So, I tell my friends and coworkers about my reloading. I consistently get 3 questions.

How much does it cost per round?

How much was the equipment?

How much time does it take to reload xxxxx round?

The first 2 questions are more easily answered. I spend a lot of time calculating cost per round via components and cost for equipment when looking to upgrade my setup. But the time involved is a little more abstract.

So I am hoping to start a thread about the time investment of ammunition. I will start with how I reload 9MM right now.

Caliber: 9MM Luger

Press type: Lyman Turret press

load: 115g PCC, 5g unique, CCI 500s

Time:  20.65 seconds per round or 174 rounds per hour. (timed myself doing batch processing and did the math to figure out the time.  IE: I sized and deprimed and flared 139 cases in 15 minutes. Then It took me 23:35 to charge and seat 100 rounds of primed brass)

Notes: Loaded using a single 50 round load block and using a dipper to charge the cases. Cases were primed in between sizing and flaring while watching TV so that time was not added towards the time required to load.



I have been working on my 556 load times, but due to my own personal time constraints, haven't gotten that far.

Feel free to add amplifying information including case prep times, reaming primer pockets, trimming, adding a lyman M die, etc.

Reloading is a hobby unto itself.  I spend the hobby time listening to talk radio, but not watching TV.  Radio (for me) is not a safety distraction, but TV might be, other experiences may differ.  

9mm Luger is one of if not the most cost effective factory ammo to buy.  So reloading is not worth it for many.  Since I pay nothing for brass, and since powder is low charge wt, it works for me to reload 9mm Luger still.  If 9mm Luger ammo prices drop again significantly, it would become marginal on cost.

The other aspect of reloading is for superior accuracy or performance, usually better accuracy.  For rifle reloading, I can attest to being able to save money producing markedly more accurate ammo custom made for my rifles.   For 9mm Luger, I can't claim better accuracy over factory ammo.

Personally I don't worry about the time. The up front cost is where the biggest part is. After that then it is powder and primers. I find it relaxing to reload and now that my arm has healed up enough for me to use it I am going to get back into reloading. As a plus will help with the motion in my arm so I am looking at the pluses.

I understand that time is not what most realoders factor into the reloading process, I am just hoping to find some data to tell new reloaders and to create a baseline for calibers on different presses.

IE: 9mm on a turret makes 175 rounds per hour. 9mm on a dillon 550 is 300 rounds per hour, on a 650 is 600 rounds per hour...

I know there are many ways to skin this cat, 9mm was the only caliber I had created enough data for to start a thread. Rifle rounds will require more case prep.

I would also like data pertaining to precision rounds and how long people invest into each completed round.

I agree, but on 9mm I can reload stouter ammo for practice.  I have found that WWB and several types of cheaper 9mm practice ammo is so far down on the power scale, it will occasionally cause feeding issues in some of my guns.  I can reload my practice rounds with just a few more 10ths of powder to get it to the level of my carry ammo.  That more than makes up the time used for making the ammo.  You're right, the accuracy isn't much different, but the power factor can be.

I don't calculate how many rounds I can do per hour, or how much I'm saving by reloading. It doesn't really matter to me. All I know is I'm saving quite a bit over buying factory pistol ammo and I'm making better rifle ammo than I can buy - for less money. I did calculate out what it costs me to load 50 rounds of .40 S&W the other day because someone really had to know. I can't even remember what it was. Reloading is something that if you don't actually enjoy doing it there is a good chance you will not stick with it for very long. 

Time spent reloading should not be a factor in your decision to reload.  That much is clear.

Bottle neck rifle cartridges - 200 to 300 rounds per hour
Straight walled pistol cases - 350 to 500 rounds per hour

The above is done on a Dillon 550B.


The cost of all my reloading gear has been fully amortized so long ago, it no longer matters to anyone.  It cost a fair amount to buy all the gear and gages but it paid for itself almost immediately (within a year).  

I save well over half the cost ($0.50 to $0.75 per round) of factory ammo for both pistol and rifle cartridges.  <-- I save 50 cents for every pull of the rifle trigger.  That is $50 for a 100 round match.

Plus, the ammo is as good or better than anything you can buy at any price.  Have you checked the price of Lapua match ammo recently?

I no longer load for precision rifle matches as my son ( the shooter) took that over a good while back. I was shocked at the time per round when he first started in competitions. Truly a labor of love. I calculated about six minutes per round when I added all the steps together. Putting the rounds together on a press is the fast part.

I think I can reload plinking ammo faster than I can shoot it. That is, in one hour, I can make 700rds or so on my Dillon (if it is already set up).

I can't really blow through 700rds in a single hour of quality practice at the range, once you factor in reloading mags, resetting targets, and setting up various drills, etc.

I generally tell people if you just want to make blasting ammo in 9mm and 223, don't bother unless you're shooting thousands and thousands of rounds a year. Plan on investing like $2k in a progressive and all the necessary tools, accessories, and optional accessories to go faster. Many of my friends shoot like less than 1000 rounds total per year but ask me about Dillons constantly -- it just isn't worth it.

For precision/specialty ammo on a single stage, it's obviously much slower, but the cost per round savings is far greater than blasting ammo. Also a lot cheaper to get in to. I always suggest people start on a single stage when they ask me, unless they're the engineer type .

I think I save like 30-40 cents a round loading hot 10mm versus buying Underwood, and at least a dollar per round on 6.8SPC ammo.

The answer is not something you can put down on a spreadsheet because there are too many variables.  The answer is, it depends.

I feel the same way.  I just started reloading because I wanted to develop and load my own precision rounds for my Ruger Precision Rifle (6.5 Creedmoor).  I don't pay any attention to my cost or time - I do it for fun and because I enjoy the process.  I'm still fine tuning my OCW in 0.1 gr increments - have 100 rounds ready to go for OCW test and velocity measurement.

How are you factoring case cleaning time in?

I'm thinking about getting a Lee hand press just so I can deprime and resize away from the bench (I.e. lunch breaks).

I generally enjoy reloading, and that said it is a hobby in itself. 

That said I have thrown a lot of money at equipment that does help speed it up.

for me:

1.  Hobby I enjoy
2.  I get better accuracy out of my rifle rounds than facotry and I enjoy testing loads.
3.  You don't save money, you shoot more
4.  I won't ever wait in line at 9 am for shooting ammo ever again because of some national liberal BS political crisis (yeah, I waited outside dicks sporting goods for ammo once)
5.  I get to go to my garage, listen to music and relax
6.  Allows me to load for rounds you can't get ammo for locally.  Ie 458 socom

If any of that is not for you, then buy your ammo

I attempted to do this exercise for a few friends a while ago.

Cost per round and equipment are easy. Heck I did it prior to loading a single round. Google components for cost per round. Brass is re-usable so only a one time expense (if purchased). Same for equipment add up press, dies, tumbler, calipers, books.

The time aspect of per round is dependent on so many variables that it would take a large amount of resources to calculate it with any consistency. Major variables such as equipment (single, turret, progressive) are easy to distinguish however level of focus, skill level and process vary person to person. I can get into a zone and crank out a much higher volume of a well established load then I can if I am moving at a casual pace or am working on newer loads. Even loads that have been confirmed I tend to triple check everything to ensure I get a safe and consistent product.

I finally adopted the practice of laying out how long I spend per session and what I accomplished. For example I sat down and loaded up 200 45 ACP last night in the span of about an hour and half to two hours. I then spent the next hour priming 38 special cases for my next run on that caliber.

I count my time reloading as " my time "  When life is getting to you, nothing better then an hour or two in front of the Dillon to get back on track.  It is almost therapy.....

As to how much,  I figure it it this way, just like Hunting.  If I had to account for cost per pound of meat, It might be ugly.

I figure just for hunting, I have a $600 rifle with a $300 scope a $300 tree stand, about $500 in Cabelas clothing and boots, a $300 GPS unit.  And that's just what is on my person when I enter the woods.

I would need to kill a 10,000 pound deer just to break even.  

Either way, I am going to reload, shoot and Hunt.  so regardless of the cost per round or pound.  I do it because I enjoy it and it brings me peace.

For those who say reloading is not worth it today because ammo is cheap.  They totally miss the point and satisfaction from rolling your own.  For me it was never about saving money or about creating the ultimate accurate load, it was about enjoying a hobby.

Rounds per hour for me is about 350-425 on a SDB

Price per round is 14.5 cent per round using a Zero 165 JHP ( I love the .40)

Price of the press was $280

The cost to rifle is different but the savings is more since I only load precision rifle I could get the cost of my pistol loads lower but I don't like shooting lead bullets.

The best part of reloading for me is I can make better ammo and the pride of making my own stuff. That's almost as rewarding as shooting tiny groups.

I kinda just look at all that brass on the ground and think, "Wow. This can be reused again and again. Why let it go to waste?" So I don't.
It's just an interesting hobby for me and I try not to dwell on costs or number of rounds per hour or anything too deeply.
Sure, if you shop around for components you can reload on the cheap or automate processes to reload in large batches, which is all fine and good,
but in the end, it's just the simple process of creating something that I enjoy.

Same here. Then I started slowing it down. Uniforming primer pockets, deburring flash holes, turning necks if necessary, forming brass, and annealing. That's what winter is for though. I have a nice stash of brass ready to go. 

I enjoy reloading as much as shooting. It allows me to shoot a lot more than if I did not reload. Time spent in my reloading room is priceless. While I can load at over 900 rounds per hour, I seldom do.

Like others, I don't worry too much about the time it takes, because I enjoy reloading as much as shooting; and much more than watching TV.

To answer your question, though, I have timed myself on occasion, out of curiosity.  On my progressive RCBS, I get 350+/hour for straight walled pistol cartridges.
I've never timed on the single stage. 

To the OP and others, if your time is precious you can spend more money to get the same high quality reloads through the use of a faster progressive press (Dillon 1050 versus 550) and even faster by automating the press.  

The reason to do that, rather than buying factory ammo, is described in the posts above - highest quality loads, tailored to your rifle for accuracy.

Interesting question.  I'll agree with the "it depends" statements.

"My press can crank out X number of rounds in Y amount of time", that one is easy. It is difficult to factor in is all the ancillary time involved.

Time to factor in:
1) Pickup range brass or new
2) Sorting brass
3A) Cleaning, not tumble time. Time involved with loading/unloading, separating brass from media.  Spreading out to dry if using a wet tumble.
3B) Place holder for rifle case prep time
4) Storage/transfer of brass
5) Press setup time; Filling powder hopper, primer tubes, bullet/case feeder, setting dies. Checks of powder throw, OAL. etc
6) Press run time. Rounds per hour
7) Storage/documentation of completed rounds
8) Press tear down and clean up; empty powder hopper, primer storage.

I am going to venture a guess at 4-5 man-hours involved with 'hands on brass' to produce1k of 9mm  This isn't total time involved, just a guess at actual/necessary work time of the entire process. That averages out to 18 seconds per pistol round on a progressive.

Thoughts, comments, time adjustments?

Thoughts like this were exactly what thoughts I was looking for when starting this thread.

I didn't calculate times where I was picking up, moving brass or sorting because that was spread out amongst all the brass types. That would be a hard one to calculate due to the many different variable.

The information is good for people considering reloading because the cost savings are usually very appealing till they realize that many of us spend more time actually creating the rounds than shooting the rounds.

.300blk alone is reason to reload (if you shoot it).

I don't tumble 9mm brass nor prep it.

To quote your Avatar.... "That's like,  your opinion man".  No foul or harassment,  just using it as an example of time investment.  I do tumble, because of a lot of nasty range brass and BLING...   lol

Sorting brass ughhh.. I was lucky and received almost (2) full 5 gallon buckets of mixed brass with just about every popular handgun and rifle case inside, even some .50.  Took a few days to sort that out by hand, but I think I am set on 9mm brass for the remainder of my life.

People ask me...."Do you save any money reloading"?  It is kind of a yes and no question.  

YES; With a bit of a premium on components through my LGS my cost is $6.50 per box of 9mm and around $8 for a box of .45acp.  But, that does not include initial cost of equipment, which like any other tool has to have it's own justification. Example: I can pay a contractor $50 to cut a board once for me, or I can spend that money on a saw and cut as many boards as I want until I die.  Same outlay of resources, different end results.

Equipment; press, dies, scales, etc..  Two schools of thought on that one.  Jump in full bore to a blue/red/green/purple progressive (buy once, cry once) or start basic and slowly upgrade over time.  Kind of like when I gave my oldest a 175pc tool kit set.  I said  'Here, this is a start to get you going for all your basic needs, the rest you can pickup over time and add better/more tools'.  I started out with a cheap plastic tool box, a few screw drivers, wrenches and sockets.
Time progressed and now I have a very large, multi drawer, roll about tool box full of all sorts of hammers to fix electrical problems.  All kidding aside, I have run about 8k+ rounds on a cheap single stage Lee kit, before upgrading to a progressive.  I started in 2014 (late in life) and have accumulated less knowledge than most of the experts here have forgot.

NO;  The money one saves reloading will be reinvested back into the hobby.  Why yes, you can pay $X for 1k of whatever, I will spend that same amount of money producing 3k of whatever, and in the end you will end up giving me your brass, because you don't reload, thus reducing my costs.  Same money, more range time.


Then I tell them about time/resources invested and get the face.  I tell them it is like any other hobby, you time is an investment in enjoying something with a result to appreciate.  I ask if they know any wood workers and have seen their shop.  How much money is spent on specialized equipment?  Why do they spend all that time and resources to produce a bookshelf that they could buy at Walmart or Ikea for less money?  The response is usually "because it is better quality and will be a family heirloom at some point".  Exactly. Reloaded rounds might not last as long, but I have shot stuff I helped my Dad reload when I was a kid and stuff my Grandfather put together 40+ years ago.

TL/DR crowd.
My personal views for possible new reloaders, please correct me If step out of line on this one.
1) No real cost savings just more range time.
2) Better quality and customization of loads.  Soft plinkers for arthritic or kids hands and that quest for perfection of one hole in a target with multiple rounds.
3) Political policy swings. We will always have most of our favorite ammo available by rolling it.  Buy a few boxes at a time or a few components at a time.  Long run, loaders win
4) COC compliant here

When it comes to time I look at efficiency and why my time is worth. With young kids, my personal time is limited. My turret press would yield about 100rds an hour. One hour is the most I spend on a stage of reloading (prep, sorting, etc). A Dillon bumped up efficiency to 300rds. That hour is still spent carefully making sure each round gets powder. After an hour I find other things I need to get done while the kids are down.

Some weeks I don't do anything, some weeks I reload almost every night. Time is subjective if it is something you want to do, like load ammo to shoot over the weekend.

As long as you aren't fickle and plan to continue to shoot and/or reload, your setup is like having good power tools.

After reloading, I no longer look at ammo like an expenditure I will have to replenish.  I grab into a bag of rounds like a bag of chips. I don't blindly burn through ammo but I don't worry about running out. I shop for components (at a good price) and have fun putting it together when I have time.  When it comes time to shoot, my $ and time investment is already paid for.

Last weekend I reloaded 250 rounds of 45 colt on my single stage.

250 gr lrnfp unique and a WLP.

Took about 6 hours.

May seem excessive to some but locally 45 colt is a buck a round my cost excluding brass is 16 cents.  The equivalent of $33.67 an hour is a good rate of return for my time.

Tell your friends that you spend less time reloading than they do playing video games and bullshitting on the internet. 



And you have something to show for it when you're done.

That is a good way to look at it as well. A hobby that "saves" you money (unless of course you just shoot more).

Reloading 9MM at the rate I mentioned in the OP would net me only $17.50 an hour at my costs. But that is still more than minimum wage... for now.

Y'all need to quit talking folks into loading. Last two times at the range have been very lucrative in collecting once fired brass!

That's a reasonable complaint!

I think most newbies that get into reloading just to shoot 9mm or 223 for cheap will end up discouraged, regardless of any savings.


But, the guy that's hunts with two or three calibers will be ecstatic with the savings from loading just a couple of boxes of each with premium bullets with a decent single stage setup.


For example, I shoot 375 H&H, 416 Rigby, and 458 WM.  Price that factory ammo and get back to me on 'savings'. 

Some folks reload to have more accurate ammo. I couldn't stack five bullets on top of each other 40 years ago, don't think I could do it now. Not even going to try.
Some folks reload to save money. My reloads cost me twice the cost of factory. I have 1 grandson that I pay $1.00 a pound to be my brass monkey, He fills every piece with mud so they weigh more.(Nanny told him to) 1 Grandson I pay a $1.00 a pound to decap/resize. And 1 granddaughter I pay $5.00 a pound to trim and clean pockets on my rifle brass.
Now time is the most important thing to me, and because I get to load with my grandkids it doesn't take near long enough.

Excellent!, best post in this thread or any other in a long time.

Brass is free and used many times
I load 9mm 115 FMJ for about 12 cents per round.
.45 230 FMJ is going to about 16 or 17 cents.


My other one I like is 410. I can load that for $2.50 a box. Ever try to buy that in the store? $13 $14 $15 a box. I like to shoot skeet with 410 and I could never do it buying it in the store.
That being said, and at those prices, I have stocked up over the years and will likely never buy anymore 410 components ever again.

Hand Loading Calculator

Thanks but you just gave yourself away fellow old geezer!

Like others have said, reloading is a hobby for me.  I enjoy messing with it and making ammo.

If I see components on sale, I buy them,  any brand of primers, any powder type I already use regularly, same for bullets (meaning if it's bullets I already use/have positive experiences with).  I rarely buy brass but I've bought a lot in the last year (retired almost 2 years ago and have more time to reload and shoot).

I also go through the process in batches.  For example, the other day I resized, belled and primed just over 400 pieces of .45 acp brass.  I'll load it sooner or later (maybe today??).  The same afternoon, while waiting on my dogs to come back from sneaking off to the woods to run/hunt, I resized just over 600 pieces of 9MM brass (still need to be belled and primed).

I'm working through some .300 BO brass, too.  Got most of it sized/trimmed, primed and belled (don't normally do that for rifle brass but I'll be using some of those new Rainier plated 180 grain hollow points so I figured I'd open the case mouths up a little since the bases of those bullets are miking at just over 0.310 inches and I don't want to damage the bases while seating them.

Doing it like this I can sit down at the bench some days and put powder and bullets in 500 to 600 rounds of pistol ammo or rifle ammo (if I'm using the right powders).  By day I don't mean 8 or 10 hrs., but 3 to 4 hours in an afternoon.

So, I picked up 2 Dillon 550s with all the dies and things in a huge lot. Timed myself making 100 rounds today.

I started with powder in the hopper, but I did double check the drop which I did after I started the time, then I use the pickup tube to pick up 100 primers.

Then I proceeded to load 100 rounds... Found a few crimped 9mm brass, they slowed my production a little bit, but I didn't stop the time.

I have been reloading for 10+ years and never did any progressives, so things were a little slow as I am not used to checking 4 things at once.

I ended up making 100 rounds in 21:43. Which translates to 276 rounds per hour.

That is an extra 102 rounds per hour over my old method. Not quite double, but a huge improvement.

I think I can improve to 300 rounds per hour easily with a bit of practice.

100 rds per hour of pistol ammo using a single stage press and powder dispenser using the batch method.

Using a rock chucker it takes about 15 minutes to run 100 9mm cases through the press.

1. decap and size  - 15
2. flair and prime   -15
3. use a loading block to charge cases 50 at a time - 5
4. seat the bullet - 15
5. taper crimp -10

About an hour to load 100rds, not counting tumbling the brass.

I usually process batch 500 - 1000 though the above, one step at a time. 4 times through the press for 9mm.

45 and 40sw I add a bulge buster step so it's a 5th time though the press.

I bought powder and primers so long ago, it much cheaper for me to reload than buy loaded.

Why does anyone care how long it takes to handload?  It's a hobby, not a job.  Do you 'bill yourself' the time you take to go to the store to buy ammo?  Not likely.  How about the time you spend buying firearms?  Driving to the range, shooting, driving back home, cleaning your arms, etc.?

In fact, how much do you 'bill out' the time you spend on your computer on the interweb?

I think most of us agree that reloading is a hobby to support another hobby. I don't bill myself, but I do pride myself in efficiency.

Most of what the people I talk to about reloading ask is cost and time. Everyone's time is at a premium especially with family and work. Knowing a baseline for time could be the deciding factor for a new reloader.

The idea of 100 rounds per hour may be (to an outside perspective) a waste of time. But 500 rounds per hour would be considered perfect. That is the difference between needing a single stage and a Dillon 650 (or equivalent).

I like to be able to give people all the facts. Hence, my question in the OP.

Again, thank you guys for all the input.

I agree

How much do you get paid to surf this website?
How about do house chores? Go to the grocery store? Watch TV? Hang out with the family?

I don't get paid anything to do those things. Why should reloading be different?

It's a hobby ... I can't sit on my ass and watch TV ... I get alone time from the wife ... she knows where I am ... I'm OCD and love the quest for accuracy

I can easily crank out 500 rounds per hour on my SDB. That's assuming I already have primer tubes loaded which really only take about 90 seconds each.

I won't throw tumbling into the equation because dumping a bunch of brass in then walking away doesn't really take any time. With the Dillon media separator it takes about 60 seconds to knock all the media out. So what, maybe 5 minutes to tumble and separate 1000 pieces of brass?


If you break down components at .01 for a case (amortized over 3 firings), .10 for a 147 gr. plated bullet, about .01 for powder and .025 for a primer I'm at a whopping 14.5 CPR for match quality subs that run in all my guns - something factory ammo can't seem to do.

If I bumped down to 115 gr. bullets I could get that cost down to something like 10 CPR which is half the price of factory ammo. If I assume it takes two hours to load a case of ammo then I save $50/hour of my time which would pay for the press in 8 hours.


Bottleneck ammo is a bit harder to quantify time wise unless you have a press that does full prep.