Thread: To reload or to not reload

Originally Posted by Zedrex

Yep, that makes sense, as you obviously do your own, how big a batch do you do in one go and how long does that take, or do you spread the steps over a couple of evenings, say prep and prime brass one night, then finish off another night?

I do mine in batches of 50. I like to have at least 100 brass of any given caliber and I run it in two sets of 50. The MTM shell holders hold 50, so it's easy to keep two separate lots. You can have 50 ready to go at any given time. 50 is a good amount to do any stage of the process with in one sitting. It's enough that it's worth setting up for, it's not too much to get through all of it in one go.

Sized and primed 400 9mm cases one arvo. Loaded them all the following. Single stage press with a powder dispenser doing the tedious bit whilst I seated projectiles. About 5 or 6 hours total from a pile of fired brass to a pile of ammo ready to go.

Takes longer to prep rifle brass - lubing, sizing, cleaning off lube, triming if needed, chamfering, deburring... it's a faff... got to do all that before you can think about priming and loading.

I use two plastic bins and just pass cases from one to the other as I do each step, rather than using loading blocks.

Originally Posted by bjp

There is also the satisfaction when you reload and its goes well - at the range today with the new (to me) Savage 243, two loads to try, 100gn load, same as previous owner, plus at few 58gn V-max (thanks @Pengy, now I need to spend more money on projectiles - you did say they shoot like a laser!). Late in the day and had already been sighting in and checking loads on another couple of rifles, so eyes were getting tired, but first three shots still grouped under moa, then a few clicks down before trying a 4th in the round dot. At 3540 fps, can't wait to get down sth Canty way and find some Wallabies to try them on...

Attachment 275492

I can attest from personal experience that 95 grains launching at 3100fps and arriving 100 metres later.....doesn't leave much of a wallabies head!

Originally Posted by longshot

I do mine in batches of 50. I like to have at least 100 brass of any given caliber and I run it in two sets of 50. The MTM shell holders hold 50, so it's easy to keep two separate lots. You can have 50 ready to go at any given time. 50 is a good amount to do any stage of the process with in one sitting. It's enough that it's worth setting up for, it's not too much to get through all of it in one go.

Sounds like a manageable amount without sacrificing too much hunting time!

Originally Posted by Pommy

Sized and primed 400 9mm cases one arvo. Loaded them all the following. Single stage press with a powder dispenser doing the tedious bit whilst I seated projectiles. About 5 or 6 hours total from a pile of fired brass to a pile of ammo ready to go.

Takes longer to prep rifle brass - lubing, sizing, cleaning off lube, triming if needed, chamfering, deburring... it's a faff... got to do all that before you can think about priming and loading.

I use two plastic bins and just pass cases from one to the other as I do each step, rather than using loading blocks.

Good use of a rainy day I reckon

Yeah some days I do way more than 50. But I have found it to be the magic number for batching and amount to have on hand for hunting purposes.

If you have 100 total, when one lot of 50 runs out, you still have another 50 until you can do another batch. Everything gets sold in amounts of 100 or 50 as well.

But keeping two sets of 50 is the best way to keep track of number of times fired.