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how many rounds do you reload?

Ruslow

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Feb 17, 2017
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Wondering how many rounds do you reload/ By that I mean do you do say 500 at a time and shoot them then reload another or do you reload more or less. I am rite now doing 400 and that covers a 2 day match as well as several club matches. then i start the process again.but should I load say 700 instead and hope powder is consistent since i will be going thru several pounds of it it not in an 8 lbs. container. thanks Stan
 
Depends on the box of bullets. Sierra 500 counts generally have a few extras. I will prep 510 cases, prime them and box them. Then I will load about 100 at a time. A match is 50 rounds, 58 with sighters, so 70 rounds for a day. 100 for an 80 round match. Extras are practice ammo.

Never had a problem with having ammo sitting around for a few months.
 
Depends ... bulk ammo like 9mm, .223. I'll knock out 500 rounds and then call it a day... then finish it off the next day. Keeps the wife happy.

Rile stuff. 50 to 100 rounds at a time.
 
I bulk load 500+ rounds in a weekend, and then have enough ammo to last a couple months between training and 1-day matches. I'll dedicate time to separately load 300 rounds for every 2-day match.

I find doing it this way minimizes the time I have to spend at the reloading bench. I also prep in batches, e.g. i'll size 500 pieces, trim/chamfer 500 pieces, prime 500, etc. I find doing everything for 1 piece at a time way too slow/inefficient.
 
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I prep all my brass for giving cartridge in one lot then load as needed usually the monday before the match or practice/test session. Usually take a extra 30-50% over cof. I will do quite a few trips with said load, components,lots, before im comfortable shooting it in a match. Shot the peterson 2 day recently with a load i wasnt sure of and it bit me. Both mentally and on target
 
trim/size/prep/prime all your cases for current chamber, the powder and seating doesn’t seem nearly as daunting on an as- needed basis

i’m about to do 1100

Exactly what I have done for years. I do all brass prep and prime and then bag them so when I need to load I just put them in blocks and throw powder and seat bullets. Makes life a lot easier. Below is my tote of primed and prepped brass in multiple calibers. Labeled with number in the bag, brass maker, number of firings and caliber.

How many? Well that's up to the end user. If the OP is happy with the way he is doing it then keep doing it. If you wanted to do more then do more. Back a couple decades ago when I started shooting matches I would start with a caliber and 500 pieces of brass and start working through them. Usually get two two day matches from that as 2 day, and sometime 3 day, matches were what they had back then.

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I usually just load 100 at a time regardless of how many get prepped. I'll set the extra prepped ones off to the side. I have 490 pieces of brass for my BRA so that's strictly for that barrel. Covers my match ammo plus an extra 15-25 for sight in and verifying dope. I take the same amount to practice as well but typically don't shoot it all during practice.
 
Have a 500 meter steel match on Saturday course of fire is 20 round so I will load 40 rounds. This will give me plenty for sighters and if I do well a shoot off.
Course 4 stages 5 rounds each plus 2 sighting rounds
Targets at Chickens at 200m, Pigs at 300m, Turkeys at 400m and Rams at 500m. All targets are about 1 moa. If there is a tie we do a shot off with chicken at 400m.
We shoot 4 at a time and usually have 10 to 12 show up. The match takes 3 hours or so to complete.
 
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Not to derail but can you explain to us how a steel match shot at 546.807 yards is only going to take 20 rounds? Four 5 shot stages? One 20 shot stage? How long does this match take? How many participants?
 
For rifle competition shooting I won't touch a reloading session unless I have at least 500 brass to work with. I prefer to have 1000. I think there is consistency in volume and doing all the brass prep or powder charge or seating at the same time for a lot of brass. This might take me 2 or 3 days at the bench to get through it but I try to do large lots.

doing larger lots I can guarantee the;
Sizing die is set the same
trimmer is set the same
powder scales are calibrated the same (if you have multiples)
seating die is set the same.

I often see fellas a long range matches always having to tweak and change thier data or make minor adjustments and I think this could be some of the issue. I strive for consistency to avoid this issue. Match to match I can use the same data/program once I've verified the load. 500rds is 2 two day matches or about 4 one day matches (depending on practice).

If its a hunting rifle that I won't shoot very much I'll load 100-125 at a time, these rounds usually last me 3-4 years.
 
I load 200 at a time for every rifle/caliber, but I run 3 different rifles and 2 of them are switch barrel(s). I easily rotate without making shit crazy. Past 200 rounds, I think I would get annoyed/lazy, esp with prep.

Past that, every is done just like Rob said. Prepped and primed, then thrown into a tote until a day or so before said match/session.
 
I prep all my brass and put them in Tupperware so there ready to load powder and bullets. I don't like to load a bunch for my PRS rifle because if my group opens up and I have to do a seating depth test to get it back into tune that means I might have a bunch off ammo that has to be taken apart. So I only load what I need to shoot a match plus 20 rounds
 
As with everything around here, "it depends..."

Usually I'll build 50 more than I need for whatever is coming up, and how much time I have available to invest in my reloading process between matches. For back-to-back shooting weekends I'll usually work an hour or so a few days in a row the week before and spread out the process so the wife doesn't get mad because I spent an entire weekend down in the shop reloading. I try not to let things go to where I'm down to less than 100 cases that haven't begun my reloading process yet. That's when it becomes a chore working on 700-800 pieces of brass through the entire process and it gets boring fast.

Most of the time, within a day of coming home from a match I'll start the process for that brass, so it's just a steady rotation of fired-not-cleaned, cleaned-not-sized, sized-not-cleaned, ready-to-load, and finished rounds.