Speeding up the process....

[B W E]

Ok, so let me preface this post with this: I have used THIS press and THESE dies in THIS setup for well over 2,000 successful rounds. There is no experimenting here, and I know everything is dialed in. I just want it to go faster. So, I ordered a Hornady LNL Bullet Feeder yesterday, which will arrive tomorrow. After some reading, I realized that bullet feeding is, in some scenarios, less of a bottleneck than case feeding. So, I ordered the Lee Case Collator. Got it today and tested it out. Works brilliantly. It used to take SEVERAL minutes to fill the 4 case feed tubes with brass. Now, about 30 seconds. Here's a quick video of how well this $12 popcorn bowl works.

This weekend I'll do another video on the time saved between the following:

Reloading 100 bullets WITHOUT the case collator and WITHOUT the bullet feeder

VS.

Reloading 100 bullets WITH the case feeder and WITH the bullet feeder.


Should be interesting. In the meantime, here's the video showing off the best $12 I've spent on my reloading plant so far.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CexY_Y25DE

[the86d]

I am sure you COULD rig-up a XL 650 case feeder.
It really is worth it's weight...

[damndave]

It was some time ago, but I rigged up a bullet feeder on the progressive. Here is my writeup on it from a couple years ago.

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=468400

more info on here

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_6_42/349969__28_00_Bullet_feeder_for_Any_Progressive.html

[B W E]

I saw that thread a while back. While it's creative, cheaper, and seems to work just fine, I don't like the idea of having to manually fill up a tube (or several) with bullets and then support the tower from something. To me, it seems that it does not save any time, because you are either grabbing a bullet, orienting it, and putting it in a tube, or on a case just before seating. It's still repetition, just all at once, instead of over and over.

[CGT80]

Dillon 1050 and a Mr. Bulletfeeder=2,000 rounds per hour

END OF THREAD


Just kidding!!!

That is pretty cool. I have seen the lee funnels but never tried them or seen them in use. Yes, I do have the 1050 mentioned above, for 9mm. It is too bad I can't afford to use it for more calibers.

I added the casefeeder to my 550 and made it feed rifle brass. It isn't perfect, but I wanted to take away some of the repetitive motion and make loading smoother.

Sometimes the feeders don't make the task a lot faster, but they really help the person reloading to focus on less at one time. It also causes less fatigue. I like to really watch the powder level when I load straight wall cases or 223. The visual check is my insurance policy against squib loads and overcharges. The priming on the down stroke of the 1050 really makes the job smoother and easier, too. It is too bad the less expensive machines don't have it.

I am always trying to balance out speed and economy of motion vs. cost. I justified the 1050 because I was loading 9mm for 3 of us to shoot competitions up to 3 times per month. I had a bigger income back then, also.

[B W E]

The results.....

Alright, well, the bullet feeder and case feeder combo does speed things up, but not what I would consider dramatically.

If you had an endless supply of brass and bullets flowing, and had no priming, charging, or indexing issues, the collator and feeder would really pull ahead. Here's the "data" from my comparison.

Without Case Collator or Bullet feeder: 50 rounds in 7:17. Time was started and cases were dropped one by one into the feed tubes until all fifty cases were inserted.

With the Case Collator and Bullet Feeder: 50 rounds in 4:00. Time was started and cases were dumped into collator and bullets were dumped into feeder hopper.

The time it took me to drop the 50 cases into the tube was 1:39, which means the bullet feeder accounted for the other 1:38 in time savings.

So in a nutshell:

50 rounds without feeders: 7:17
50 rounds with feeders: 4:00
Collator saved me: 1:39
Bullet feeder saved me 1:38

Rounds per hour without feeders: roughly 410
Rounds per hour with feeders: roughly 750
54% Faster with feeders vs. without.