No formula for me. I went to my buddies place to pick him up to go to a match. He was finishing up loading ammo for the match on his 650 w/ a Mr Bullet Feeder. I watched him load 100 rounds in 4 minutes while we were talking smack about who was going to kick who's butt at the match. At the time I had a 550 it took me about 15min to load 100rds on the 550. The Monday after the match I went down to the local Dillon dealer and picked up a 650 and a Mr Bullet Feeder, been happy ever since.
The last question is what got me. When I found myself considering skipping practice to avoid loading, I upgraded. In retrospect, I had been avoiding it for awhile, letting the stockpile shrink to the point where I'd load the night prior to needing it.Originally Posted by LittleLebowski
Your question 2 is why I'm seriously considering selling my 550s and getting a 650. I let my ammo stock dwindle to nothing because I didn't want to pull the handle. Not wanting to stop practicing is what made me man up and start loading.
*And Mrs. Hambo really wouldn't box me up and ship me out over a 650. She has actually suggested various tools that helped me speed up the process.
"Gunfighting is a thinking man's game. So we might want to bring thinking back into it."-MDFA
Beware of my temper, and the dog that I've found...
I get it running like a sewing machine, and same for my Mr. Bulletfeeder for 1 bullet type and leave it alone. I don't sit down for hours at a time on the press, but I do that once a quarter or two to cast bullets and coat them.
The faster I can get ammo out of the press safely, without scrap/fixing jams, the less time I spend doing it. While I enjoy it, there's other things I'd rather spend my time doing in life. The less time I reload for the same quantity of ammo, the more time I spend doing those things.
I would love a 1050, but can't justify it right now. In a few years when we've made some serious fiscal progress and I'm out of school I'd like to upgrade to an automated 1050, and spend my time filling primer tubes and powder/bullet/brass hoppers. I might be able to fiscally justify buying bullets by then too. Same reason as above.
Quantity of ammo I desire and can afford to load/shoot = HIGH
Damage to elbows from excessive loading/dry fire/live fire/training/matches = HIGH
Value of my time (self-valued, abilty to generate income) relative to cost of equipment = HIGH
Desire to spend time on things like dry fire to get more better cheaper vs. loading = HIGH
Desire to generate / stockpile ammo for live fire practice, matches, training classes = HIGH
Interest in sticking with hobbies for 10 years+/- or more (life but perhaps with cycles) = HIGH
Ability to expend (paced out over a few years...) without compromising my financial health or marriage = HIGH
Answer = full baller reloading equipment. 1050, bullet feeder, RF100 primer filler, cement mixer, dehydrator and all the required accessories and upgrades. For me it's all about the time and consumables, not the fixed equipment. The fixed equipment ties up capital, but also has a reasonable resale value.
I also occasionally enjoy having a friend over for a reloading party. This is effective for productivity but consumes one of my most valuable and scarce resources - time.
Speed = currently about 1500 9mm/hour, SUSTAINED. Includes loading primer tubes, doesn't include initial pres setup/calibration or case gauging loaded ammo. Always working on maximizing speed but minimizing failures/jams. There is a delicate balance here. Reloading for more than a couple hours is exhausting, I try to stick to < 2 hour windows when solo, which means about 1000+ rounds soup to nuts (inluding QC, case gauging, cleanup).
I think a 650/Mr. Bullet Feeder would suffice for most.
Last edited by GuanoLoco; 02-19-2017 at 10:33 AM.
Are you now, or have you ever been a member of the Doodie Project?
I kept trying to figure out how much more ammo I would really get for my time upgrading to a 650 vs my 550. The 1050 swage station and an autodrive kept calling me, so I went full retard.I'm seriously considering selling my 550s and getting a 650. *And Mrs. Hambo really wouldn't box me up and ship me out over a 650. She has actually suggested various tools that helped me speed up the process.
Always a lively topic
Another part of the "formula" is how much money do you HAVE. Back when I started doing it I didn't have hardly any money, so it was a way for me to shoot more. Now it is a habit, and I have come to enjoy it, mostly cause of the cool tools, so it is not really a formula. And most people realistically would not use the time spent reloading to go earn money. I also contend most people to not use range time to reload. I mean really, who leaves work to go home and reload? Perhaps folks with disposable cash and things like kids making spare time more finite and maybe a profession like a lawyer who could log a couple billable hours instead of reloading actually could actually work out some math.
But like Hambo said, I already have the tools. Though I did recently transition to a 650 and have found myself scheming how/why I might get a second one, though I will readily admit that is not a logical argument. It just seems like I will have things all set up for a long run of something and then want to interject something else. Been mostly shooting 9x19, but shot a 1911 for the first time in a while last week. I could get another 1911 in nine, but I could get a second 650 for less.
I also load 12g and 20g and that is a tougher financial argument than 9x19, but I load 3/4-#9 in both, something that is not commercially available, can't plug that into a formula.
I was a 550 zealot for decades, figured it would not be that much faster, and I had EVERYTHING all set up for 550, so I bought a second one. Then they came out with the 550 case feeder so I got one, Then I started shooting mostly 9x19, and realized for just a few hundred over what I could sell one of my 550s and feeder I could swing the 650 and keep it mostly focused on nine. So I did, and man is it cool...
I would suggest keeping one 550. Also, the feeder is a huge part of what makes the 650 cool, but contrary to what people say you could use one without as a transition plan, if it helped you avoid getting killed while you slept
For me right now with young children, it boils down to saving time. An extra half hour can mean the difference a better nights sleep, more things accomplished outside of reloading, or just simply more time spent with family.
Don't like the primer stroke. I'll sell it ready to load if you want it.
i used to wannabe
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