Tips for speeding up my reloads?

I spent a lot of time in my shop today, for what ended up being 20 rounds, plus a lot of other cases prepped.

I was loading 5.56. My method is as follows (after an initial clean-the-crud-off tumbling):

1. Lube, decap and full-length resize everything with the Lee die.
2. Ream primer cup for .mil crimp/uniformity
3. Tumble to a shine
4. Trim cases as needed with lee gauge/trimmer
5. Double check case length with mic
6. Prime, check primer for flush fit into cup
7. Zero digital scale on each case, charge case, check to see that charge falls within + or - 0.05 grains of desired charge (re-charging as necessary).
9. Seat bullet, making COAL a little long to compensate for bullet differences
10. Mic each cartridge, setting aside those which fall within 0.005" of desired COAL
11. Adjust die, re-seat cartridges with too-long OALs, re-mic, repeat as necessary
12. Crimp case necks

I use a single-stage press. My friends tell me I should switch to progressive for volume reloads, but I'll admit I don't know anything about how that works. Also, if I am in the habit of measuring everything (charge weight, case lengths, COALs), I wonder how much time a progressive press will actually shave off.

I started reloading using Varget, so I don't trust that each case will have an identical charge weight out of the Perfect Powder Measure, even though I was using H335 which does meter signifcantly better than Varget (though I still had some unacceptable charges that needed re-doing).

All told, I managed to make 20 rounds in about 3 hours, not counting tumble time. I was doing some other things as well but reloading through most of that.

Should I modify any of the above routine to make it more efficient?

If you're going to be that picky about charge and COAL it's going to take time. Most people are happy if it's +-.1gr. Also switching out the junk lee case prep kit for an L.E. Wilson will save you a lot of time for not much $.

Observations:

Step #1 & #2 should only need to be done once for the life of the case. My suggestion would be to spend one evening or afternoon doing NOTHING but Steps 1-4. That way you'll have lots of prepped brass ready to be primed and loaded. Also, reverse Steps 3 & 4 and be sure to chamfer the case mouths after trimming.
Step #5. Eliminate it. If you have a good trimmer and you're using it properly, there's no need to check case length after you trim.
Step #6- Prime them right with a good priming tool and don't worry about checking for protruding primers. If you insist on this step, find a smooth flat surface on which to stand the primed cases. Those with protruding primers will be very obvious because they'll rock a little when you set them on the surface.
Step #7- I'd suggest switching powder types if you want to speed up your loading. I use WC846, a ball type powder, in a RCBS UniFlow powder measure and it meters incredibly consistently. After setting up my measure for the proper charge, I throw the charge directly from the measure into each case. I check the charge weight once about every 10 cases and as long as I don't let the powder get too low in the hopper, I very, very rarely have to make any adjustments and when I do it's always a very minute amount.
Step #9- Seat the bullet a hair short of magazine length if you're loading bullets that have inconsistent length. that way you'll never run into a cartridge that;s too long for the magazine.
Step #10- Unless you're shooting at tiny targets that are far, far away or you're trying to set a new world benchrest record for smallest group, eliminate this step. Doing so will automatically eliminate Step #11.
Step #12- Eliminate this step as if you're loading your cartridges properly, it's totally unncessary for this particular cartridge. Yesterday I shot a High Power match at which there were about 10 AR shooters. I know for a fact that none of them crimp their bullets when seating. Cumulatively they fired over 800 rounds without a single failure of any type...as always. Figure each of them shoot this match every month and that's right at 10,000 rounds per year, again I've never witnessed a single jam or any kind of failure that could be attributed to failure to crimp.

I load my .223 100 rounds at a time for High Power matches on a single stage press. Not counting time in the tumbler, I can easily do them all in a couple of hours.
GG

What he said.

Evaluate whether the 0.05 grain and 0.005" requirements are really critical to the type of shooting that you do.

1. Tumble
2. Run through Dillon 650 with casefeeder set up with only the sizing die, use spray lube.
3. Tumble off lube
4. Run cases through Giraud case trimmer (don't need to do this every loading)
5. Load on Dillon 1050 (can use an aquarium pump attached to the powder hopper to make the thrown charges more reliable)
6. Shoot


I'll case neck turn, segregate cases by weight, throw charges with a Prometheus, measure runout for 1,000 yard and over shooting...but not for .223.

The biggest thing I see, and I weigh each charge as well, or used to, on a 505, but I have a Chargemaster, so it doesn't matter, is that you need to use a powder scale pan or similar to drop your charge into. Calibrate the scale, and then zero to the pan. You won't need to zero every time. That is a time consuming waste of time, very inconsistent, and asking for an overcharged load.

The other thing, is to measure about 25 of your bullets for length. Take the longest one, and seat it to your desired length. You will eliminate the vast majority of your long COAL rounds that way. The ones that are short, won't be so short that it will matter one way or the other, even at 1000 yards. There are two dozen other factors that will make more of a difference. Heck, how long it was since you last ate, and what you ate can make more than that unless you are shooting a 50lbs benchrest gun. If you were doing that, you would already have all your answers. If your mind and your body are in any way interacting with your rifle, you will make more of a difference.

Also, regarding the COAL. Set your calipers to the COAL that you want, and tighten it down. After you're done seat them all, just quickly check to see if they will slide in between the jaws. If they do, you're good, if not, set them aside. Measure the longest one, and seat it to the depth you want, and the rest will be fine.

Your idea about seating is incorrect.

Every bullet should be seated with the same seater setting, so the COAL is set up to the longest bullets to start. The seater stem pushes on the ogive of the bullet, not the meplat. That causes every bullet to be seated into the case neck the same distance. This is more important than identical COAL.

Also, every cartridge will never have identical COAL, this is a manufacturing process and some tolerances are required.

Primer pocket uniforming is a step that should be reserved for your best ammunition. Reaming to remove the primer crimp is not the same thing as uniforming the primer pocket.

Once your trimmer is set, it's set. Case lengths will vary slightly according to slight differences in your technique as each case is sized. Let them, you should be able to hold +/- 0.002 inches with experience, and that's pretty good. There is no need to measure every case.

Why are you rezeroing the scale? If the scale is that unreliable, it's time for a different instrument.

Powder charges do not need to be identical in every case. Unless you are absolutely against the pressure ceiling, you most likely won't be able to measure the difference in accuracy or speeds with charges that vary +/- 0.2 grains in cases similar to .223 Rem volumes. Furthermore, your loads should be worked up to function that way. A drum measure such as the Uniflow with a baffle will easily throw charges of Reloder 15 and other short extruded gunpowders to that precision, and ball powders to boring uniformity from charge to charge.

You need more experience, but first, you need to completely revamp your process. Put all of the case preparation first, with sizing and trimming plus deburring last. Perform each of these steps in batches, complete the step on each case before proceding to the next step -

- deprime
- remove primer crimps
- uniform primer pockets (optional)
- deburr flash holes (optional, but must be done before sizing)
- tumble to clean in preparation for sizing (this step is really just "clean the brass ...")
- lube cases
- size cases
- delube cases before trimming, the shaving stick to the lube
- trim cases
- deburr cases

then,
- prime
- charge, and
- seat
- crimp if you must.

You can eliminate step 5 for each case, just check ever 10th, 50th, etc. The Lee trimmer is not adjustable. If one case trims to correct trim length ALL of them will

6. You can elminate the checking in step 6 other than doing a visual check while handling the case

In step 7 calibrate the scale initially. Drop 3 charges of powder in a row and weigh them. Adjust powder measure if necessary. Charge all you cases, check every 100th for powder charge vs each individual case's charge

re: 9-11: I'd just adjust the seater die to seat so COAL is on the money, not too long, don't be too anal about measuring every case's OAL. If you use the same lot of bullets you should be good to go on all of them but you might experience a couple thousandth's of an inch in OAL variation, live with it.

Eliminate #5, 7, 10 and 11.
# 2 only needs to be done once.

#4 does not need to be done every time, only when the case exceeds 1.760.

#6 can be checked with a quick swipe with the thumb over the case head. BTW, primers should not be "flush" they should be below flush. If you are priming correctly you can eliminate #6 as well.

#9, just set the bullet to desired length and be done.

#13 optional, I crimp.

If your Lee PPM is giving you trouble, get a different powder measure. The best way to speed up any loading process is to drop the charge, weighing each charge is a waist of time for volume loading.

As stated above, do it in batches.
Lube, resize, trim (if needed), tumble off lube.
Seat primer.
Charge cases with Powder Measure, place charged cases in loading block.
When loading block if full visually inspect each case for proper powder charge, may need a flash light.
Seat bullet.
Crimp (optional)
Done!
Shoot em up.

Thanks for the replies, gents, I knew arfcom would deliver.

As far as the re-zeroing of the scale, I tare the scale so that I can monitor how much powder goes into it.

For example, I place the empty, primed brass onto the scale, zero scale, charge case, then place back onto scale to confirm weight.

I do this for each case, as there is some hundredths of a gram variance in each primed case (at most)

After reading the above posts, however, it seems that the spread I am getting in charge weights is probably acceptable for my non-precision applications.

I'm running 24 grains of H335 in once-fired mil 5.56 cases with a 55 gr. bullet.

Your load is on the low end, you have plenty of room to work up. Get a powder measure you can trust and dump away.

One step that I think is essential is to visually inspect the charge heights in good light.

I charge all the cases that I am going to load that session and have them sitting in the case block(s). I then take the blocks outside in sunlight and check the powder height. I can see a difference in 0.1 grain for the most part. If something got into the case like a spent primer, or a bit of lint, this will show as a high charge. It also allows you to verify that there is not under/no charge as well.

After the visual inspection, I then place bullets on top and start seating.

Little things can speed the process up with a single stage. For instance while moving the ram down and up while sizing, I will be putting the previous case back in the case block and picking up the next one. I then do a shuffle taking out the case from the shell holder with my middle and index finger, and then place the next case in the shell holder which I held between the thumb and index.

I use the same technique when priming with the Lee Auto Prime.

Checking for high primers is fast if you have all the cases mouth down in the case block. Run your index finger across the bottom feeling for high primers. You will know immediately if one is high. This also allows you to visually see that every primer is seated correctly. No upside down primers for this guy.

+1

I was charging 223 along at a good clip one evening, when I suddenly noticed that one case was full, to the top!.

Hmm, turns out it was a PMP case that got into the pile of winchester. PMP have much smaller internal volume.
This led me use PMP for heavy bullets and H322 instead of ball powder. So now all headstamps are sorted, and the PMP gets their own box.

Also, working in large batches will make it seem less cumbersome.

ETA: Although I don't recommend going beyond the priming step for a batch smaller than you are going to do "now".

I kicked out 150 prepped cases this morning in a little more than
an hour and am already back from the range shooting them.

Other posters made apparent what was slowing you down.

Safe and happy shooting.

You are talking a lot of money invested in your setup. The guy could buy several thousand rounds for the same price.

His problem is why I quit reloading rifle ammo, unless I need less than 100 rounds. Too much time or money spent.

Drop the powder into a scale pan, then the pan goes onto the scale to check the weight, then trickle to target weight if necessary. Dump the powder into a case from the pan through a funnel. There's no need to weigh the charged case after a weighed charge has been added.

Also, hundredths of a gram is much larger than one hundredth of a grain. A gram is so large in comparision that it's of little practical use for reloading.

You need to batch load. For .223 and any other bottle neck case, do the case prep first, then prime, charge, seat and crimp.
See this vid batch loading pt1 and then part 2
Then watch the Uni-flo accuracy test.
All these are my vids (although under different usernames) and show how accurate the Uni-flo is with H335.
The batch load vids are for .45ACP but once case prep is done, most of it will apply.

Yep, a gram is about 15.432 times larger than a grain. I was referring to the primed brass, not the powder.

I wonder if using a powder trickler/scale pan would be any faster, or if I should just take a random sample of charged cases from the Perfect Powder Measure to check variation.

1. Lube, decap and full-length resize everything with the Lee die.
2. Ream primer cup -Dont unless youre running really hot loads and have had primer issure before.
3. Tumble to a shine
4. Trim cases as needed with lee gauge/trimmer
5. Double check case length with mic - mic every 5 or 10. Dont trust your trimmer?
6. Prime, check primer for flush fit into cup
7. Zero on each case, charge, check - use a pan (zerod on th pan, no need to zero each case. Use a trickler for undercharged charges.
9. Seat bullet, making COAL a little long to compensate for bullet differences
10. Mic each cartridge - nah, set it and forget it. Measure every 10. Dont reset your dies chasing tip shape differences.
11. Adjust die- dont. Skip.
12. Crimp - Don't. Setback isnt an issue. Measure a few if youre skeptical.

Here is my method.

1. Quick tumble

2. Size & decap

3. Tumble to achieve desired amount of "pretty"

4. Trim (Lyman trimmer is consistent within a couple thousanths. I measure the first 3 and one every once in a while.)

5. Chamfer/debur

6. Remove crimp (currently switching from reaming to swaging, this step might move up to #4 or #2)

7. Prime (RCBS hand primer in front of TV)

8a. (bulk ammo) Put indexing rod back into Lee Classic Turret press then throw charge, seat bullet (completely w/no crimp yet), and finally crimp w/Lee factory crimp die. Powder measure is a Lee auto disc pro, right on the press.

8b. (precision loads) Charge slightly under and trickle to perfection, seat bullet, and crimp with Lee FCD. Lee prefect powder measure for that. It's much more adjustable then the auto disc, which is better for pistol ammo.

If you go with an RCBS, Hornady, or Foster trimmer you can use a 3way cuter head to trim, chamfer, and deburr in one step. I bought orange, I'm stuck with two steps. All said and done, I think I can average 1.5-2 loaded rounds per minute (not counting tumble time) if I do large batches.

The perfect powder measure has so far been extremely consistent for me with Acurate 2520, which is a fairly
fine ball powder. I think it meters similarly to H-335, but I'm not sure. I weigh 5 charges before I even load a
case. I also lift the handle, tap the side twice, and lower the handle and tap twice again. Out of the hundred or so I weighed yesterday only 1 was over about a tenth, and a couple were slightly under from a weak tap. I was pretty amazed for a $25 powder measure!

As always YMMV.

If you have to zero your scale every time, you need a new scale.
'Borg

Sounds like you are reloading for round to round consistency and precision, which will never be fast, and it shouldn't be.
If you just want plinking ammo you can go much faster, but you will lose some degree of consistency. If you want to do this, eliminate steps 5,7,10 and 11, and modify your method to: size/decap, decrimp, trim length, polish, prime, charge, seat bullet and crimp.
If you do this simplified method, a progressive press will help. If you keep having to back up the press to check the case or bullet or whatever over and over, a progressive will make you slower.

Instead of weighing each charge, I weigh 1 in 5 or go 1 in 10. I have an RCBS trimmer, so I usually check the first case trimmed, and verify the settings are locked down.

He was weighing each individual case to get a tare weight.

They all got it nailed down pretty good so far.
The Lee PPM works fine once you work out the quirks it has.
It leaks some ball powders and unless you use a funnel you can see some very inaccurate charges.
I tried cfe223 first with mine and it was a little tricky with the ppm it seems to like stick powders better h322 no leaks and all charges within 0.1 grains of desired which is plenty consistent.
Make sure you fill the hopper up and just run the powder out a couple of times.
Keep your measure mostly full and tap with each lever pull to ensure the measure fills and empties completely or use the aquarium pump.

I am doing 223 on a lee single stage with your same trimming tools.

1. tumble in walnut with dryer sheets about 150 at a time
2. lube with imperial on my fingers while loading in to the press to deprime resize.
3. tumble in corncob to delube
4. clean primer pockets trim debur and chamfer (I picked up a hornaday chamfer tool as the lee one stinks) use lee lock stud in a drill makes trimming much faster
I repeat steps 1-4 till I have a good batch when you are repeating the same task it goes much faster.
5. prime and place primed cases in loading block.
6. calibrate ppm i dump a few charges through without weighing them just to prime the measure and then weigh until i get consistent charges about 5 times in a row with the pan dumping the proper weights into a case. Then I charge the rest of the block of 50 with the ppm checking every 10 or so. with the ppm i have a tube from an aquarium filter around the drop spout so my powder all hits the funnel I have the measure mounted a little high so i can move the whole block under the board it's mounted on. I put the funnel on each case as i found 223 just stuck under the ppm spout doesn't really work well.
7. seat
8. crimp not neccesary but it only takes another 2 minutes or so to run a block of 50 through the lee fcd after seating.

Get that rhythm going for each process that's what really speeds it up. I always have each hand doing something at all times.

for lubing and resizing one hand is picking up the case and lubing it while the other is pulling the press handle. then one hand is removing the sized case and the other putting it in.

trimming just sucks i do it in front of the tv do all steps to each piece of brass while you have it in the lockstud as I said a drill helps but i will also put the lock stud in a nice screwdriver while my gf is watching tv too. the wooden handle from the press is the same size as the wooden handle that you can buy extra from lee on the trimmer cutter i swap this around to whatever im doing.

priming one hand loads unprimed case while other hand loads primer in to primer arm with safety prime then one hand actuates lever while other hand picks up new case then do the shuffle hold unprimed case between thumb and index finger remove primed case with index and middle finger and set the unprimed case in without taking your hand away to put the primed case in the block.

charging the whole block weighing a few random samples and then checking entire block with a flashlight works great don't forget the flashlight i had to go back through and weigh 300 loaded rounds because i had one not fire because i forgot to charge it found 3 more in the process. that was the first and last block i didn't check with a flashlight.

for seating I'm still trying to work out a better method my left hand has to do most of the work, left hand shuffles in and out cases right hand picks up a bullet and orients it properly for my left hand to put on top of the case while right hand actuates lever.

crimping left hand case shuffles right hand lever very fast.

Good advice. With rifle cartridges you can only fit so much powder, however in pistol cases it might save you from a double or triple charge.

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