Reloading In Volume
The Need For Speed
For volume reloading, Dave uses two Dillon RL1050 presses,
one set up for large primers and the other for small primers.
There’s also a Dillon 550 for less-used cartridges and a
Dillon tool for loading primers in tubes.
When I got into practical pistol competition around 1980, I soon realized the only way to shoot as much as I wanted was by reloading in volume. Load development was not particularly difficult. The challenge was to crank rounds out, thousands of them, every one as much like the others as possible.
Volume reloading is a tradeoff between time and money. If you have time, you can get by with simpler equipment. For several years I was able to get by with a single-stage reloading press, enhanced with a few moderately priced accessories. It seems silly now but the item I appreciated most was a tungsten carbide sizing die. Believe it or not, for a time, I had to use case lube on every .45 ACP case and wipe it clean after sizing.
A Stitch In Time
Other time savers were a hand priming tool and an RCBS “Little Dandy” powder measure. I used to process 50 cases at a time — resizing, then changing dies to bell and deprime, repriming with the hand tool, adding powder with the Little Dandy, setting a bullet on each case, then changing dies again to seat bullet and crimp.
The key to always having ammunition on hand was to make efficient use of time. Get home from work, play with the baby, mow the lawn and there would still be 15 or 20 minutes before dinner. Depending on what home projects needed attention, there would be other breaks in the evening. Use each opportunity to run the cases through one or two steps and by bedtime there would be 50 rounds loaded. Repeat each week day (weekends were used for bullet casting) and I was able to shoot 100+ practice rounds two or three times a week — and you can be sure I never fired any of those precious rounds frivolously.
Increasing interest in handgun competition in the ’80s brought big changes. Prices for cast bullets dropped dramatically as entrepreneurs invested in fast and efficient bullet casting equipment. If your time was worth anything, it no longer made sense to cast large volumes on your own. The big change was the appearance of the Dillon 500 progressive loader for under $200, a fraction of the cost of the few other progressive machines. The current Dillon 550 is a mainstay on many a reloading bench.
From the mid-’80s and into the ’90s, my wife and I farmed 2,000 acres of grain land. I did part time (50+ hours/week) contract work for the Department of Justice so we could afford to farm, plus I got as many columns and feature articles for my editors as I could manage. If you think I was a busy boy in those years, you’re absolutely right. I still wanted to shoot, so I took an hour a day, shooting 200 rounds/day Monday to Friday, cleaning brass on Saturday and loading a thousand rounds on Sunday. What made it possible was the magnificent Dillon 1050.
An advantage of the turret press is each cartridge emerges
as a loaded round so you can pick up the process anytime.
Dave chooses a turret press for medium volume loading
such as .44 Magnum loads for his Rugers.
Organization
A key element of volume reloading is brass management. I had on hand 3,000+ .45 ACP cases. A big tarp caught most of the brass from training sessions. I dumped the brass from each session into a big old cook pot. Brass for reloading needs to be clean. It doesn’t need to be shiny. On Saturday the cook pot contained about 1,000 cases. I filled the pot with boiling water and a bit of dish soap, then agitated them vigorously with a wooden spoon. I’d flush the cases with two or three fills of hot tap water, then dump them on an old towel to air dry for a week.
On Sunday I’d load the cases that had dried during the previous week. Keeping track of rounds loaded was simple: I’d start with a brick of 1,000 primers and load until they were gone. I always seemed to lose a few cases, which I made up from my reserve stash. The RL-1050 really would load 1,000 rounds an hour, including filling primer tubes and emptying the loaded rounds tray.
Keeping costs down meant looking for small savings that added up over time. A few friends and I used to order components in as large quantities as we could manage, usually getting a volume price plus saving on shipping costs. We’d get 100,000 primers, 64 lbs. of powder, 100,000 cast bullets and share them out. I was constantly watching for bargains.
My standard powder for .45 ACP was WW 231 but I’d try others if the price was right. A retiring trapshooter I knew was selling off some stuff and I was able to get WW 452 AA at a bargain price. Without being too crass about it, I used to keep tabs on older shooters who might be cleaning out their reloading room.
I’m staggered at the current prices I see for powder and primers. I can remember buying primers at around $70 for 5,000. Eight-pound cans of WW 231 were around $60 as I recall, and I used to burn 20–24 lbs. a year. I don’t know how anyone can afford to shoot in large volume today although there are a couple of young guys who call every few months to ask how I’m feeling. I don’t know, seems a bit crass …
