Single stage time per round for handgun?

[brettkeating]

I've found that with a single stage press, I get a little better than 1 minute per round for revolver (e.g. 38 special).

For 100 rounds,

Resize and deprime: 15 minutes
Prime: 15 minutes
Expand and charge: 25 minutes
Seat bullets: 20 minutes
Crimp: 10 minutes

Am I a slowpoke or is that about right?

[thenodnarb]

about average.
That's why I bought a lock n load AP! Arrives tomorrow!

[Corbin Dallas]

One minute per round? I can't even fathom spending 1000 minutes to load that much.

My 650 will run 1000 rounds in about 2 hours in total including prep.

[Bumslie]

It's not a race, so who cares?

If you start to care more about speed, mistakes and accidents will happen.

Just go at a comfortable pace for you, while still remaining completely safe in your loading procedure.

[Rac97crawford]

An hour and 40 min for 100 rds of 38spl.. That's a sales pitch for a progressive if I every heard one.
With mr bullet feeder on my 650 I can do 1500rds an hour.

[Spyder]

Yea, reloading pistol on my turret is ridiculously tedious, especially after using a buddies Dillon the other day.

[Bastard]

times sound about right - though when I was loading on my single stage, things would be done in large batches.

[Javi]

I haven't ran a stop watch on my sessions but it takes me about an hour & 15 to load 100 9mm luger rounds. Sometimes I'll do 200 in a day by loading half in the morning and the other half later.

[ElDub1950]

It's not a race, so who cares?

If you start to care more about speed, mistakes and accidents will happen.

Just go at a comfortable pace for you, while still remaining completely safe in your loading procedure.

^ Agree!

I'll spend all evening doing a couple hundred rnds. In between having dinner, taking breaks, watching something I DVRd, etc etc. Over a couple evenings I'll more than catch up with what I shot last weekend.

It's more a relaxing hobby that saves me some money, than a chore I need to hurry and get done.

[brettkeating]

^ Agree!

I'll spend all evening doing a couple hundred rnds. In between having dinner, taking breaks, watching something I DVRd, etc etc. Over a couple evenings I'll more than catch up with what I shot last weekend.

It's more a relaxing hobby that saves me some money, than a chore I need to hurry and get done.

Yes I agree with these comments too. A little under an hour and a half for 100 rounds of 38 special might sound slow to someone with a progressive... just wanted to benchmark myself against others who work on single stage presses like myself... since I am still a beginner (less than 6 months reloading).

I do enjoy the process and just getting some time alone, and agree that safety is number one. Thanks for the comments.

But I am thinking one of these days, once I feel comfortable, I'm going to go for the progressive setup . After being at it for awhile, I think my primary concern with a progressive setup would be powder metering consistency.

[Bumslie]

With practice comes speed.

You're dies will be set for the correct length, flare, seat, and crimp next time.

Not sure if you're hand priming, or priming on press, but you will get the feel quick on what's right.

You'll be able to seat and crimp in one step (that's what I so, but it's perfectly fine to do it seperate)

You'll already know the load you're going to throw.

Setting up your powder measurer throw the right charge will become easier.

You'll get into a rhythm much sooner, and before you know it, your loading time to make those 100 rounds will be significantly shooter.

Just practice on doing the right, safe, steps and the speed will come.

[brettkeating]

For these 38 special rounds, I was doing hand priming and was using a 0.5cc powder dipper for the charge (verified on a scale). I had Lee dies and was just dumping the 0.5cc dipper into the powder-thru hole as I expanded the cases. It wasn't the first time I'd loaded for 38 special with this recipe, so the die changes were pretty fast.

[Bumslie]

Ah yes, using the dipper will slow you down a bit, especially if you're weighing each charge. I was wondering why you said it took 25 min for charging.

Still, keep it up, you're doing great

[thenodnarb]

I've been using a single stage for about 5 years now. Even with dies already setup and loads already determined, it takes a couple hours to do 200 rounds of a pistol cartridge start to finish. I don't mind repetitive tasks, but by the end of it I've had it. Single stage, and speed are not words that go together.
What pushed me over the edge was the priming system. I wanted a better priming system that would feed the primers automatically when I was sizing. Its a fussy step to try and pickup a primer from the tray and place it in the priming arm each time, and I drop primers a lot.I've broken an autoprime already and didn't want to spend good money on a RCBS model of the same thing. The lock-n-load was on sale, and I decided now was the time to upgrade. I'm defiantly ready for a progressive.

[Jasonaspears]

I ran about 100 rounds per hour on my rock chucker. Rifle is no problem or when working up test loads. Progressive was my savior in reloading pistol and .223