IDEA - How about a barbeque reload party?

[ar15barrels]

i don't know what version i have since it is many years old (about 8-10yrs), but all the new toolheads i've been buying lately have worked flawlessly.

You mis-understood.
The toolheads fit each 550 just fine.
The die adjustments will not match though.

How many 550 presses do you have?

If you just have one, then YOUR dies are all adjusted for THAT PRESS.

When you own multiple presses, swapping the toolheads between presses can be troublesome.

[jdberger]

You could do some assembly line stuff...

One guy sorts brass
One guy lubes
One guy decaps
One guy swages out the primer pocket
One guy trims
One guy deburrs
One guy chamfers
and one guy runs the whole thing throght the 550
final guy cleans the loaded rounds and packs them.

You might get a thousand rounds done in a day...

[PistolPete75]

Starting with dirty brass, you are not going to easily end up with loaded ammo in one day.
You need to tumble the brass an hour or six right from the start.
Then you can commence sizing, trimming and loading.

I also agree that reloading is NOT a group activity.
Best to get a mentor to get you started.

I'm in Culver City if anyone wants to come and learn to reload...

if someone has a big tumbler like a dl cv-2001 or brings their own tumbler along with my cv 500 it is very possible to have it done in one day (saturday of course).

i also have a rcbs trim case kit and the dillon 1200 case trimmer which will save alot of time (all electric). with two experienced reloaders it will be no problem.

using new brass, it will take less then 3 hours.

[PistolPete75]

You mis-understood.
The toolheads fit each 550 just fine.
The die adjustments will not match though.

How many 550 presses do you have?

If you just have one, then YOUR dies are all adjusted for THAT PRESS.

When you own multiple presses, swapping the toolheads between presses can be troublesome.

i only use one 550. if we are going to load only one caliber, it wouldn't take a long time to reset the dies.

[ar15barrels]

if someone has a big tumbler like a dl cv-2001 or brings their own tumbler along with my cv 500 it is very possible to have it done in one day (saturday of course).

i also have a rcbs trim case kit and the dillon 1200 case trimmer which will save alot of time (all electric). with two experienced reloaders it will be no problem.

using new brass, it will take less then 3 hours.

I have the big dillon tumbler and two midway tumblers.

I would run a batch of 1000 308's on a 650 as I am spoiled by casefeeders.
The brass prep takes all the time.
Actually loading the ammo would be about an hour and a half.
The dillon primer tube filler is oh-so-nice for keeping the primers ready to go when the primer alarm sounds...

[Wulf]

Unless you've got really dirty brass or really old media it shouldent take more than 2 hours to tumble a load of brass. And its been my experience that most of the necessary work of tumbling gets done in the first half hour. Beyond that its more cosmetic than functional. Toss the brass in when people arrive, and by the time you've got powder charges set, dies set, primer tubes loaded, and everybody up to speed on what's going on and what they're supposed to do, the first batch of brass will be ready.

It seems like how much you can get done will depend on how much of the work you let the newbies actually do, and how much fiddling around with die settings and powder charges you're going to do. A thousand rounds for a pro with dialed in equipment is easy. Its a long long day for a newbie with an empty tool head even if they've got lots of advice and help.

[supersonic]

Sounds f**king GRRREAT! Too bad I'm in the city where our "wonderful" gun laws are dreamed up by morons w/out a clue. In other words, about a 7-8 hr. drive!
S.S.

[grammaton76]

Heh... a big ammo reloading party scares me even more than the "let's get 10 guys together and try and build AK's with one and a half sets of tools!" parties that periodically get proposed around here.

[Sheldon]

It would probably be a better idea to just have a meet and have someone give an "introduction to reloading" lecture/instructing as opposed to any actual assembly other than demonstrations. It would be pretty distracting to watch a group fo people trying to reload for the first time.

[AJAX22]

If the party was actually a lecture/ watch a guy who knows what he's doing/ educational experience I think it could be cool.

Instead of trying to set up twenty presses and tumblers and having everyone trying to learn while loading ammo in a dangerous fashion, I think it would be cool for some old school reloaders with alot of experience to get in front of a group of guys and show how they use the different presses and trimmers etc. I'm sure there is alot to the process that is in the nuance.

[grammaton76]

And for entertainment, we'll get the single stage guys up there to argue with the progressive press guys, and the blue kool-aid and green kool-aid drinkers to fight amongst themselves!

Then we'll toss in the guys who drink the red kool-aid, and everyone will have fun tearing them apart.

[PistolPete75]

And for entertainment, we'll get the single stage guys up there to argue with the progressive press guys, and the blue kool-aid and green kool-aid drinkers to fight amongst themselves!

Then we'll toss in the guys who drink the red kool-aid, and everyone will have fun tearing them apart.

it's obvious who is going to win. blue cool aid for sure!

[aplinker]

And for entertainment, we'll get the single stage guys up there to argue with the progressive press guys, and the blue kool-aid and green kool-aid drinkers to fight amongst themselves!

Then we'll toss in the guys who drink the red kool-aid, and everyone will have fun tearing them apart.

After all that kool-aid drinking you're gonna need a big box for the piss.

Ok-better idea..You bring food, a cold box of piss, and empty brass to a reloader's house and get schooled.

Exactly how long would it take to learn how to load, say, 308 and 223? How much time before you become proficient enough to be able to tweak knowledgably?

Every time I think about starting it just seems like a huge amount of wading through muck to get things right.

[ar15barrels]

And for entertainment, we'll get the single stage guys up there to argue with the progressive press guys, and the blue kool-aid and green kool-aid drinkers to fight amongst themselves!

Then we'll toss in the guys who drink the red kool-aid, and everyone will have fun tearing them apart.

I have a 450, three 550's, two 650's and two 1050's
Which team would I be on?

[ar15barrels]

Exactly how long would it take to learn how to load, say, 308 and 223? How much time before you become proficient enough to be able to tweak knowledgably?

A couple hours tops unless you are 'slow'

You only need to learn one of them.
The other is the same process, just different size cases, bullets and primers.