Quote Originally Posted by SAWMAN View Post
TennJeep is heavy into competition. At a match he could easily shoot several hundred rounds. About double that to include practice sessions.
If he loaded his ammo on a single stage (like my 40 year old Rockchucker) he would be at it constantly. He loads to save money and build the loads that he specifically needs to meet his requirements and the rules of the upcoming match.
HOWEVER . . . I will default this info back to TJ. --- SAWMAN
SAWMAN, you hit the nail on the head. The last 3 years I've averaged just under 10K rounds per year and this year I plan on hitting 15K. Yesterday, for example, I was able to sneak away to the range and have a really productive practice session of over 500 rounds in just over an hour. I work full time (and more) plus I bought a new house about 6 months ago that needs lot of little improvements, therefore my free time is extremely limited. I could spend all my free time reloading and not be able to dry fire or shoot, or I can spend as little time reloading as possible and use the rest of the time to practice.

I started reloading 6 years ago on a single stage press, back when I just plinked occasionally and had more free time. As I started shooting more and had less free time, I upgraded to a turret press. When I started shooting competitively, I upgraded to a 650 to swing the shooting/reloading balance toward being able to shoot more. As my free time became more and more limited, I upgraded to a 1050, then added the autodrive. It works well for me.

If I were to have jumped into competitive shooting at my current level without having started reloading beforehand, it probably wouldn't make sense for me to reload at all. I would be better off buying factory ammo that gets "close" to how my handloads perform. But since I started reloading before competing, and upgraded over time, it makes sense to keep adding onto my system to make it as efficient as possible to maximize the time I can spend shooting and otherwise training.


rumaco, I don't take offense to your comments at all. My thoughts about reloading have changed drastically over the past several years. It started as a hobby to allow me to shoot more, while helping sate my need to tinker, but it has turned into a (not unpleasant, but time sink nonetheless) necessity that allows me to fine tune my ammo and shoot more cheaply than buying factory ammo.