Brass Hoarding and the Consequences

[03psd]

I have been a small time brass hoarder since 2005-2006. I am now convinced its almost more trouble than its worth. I currently reload for 22-250, 308, and 260. In the past I have also reloaded for several other centerfire rifle calibers. What I find no is that I have zip lock bags, ammo trays, plastic boxes, etc all with varying numbers of cases that are in various stages of prep or maybe none having been done. I have not always done the best job with keeping records of brass and now in some cases I simply cannot keep them all straight. Some I was given, some was bought online, others were range pickups, etc. so I have no idea of their true history. As far as my reloading, I dont have 500 or more that are all the same lot so I end up with mixed batches of brass. I am certainly not an expert shot or reloader but I know the variations in brass complicates my load development and results. Obviously now is not the time to do it, but has anyone else basically tossed, sold,or scrapped all their existing brass and pushed the reset button by starting over with a new lot of 500 or 1000 all the same?

 

[NoFail]

That's happened to me in smaller numbers. It was mostly all Winchester stamped .308. Just too lazy to keep them tagged.

I have 1500 1x fired Hornady Match .308 cases now. I'm right in the middle of SS tumbling, sizing, trimming, etc.

This time I plan on using and wearing out 100 at a time. I won't dip back into the cookie jar until after the current ones get pooped out. I want to get a bolt action .308. Brass don't last so long out of the Semi LR.

 

[UrbanSi]

Rifle brass and pistol brass are completely different animals, how you load, specific brass preparation and being anal is another thing.

All my range brass is separated and marked accordingly. My pistol brass is 95% range brass that I sort and bag up after each time I come home, its time consuming but pays in the long run for how I do things

All my personal rifle brass is match prepared and logged in batches of 100. I find if I do large batches its much harder to differentiate what is what and how many loadings each lot has.


I understand some people shoot in large quantity and might only have enough time to do 1000 in a weekend and then shoot a match and do another 1000. Brass surely adds up if you are not cleaning before the bags add up.


My process for rifle
-shoot in lots of 100
-label for, trim, reloads, gun
-clean
-match prep and prime
-reload in lots of 100
-shoot

Pistol process
-collect range brass
-clean,inspect, prime
-load
-shoot in lots of 500
-bag/label
-collect range brass

Eventually I'll clean about 1-2K over a weekend and then sort by headstamp.

 

[EddieNFL]

For rifle I prep 1K (approximate, I don't count them) of a single headstamp and toss them after X number of loadings. Most handgun brass I load until it's lost or splits. I've loaded .357 nickel until the brass was showing.

 

[Big Z]

I've made the mistake of not keeping my stuff sorted before; I'm sure I lost a few hundred shots of good brass because I just tossed out the mess. Luckily that was before I did much loading. Now I buy stuff in bulk and keep it sorted by the rifle, shots fired, and whatever stage of prep it's in. I work through all my brass before it goes onto the next loading to keep everything on the same page.

 

[Jaxdialation]

My approach as well.

Now I buy stuff in bulk and keep it sorted by the rifle, shots fired, and whatever stage of prep it's in. I work through all my brass before it goes onto the next loading to keep everything on the same page.

 

[Doyputasos]

I have 200 pieces of Lapua brass for my 260. I have kept track of shots fired and just found a few (10 or so) pieces of my Lapua brass in an ammo box and it had never been loaded. I just threw it in with the rest of the thrice fired brass and figured it would be easier than keeping them separate or trying to load them a time or two more between batch loading sessions.

 

[Augustus]

Gentlemen, I do not throw any brass away unless I think it is dangerous to use. if I have brass of dubious history, I put it aside and load it for hog hunting or battle rattle in the woods. In the current political climate I would set this stuff aside,don't throw it away. There may come a time you would give you're left nut for 500 pieces of brass that will go pop just one more time.

 

[jfields]

I was in the OPs position a few months back, and right or wrong, here's what I ended up doing. I sorted about 1300 pieces of .308 brass by headstamp. Then I decapped and tumbled them all for an extraordinary amount of time. (these were fired from a suppressed gas gun and were extra filthy). I then wiped them down and sized them all, bumping the shoulder a couple thousandths below the shortest that I measured. I primed then, bought a bunch of Varget and some blem 178 AMAXs from Midway and pullled 175 SMKs from a gentleman here on the Hide. I did two OCW tests. One for the 178s in the Black Hills Brass, and one for the SMKs in Federal brass. I loaded them all and went to shooting. A new 1000 yard range opened up 15 minutes form my house, so I shot a bunch. It was great practice, and I'm almost through all of it now. The Black Hills have already been returned form California after being cleaned in SS Media and annealed. I'll try to keep netter track of it now. It looks better than new!

-Shaky

 

[turbo54]

I've spent quite a bit of time testing different brass.

When I shot a 1/2" bughole @ 200 yards with a batch of non-prepped IVI69 NATO brass that had been fired from M14s for Navy quals, and reclaimed with a SB FLS die, I stopped caring. This brass was ugly. It had grossly off-centered flash holes with gnarly burs. Brass length varied from 2.010"-2.035" (my chamber accodomated 2.045").

I'm not to the point where I'll mix headstamps for "precision" ammo, but otherwise, I'm pretty lax.

I too have dozens of ziplocks filled with brass in varying states. I have a simple system that even my lazy-ass has been able to keep up with:

1. Uninspected/random brass goes into a ziplock bag.
2. Once inspection/processing has been started, the bag gets an index card, with whatever processing I've done to it.
3. If I only get half way through before getting sidetracked, the bag of processed brass (with index card) goes into the bag containing the rest of the unprocessed stuff.

As far as keeping track of number of firings, I don't. Rifle brass goes to the range in MTM boxes, and comes home in ziplocks/MTMs. That brass is given a decent once-over for signs of ICHS or other bad shit. I generally only keep ~400-500pcs of rifle brass "in circulation" at a time, so I keep a "fired" and a "ready to load" bag for that rifle's brass under then bench. If there's only 100pcs in the "ready to load" bag but I need 250, I'll process whatevers in the "fired" bag and add it to the "ready to load" bag...thus, I lose track of firings, but I don't care. When I find a sign of ICHS, I pitch that piece. If I find a couple with ICHS, I'll paper-clip the whole batch. If I find a loose primer pocket when priming, I'll paper-clip that case, and if it's ok, I'll give the casehead a little squeeze to tighten it up.

Suppose you buy 10 tshirts, and put them in your closet. You wear 5 of them but then buy 10 more and just add them to the stack. You wear the top 5 off the stack and buy 10 more, again added to the top of the stack. Now complicate things by doing your laundry and cleaning your tshirts once a week. Obviously, the tshirts at the bottom of the stack are going to get less use than the ones on the top.

My point: Who cares? The tshirts all did their job - they kept your smelly, sweaty body off your expensive, clean dress shirts! When the tshirts get dirty, you wash them. When they get yellowed, you bleach them. When they get threadbare, you throw them away. Meanwhile, they served their purpose each time they were called upon.

 

[pgk]

Sure is a beautiful back drop at your range! I used to ski at the ski resort there 35 years ago.

Pete

Rifle brass and pistol brass are completely different animals, how you load, specific brass preparation and being anal is another thing.

All my range brass is separated and marked accordingly. My pistol brass is 95% range brass that I sort and bag up after each time I come home, its time consuming but pays in the long run for how I do things

All my personal rifle brass is match prepared and logged in batches of 100. I find if I do large batches its much harder to differentiate what is what and how many loadings each lot has.


I understand some people shoot in large quantity and might only have enough time to do 1000 in a weekend and then shoot a match and do another 1000. Brass surely adds up if you are not cleaning before the bags add up.


My process for rifle
-shoot in lots of 100
-label for, trim, reloads, gun
-clean
-match prep and prime
-reload in lots of 100
-shoot

Pistol process
-collect range brass
-clean,inspect, prime
-load
-shoot in lots of 500
-bag/label
-collect range brass

Eventually I'll clean about 1-2K over a weekend and then sort by headstamp.