with the Lee Pro-1000 and found my skills, patience and confidence to be lacking. I am VERY comfortable with the turret and did 100 rounds in 47 minutes my first time out, including filling the primer tray and powder hopper. (I use the Auto-Disk powder thrower usually).

Good Luck. Thanks for asking our advice.

 

[rfwobbly]

If you're only doing 120 rounds per year, I'd think it'd be easy to clean, trim and prime that many in 1 sitting, once a year. Then you could quickly dump and seat 10-20 (1 hunt's worth) in an hour at the time of need.

I say this because you certainly don't have to watch a tumbler do its work. And you can hand prime while watching TV or talking with the family.

 

[scythefwd]

rf..,. I dont count my tumbling time or my priming time for the most part. Right now, your comment is kinda what I am doing.. except for load workup which just takes a lot of bullets to find the right load. I've come into more brass and bullet than I'll shoot in the next 10 years (counting the bullets I have at the house) if my current rate is anything to judge by. Too bad match kings aren't hunting bullets.

 

[33rowdy]

QUOTE
"I use an electronic scale/dispenser for rifles and working up loads."

That was the best thing I ever done for time and accuracy! Throw your PM in the trash and you will say I wish I had one of these years ago!

After your cases are preped, get your scale/dispenser programed in seconeds, hit a button for your exact powder amount, take it to your brass and funnel, hit the button again for your next charge. Take the powder and case to the press for the bullet while your scale/dispenser it doing its job.

When I bought the scale/dispenser, it saved me the confusion, time, space on my bench, less powder spills, and on the spot powder amount.

 

[T Bran]

I also trim my cases with a lee cutter in a cordless drill. After I trim to legnth I use the drill to champher and debur in the lee prep tools I use two mounted in a little vise on the bench one facing in for chanpher and the other facing out for debur. After I trim its just zip zip and im done. Saves wear and tear on the fingers and its quick.
T

 

[BADUNAME37]

All very good and valid points from everyone. I, like the OP, am, too, a perfectionist. For me to sit at my reloading bench, time doesn't matter, I would rather take my time, be extremely methodical, and do each stage of each batch to perfection. There are some exceptions to this "rule" of mine and that is when I am loading for my AR where I crank out the loads with a bit of tolerance in powder weight (I am on the low to mid-range in the loads, so I don't worry about going over). Also, pistol cartridges I usually prep extremely well, checking case length, trimming as needed, chamfer, bell case mouths, clean at one point or another, clean primer holes and pockets (electric drill with RCBS primer pocket wire brush and a second or so on each case with moderate pressure to clean carbon out of the pockets).

One thing I have that really works great are Frankford Arsenal reloading trays, each holding 50 cases. I am anal in that I have four trays for every cartridge I load. When I am in the process of whatever stage I may be on, and need to stop, I place a postit on a tray bottom explaining at which point I was when I stopped, then I can find another tray to lay upside-down over the trays full of cases that I am working on. That way, if my cat gets onto the reloading bench, he won't knock anything over. Since each tray holds 50 and the holes are in the same position, I usually have no problem having a spare from another larger cartridge on hand that I place upside-down, fitting all the cases into the upside-down top tray. That way, I can leave the bench for days, weeks and months! In fact, I am in the process of reloading 500 Magnum which I started last winter. I have extra trays upside down on the two stacked trays of two trays (two stacks, 200 rounds).

The only other thing I can mention is that, in time, you will learn a quicker way to do each stage and do each stage consistently! Practice makes perfect! Don't try to rush any one stage, no matter how much you are in a hurry. When I'm in a hurry, that is when I DON'T RELOAD at all, as I know my mind won't be on what I am doing and I will be thinking about hurrying up to get out the door and to the range. In my opinion, that is how accidents happen. You have your mind on getting these done NOW and you needed them YESTERDAY, and a simple mistake can cost you a gun, not to mention a hand, arm, eyes, face, etc. I think you get the picture.

If you feel rushed at any time, and if you are rushing at any time, then, perhaps reloading is not for you. I am not putting you down, I am just looking at this entire scenario through the eyes of being SAFE at all times!

ANYTHING WORTH DOING IS WORTH DOING WELL!

 

[GLOOB]

I have a Frankford Arsenal tray for .223, but I found out I prefer a luger ammo tray, cuz it takes up less space.

When I load .223, there's a heck of a lot more prep time. But the rest is about the same.

Here's what I do once the cases are prepped and primed:

Put 50 cases in an empty 9mm luger plastic ammo tray, neck up.

Put funnel on first case.

Scoop powder, drop into funnel.

Move funnel.

Repeat till done.

Then seat the buggers, just like pistol ammo.

A double charge won't fit, otherwise I'd use a more foolproof system.

 

[MCMXI]

I am a big supporter of powder baffles, but they need to be installed correctly. The line between the center of the holes in the powder baffle must be parallel to the rotational axis of the drum. You do not want a baffle hole directly over the cavity.

I wonder how many members checked the orientation of their baffles after reading this. I don't think the orientation is important particularly if the baffle is anywhere close to the midpoint in the reservoir. The metering chamber sits below the funnel in the powder measure body, and as long as the pressure on the powder in the funnel is constant, then the volume/weight of powder in the metering chamber will be constant. Neither of my Redding powder measures (10X and BR-30) care which way the baffle is oriented.


scythefwd, I make up 55 to 60 rounds of .308 Win fairly regularly for matches. It takes me around 3 hours from start to finish. This does not include tumbling brass or sorting bullets. But considering that a match is a 7:00am to 3:00pm affair it's time well spent to produce ammunition capable of 1/2 MOA or better at 600 yards.

1. Neck size (Redding Big Boss II)
2. Lube cases and bump shoulder back (Redding Big Boss II)
3. Clean off lube, clean primer pockets and necks
4. Trim to minimum length (RCBS Trim Pro Power Case Trimmer)
5. Seat primer (RCBS ABP)
6. Powder (CM1500)
7. Seat bullet (Redding Big Boss II)

 

[cfullgraf]

I wonder how many members checked the orientation of their baffles after reading this. I don't think the orientation is important particularly if the baffle is anywhere close to the midpoint in the reservoir. The metering chamber sits below the funnel in the powder measure body, and as long as the pressure on the powder in the funnel is constant, then the volume/weight of powder in the metering chamber will be constant. Neither of my Redding powder measures (10X and BR-30) care which way the baffle is oriented.

I wonder as well.

I purchased a Pact electronic powder measure 15 years or so ago and their instructions were very specific on the orientation of the powder baffle. While not the same operation as a drum style measure, they made the comment to not have the baffle opening over the opening where the powder is dispensed.

Made sense to me and when I tried it in my drum measures, charges got more consistent.

But, I place my baffles at the bottom of the hopper in all my measures, four at last count. Except for pictures of the Redding powder measures I have not seen any comment from the manufacturers, except Pact, as to where to place the baffle. It does not mean it is not there, I just I have seen it. After all, I am a male and you know what they say about men and instructions.

Again, except for my Redding 10-X measure, all of the purchased baffles I have were formed to just slip to the bottom of the hopper. Not that you could not tweak the bend in the baffle so that it will grip the side of the hopper and keep it located any where in the hopper. The baffle in my Redding measure, I had to tweak so that it would slip to the bottom of the hopper.

Placing the baffle mid hopper would affect how it works. i could see that the farther the baffle is away from the drum, the less important the location of the holes in the baffle. The baffle would keep a constant column above the measuring cavity. The downside that I see, you must not let the powder level drop below the level of the baffle which means you have less usable powder capacity in the hopper available.

In the future, I will amend my comments on powder baffle hole location to include a comment on the location of the baffle in the hopper. A good point to add.

As a side note, Dillon molds a baffle in the bottom of their hoppers. While the Dillon measures are not a drum style, the baffle does shield the measuring cavity from the rest of the powder column in the hopper.

 

[gamestalker]

I think you got the idea regarding doing things in batches. I have tons of brass for everything I load already resized, trimmed reamed and chamfered, and tumbled and ready to load. I don't pre prime but only because it doesn't really cost me much time and isn't a cumbersome process with the priming die. Using the priming die I don't have to be concerned with anything, except making sure I drop the primer in facing down each time.
Same for powder charging with a loading block. I have to say a few loading blocks are worth having when you want to get a large number cases finished in one sitting.
Honestly said and with an appology for having offended you, I thought you were trying to make all of it happen in one sitting with no more tha 2 hrs. at the bench. But since your not, you can likely get 200 done in a 2 hr. time frame if everything is completely prepped and ready to go.

 

[scythefwd]

Gamestalker - I wasn't offended... I was perplexed. I am a very straight foreword person. I say what I mean and I am very direct about it. I'm the type of person who will call someone less than intelligent a moron to their face. It's brash, but I feel it is disrespectful to not say what I mean to people. I was put off that you questioned my reasoning, or the validity of it without knowing my motivations or reasoning except what has been posted in a few posts online. All in all, you gave some good advice, but came off a bit preachy to me in a "your motivations don't line up with mine so you probably don't need to be reloading" kind of way that I see all too often on forums. I once saw a post by someone who I respect on this forum basically said if you don't feel it is appropriate or worth your time to polish your cases shiny, then you don't have the attention to detail to reload. Bit elitist if you ask me, but I'm just a new reloader so what would I know?

Glad we came to an understanding. Thanks for the constructive input in your post. Please don't mind if I ignore the rest

 

[MCMXI]

I purchased a Pact electronic powder measure 15 years or so ago and their instructions were very specific on the orientation of the powder baffle. While not the same operation as a drum style measure, they made the comment to not have the baffle opening over the opening where the powder is dispensed.

Odd that an electronic powder measure would have/need a baffle, although, perhaps it improves performance with densely packed powders such as H110. Neither or my CM1500s will dispense that powder worth a damn!! Not a big deal though since I use H110 for .454 Casull, .45 Colt, .44 Mag and .357 Mag and reload on my progressives with Redding analog powder measures.

I place my baffles at the bottom of the hopper in all my measures, four at last count. Except for pictures of the Redding powder measures I have not seen any comment from the manufacturers, except Pact, as to where to place the baffle. It does not mean it is not there, I just I have seen it. After all, I am a male and you know what they say about men and instructions.

I took a look at the instructions that came with the Redding BR-30. There is a section on baffle placement. Here's a link to the complete instructions in pdf format.

Redding BR-30 instructions

Here's the relevant section on baffle placement.

 

[Woolecox]

Biggest time savers over my evolution;

1. RCBS Charge Master 1500 Combo. (buy a pan with built in funnel spout)
2. RCBS Bench Mount Primer Tool. (use primer tray for loading tubes)

These two tools reduced those two processes by about 90%. Accuracy is more than adequate for all save extreme long range competitors. By the way, I'm not an RCBS nut. These are the only tools of theirs I use since I wore out my USA made Rock Chucker.

 

[gpwelding1]

i just started reloading myself.right now im still only loading 9mm luger.
but i use2 single stage presses side by side.first i deprime and size on one,while priming with a lee ramprime on the other.
then i set one up with the powder through expantion die,seat and crimp die on the other.it took me about 4 1/2 hours the other nite to do 50.but i am double and triple checking my self,like i said,im still new at this.

 

[atlanticfire]

I've been loading on a single for about 6 years. And really I have to be honest I don’t keep track of the time. When I’m out in my building loading and listening to the radio that’s my relax time. I'm not really concerned how long it takes me. A little each evening. I do like welding's idea of two singles.

 

[dodge]

I,too, use a lee case trimmer in a cordless drill. My steps are as follows:
1) With cases already put through the tumbler after I come back from the
the range.
2) trim, deburr, chamfer on my cordless drill.
3) prime with a Lee auto primer.
4) load with powder and this depends on what powder I'm using as I have two different powder measures. One a RCBS Uniflow and the other is a Belding & Mull Visible. The Belding and Mull is great with stick powder as you can see if you are getting a light load or not before it gets into the case.
5) Physically check cases for a double or light load of powder.
6) Set bullet.
This takes me about 45 minutes to 1 hr for 60 rounds.

 

[cfullgraf]

I took a look at the instructions that came with the Redding BR-30. There is a section on baffle placement. Here's a link to the complete instructions in pdf format.

Redding BR-30 instructions

Here's the relevant section on baffle placement.

Thanks for the info. I looked for the instruction for my Redding 10-X. Either I have misplaced it, which is quite possible, or I did not get one. I probaby put it a very safe place.

But I have slept a bit since I purchased my 10-X and "Sometimers" disease is setting in.

 

[buck460XVR]

Any other suggestions are welcome. I'd rather be slow than missing a finger, but there is a limit to my patience when it takes me away from my family as I'm sure you guys can understand.

. I've come into more brass and bullet than I'll shoot in the next 10 years

Don't worry, as you gain experience, you will become faster and you will develop your own tricks.

If your press is permanently set up, having a large amount or brass makes it easy to prep brass when you have a few spare moments. There is no need to do 100 at a time. Resizing and depriming 20 in the few minutes you are waiting for supper or maybe 50 while the wife insists on watching "Will and Grace" or takes the kids shopping means altho you do not need the brass sized and decapped right now......it is already done for when you do need it and you haven't used important family time. Same for priming, trimming and belling. None of these steps needs explicit attention to detail once the dies are set and settings do not change even if weeks go by between usage. Since these are also the boring and tedious steps, it's nice(for me anyway) to do them in smaller batches rather than large. Having my brass all ready to go, makes it easier to find the hour or two that I need to devote to the important charge and seat steps needed to bring my stockpile back up. In other words, I make my ammo when I have time, not when I need it. I load on a single stage, shoot approximately 500 rounds a month, and have enough ammo available for several more outings. I have two sons(that also shoot my ammo) a wife and two grandchildren that never get ignored because of the reloading room. Like anything else in life tho, if you do not enjoy it, and you don't get paid for it, it's hard to find time for it.

 

[scythefwd]

Buck, the time issue is worse for me than some other people. I commute 1.75 - 2 hours each way (right about 80 miles... some surface streets to contend with). With 8 hours of work and 3-4 hours of commute..8 hours sleep... you get the drift. I'm down to only a few hours a day to spend with my family. Spending half of the reloading enough to keep me going for the next few months just doesn't seem logical. I have more time during the weekends where I get chores done

I do plan on sizing/etc when I have a few minutes. I can resize and decap 100 or so an hour pretty easily. It's the trimming that hurts (though that should only be needed every couple loads).

 

[Dudemeister]

I use a Lee Turret, but at the moment I'm using it in single stage mode, and I usually do about 200 rounds at a time. I do mine over a couple of days.

1. Deprime all the spent brass using a universal decapping die
2. Tumble for 2-3 hours.
3. Inspect the cases for obvious flaws (splits, cracks & head separation)
4. Hand prime the cases while checking for flash hole obstructions.

Next day, I setup the press, take a few powder measurements to make sure everything is still accurate, do a dummy round run to check OAL (I use an impact puller later to remove the bullet), and then I'm ready to start the job.

1. Drop the charge and flare the mouth.
2. place all the charged cases in holders and inspect the charges with a flash light.
3. place a bullet in the mouth of each case
4. Run through the seating and crimping die, and put in boxes

It takes me about 5-6 hours in total to do the job, not counting the time to tumble the brass. I know it's longer than it should be, but I'm in no rush. This is one of those things I actually do for relaxation.