One other little thing, here's the order I do things in, which may have some bearing on why it's so time-consuming m

starting with tumbled & cleaned brass, sorted by headstamp.

1) lay out brass, spray one-shot lube on cases and in case-mouths.  then wipe on Imperial sizing wax lube on the cases once the one-shot dries.  Don't really need the one-shot but maybe it helps in the case mouths, and I bought several cans of it just before switching to the wax so I use some.

2) deprime and then resize 308 brass.  wipe off sizing wax lube with paper towel.
3) check cases with case gauge.  In retrospect I think this is what really slows it down.  Use steel ruler & the gauge to check if cases are sized too much or not enough.  waste time potting around with sizing die moving it up & down trying to find sweet spot where brass is sized just right.  (about a 0.005" window apparently, and changing headstamp of brass usually means adjusting the die)
Re-lube and re-size the occasional one that didn't get sized enough and repeat step 3.

4) trim cases with lee case trimmer and power drill.  chamfer inside and outside of case necks.  Use greenie scrub thing to remove light tarnish from cases that have some tarnish going.
5) use calipers to verify all cases actually got trimmed below the "trim to" length
6) use power drill and primer pocket cleaning tool to clean the primer pockets
7) now, ready to prime & load the cases.

Would you or do you do all of these steps?  I only have case gauges for my "U.S." calibers like 308, 30-06, and 223 so those are the only ones I gauge.  I thought it was interesting though that simply following the sizing die's instructions does not necessarily produce sized cases that pass the case gauge.  If I screw the sizing die down enough so that it's getting stopped by the shellholder, then that seems to be about 0.005" too much sizing and looks like it pushes the shoulder in too far.

Do you think it's necessary to trim 223 brass if you shoot it in a 556-chambered gun?  I always have and always do trim my 223/556 brass using the 223 case trimmer thing.  One of my friends says that a 556 chamber has that extra leade and that it's not necessary to trim these cases, and he doesn't.  I can see how he might be right but i'm a little too concerned about being wrong, to follow suit.  it would save a butt-ton of time if I didn't have to trim cases!

I found that, due to the amount of powder required, and the cost of the quality of bullets that rifles deserve, that the dollar savings weren't significant.
Worse was that my reloads weren't any more accurate than factory, at best.
It was fun and a good hobby, but not productive.
Not in the way that reloading for pistol has always been.
But it will keep you at home and out of trouble.

I save more on rifle ammo than anything else.  With current ammo prices I don't see how you could avoid saving money.

Example: 7mm Rem. Mag

Cheapest Factory Ammo $20/Box

Primer $.03
Powder .12
Case .12 (Assuming 5 loads)
Bullet .24

For the cash outlay of 1 round of factory stuff you get 2 shots loading your own.

Yeah, it depends on what type of rifle ammo you're talking about. Plinking ammo is easy, precision hunting ammo is something else. I don't do tons of rifle plinking, so my rifle ammo is prepared very carefully, and I don't let the time involved be a negative. I use the batch method for volume, maybe some day I'll pony up the cash and get a progressive press.

Only1asterisk,

2:1 savings is what I experienced, too, for rifle rounds reloading.
That ratio doesn't leave much room for mistakes, though.
But loading for pistols is more like 4:1.
Lots more, even, for some pistol calibers, like .44 mag and such.
Depending on the amount of time that can be devoted to reloading, pistol ammo reloading seems to make more sense for saving money.
And a whole lot easier, to boot.

I need to batch-process some rifle brass in large lots ahead of time, I think.  That'll help with it not being so much all at one time.

  Bingo.  Size 1,000.  Set aside.  Trim another day when you have an hour or so to kill.  Prime with a hand primer while watching a favorite movie again, then load at your next convenience.

Yep, I think you guys have it right, batch process and work towards having a bag of prepared brass on hand for each caliber. 

The Lee wooden handled case trimmer accessory was a darned good buy, and makes case trimming much less strenuous on my hands and fingers.  With the old one, I'd put bandaids or tape on my fingertips to avoid rubbing a blister from the knurling on the trimmer.  It's much easier to grab onto the wood ball handle instead.

I'm just starting out, so I'm pretty slow.
Today, I had a mixed batch of deprimed/resized and spent .223 casings in the tumbler, so I deprimed and sized whatever wasn't yet, sorted the military brass out, and had about 65 cases. I primed and charged them all, then seated the bullet in another step. Took me an hour and a half or two hours.

I lubed about 10 at a time with Dillon Case Lube (the only case lube anyone in town had in stock), resized and primed, checked case length with calibers, just making sure it fell somewhere in the range, and put it in the loading block.

I weighed about every fifth charge from the Lee Auto Disk (I need to tweak that- they're coming out about a grain light. Better light than heavy though, right?).

Like I said, about 2 hours, and I'm still below a total of 100rds (but over 120 primers )

You can get some weird high pressure situations light loads of slow powders and light weight bullets, but I gather it's rather unusual.

Info here:
http://www.shootingsoftware.com/barrel.htm