When and how many?

[wisconsinteacher]

I am getting close to having a load for my 22-250. At what point do you mass load for a rifle and if you do make a large number of rounds for a rifle, how many do you make? (20 or 1000)

 

[Mortis]

I look at it this way.....

Cost of reloading volume.

Storage space available to handle loaded ammo.

It is alot easier to store unloaded components then loaded ammo. Takes less space.

I'd say if you have a load you really like and are not going to continue playing with loads.... load all ya want. And if you are loading for p-dogs.... is 1000 going to be enough??

 

[bullet]

Don't do more than 50, reason being at some point your throat begins to ware and move forward and when it does you will need to adjust your OAL to keep the accuracy you have been getting with the load, in fact it might even require a slight adjustment in powder charge. Loading 50 rounds gives you enough to hunt with or play at the range some. If you are hunting pdogs, well that is a different story and it won't matter much because doing that kind of heavy shooting you will be changing your barrel much quicker.

 

[JLC0311]

It all depends on what your loading for and how many you think you need and how many components you have on hand.

 

[Tobey284]

Depends on how much time is involved in "mass loading". Before I aquired an RCBS Chargemaster it was not uncommon for me to only have 15-20 loaded rounds per rifle, partly because I did not have time to sit and hand weigh more than that and partly because I can tinker with loads to no end and each was a constant work in progress. Now that I am automated i load working loads in 50 round batches for the simple reason that I buy brass 50 at a time and it's easier to monitor the number of times it has been loaded. Main problem with loading too many at a time is you don't have an excuse to hang out at the loading bench for awhile.

 

[PJGunner]

I have a favorite load for my one trick pony, a Ruger M77 RSI. One day I got the bright idea to load up a decent supply o that if I drew a tag I'd have ammo ready to go plus enough for pre-hunt practice. I bought 250 rounds of Remington .308 Win. brass did the prep work and loaded up my pet load. I didn't draw a tag for a couple of years so finally when I did get one, I grabbed a box or two and went to the range. WOW! all kinds a wierd flyers on a very erratic basis and when I looked at some of the brass, the necks had cracked. :shock: I checked the rest of the brass that was left and there were more cases with cracked necks. I'd heard of season cracking before but that was supposed to be with really old brass. No use doing any more shooting so i packed up and went home and checked what was left of those loads. Almost 25 percent of those cases had cracked necks. Pulling the bullets was easy. You could do it with one finger and your thumb. I salvaged the primers from the bad brass and proceeded to pull the bullets from what was left of the "good" shells. I salvaged the powder and primers from those as well and annealled the necks of the remaining "good" brass and then reloaded them. The "bad" brass went into the scra bucket. Probably what I should have done was send all the bad ones back to Remington. hey might have replced them. Oh well that was quite a long time ago and I was out maybe 65/70 pieces of brass which was relatived cheap back then. Today there's no way it'd go into the scrap bucket. They'll go back to the maker with a polite (?) note explaining my problem. I was planning to load up a large bunch of .223's for my Kimber varmint rifle but rhe thought of taking the time to anneal the necks on a thousand or so rounds of brass is a bit daunting, especially as it's so darn hot right now. We've set two record highs in the past three days, 108 three days ago and 109 yesterday. My electric bill for the A/C is going to he humongous. Sure will cut into cash for needed components.
Paul B.

 

[Guy Miner]

I work with batches of 500 at a time for the .308 Win. Match ammo. Once a year these days, used to do it at least twice a year, when I was doing more shooting & competition.

For the hunting rifles - rarely do I load up more than 100 at a time, usually 50 once I've determined The Load.

For a high volume varmint rifle though, it would make sense to load several hundred or even a thousand at a time. I know some sage-rat shooters who go through hundreds of rounds of .204 or .223 ammo in a day, and shoot for several days in a row. I understand that prairie dog shooters can go through large volumes of ammo as well.

Regards, Guy

 

[Oldtrader3]

I do not shoot quite as much as I used to but I normally make about 50 rounds per loading, per caliber in the early spring and having (7) centerfire rifles, this will mostly get me through to fall and I always can make 50 more in a free hour, if needed.

The same with the .357 mag and .45 Colt, I load about 50 cartridges at a sitting and reload as needed. This way they usually do not go stale on me. Loading 50 rounds is about an hour's work at the loading bench.

 

[Wincheringen]

With my handgun stuff I usually try to keep around 2000 of each loaded up. My hunting rifles never more than 50 (a box of bullets). With my varmint guns I'll keep anywhere from 200-500 loaded up. I try to keep about 1500 shotshells loaded up too. I load my handgun stuff and shotshells on progressive equipment but the rifle stuff is all done on single stage, except for .223 which is also done on the Dillon 650.

 

[Antelope_Sniper]

WT, only you can answer that question.
Some stuff I load 20 at a time.
Some stuff I load 1000 at a time.
It all depends.

 

[wisconsinteacher]

I hear what you are saying Antelope. I was just feeling the crowd out.

 

[onesonek]

WT, only you can answer that question.
Some stuff I load 20 at a time.
Some stuff I load 1000 at a time.
It all depends.

Same here.
And like Charlie, I don't don't quite shoot as much as I did a couple years.
But on average, I load for what I shoot in a month. And I try to put some rounds down range out of everything. What the firearms intended use, determines the amount of ammo on hand.

 

[JD338]

I build to order.
I usually have a box or two of loaded ammo at any one time.
The only exception is 45 ACP.

JD338

 

[BeeTee]

Now, I only load what I think I'll shoot that year. I just hate reading these boards or getting a new reloading manual only to discover there's a new powder, bullet, case or primer that's the new hottest thing. :? Just when I thought I had the 223 dialed-in with Win brass and W748, I began reading about Benchmark and Nosler brass. Just when I thought I had the 7RM dialed-in with RL19, I read about the virtues of RL22. Speaking of which, I've got a hundred once-fired Nosler 223 cases to polish and need to get to work (with Benchmark)... :wink: BT

 

[nvbroncrider]

Depends on the rifle and how much your shooting. When you have shot 700-800 rounds in the last 2 months you tend to have more on hand then if you shooting a box a month.