How Much Is Too Much

[ShootingNut]

Picking range brass is a Disease no doubt, and it leads to having several
thousand rounds of loaded ammo on the self!
Why do some of us let it keep growing?
How many is just plain too many?
I'm sitting on about 9,000 rounds now, in 9mm, .40SW, and .45 ACP.
Why do I rotate my stock as I hit the range weekly, I really don't know as they don't rot like Tomatoes.
Keeps the cast lead vendor happy though.
Happy Holidays All
SN

[Misssissippi Dave]

Is the 9k a total amount or per caliber? If it is per caliber, probably 10k will be enough except for the caliber you shoot the most. You probably need to double that one.

[CrustyFN]

If I ever get to the point where I find out how many is too many I will let you know.

[joneb]

I have about 500-1000 rnds for the cartridges I load for. I worry about getting to far ahead as I may find a better load.
I am down to about 7,000 rnds of 22lr, It's time to stock up again. I need to check the 12 and 20 gauge supply as well.
I only have about 2,000 22mag left, I can't bring myself to pay $10/50ct

[Newton24b]

how you know you have to much reloaded ammunition on hand..

1. you have to transfer everything down to the basement because it was starting to make the floor joists crack and sag.

2. the atf comes to the door and asks to see your federal paperwork to be a commecercial ammunition company

3. the atf gets confused by the shipping logs to your house and comes to see why you havent registered as a commercial blasting company..

4. the zoning commision comes by and sues you for not having a facility that meets all dot,atf, and fire codes for storage of bulk explosive/propellants.


see the real ways to know if you have to much?

[Ronbert]

Reloadable found brass is like free nickels. Hard to resist picking them up - even if you don't really "need" them.

And even as scrap it actually has real value. Just don't let the local copper thieves know about your stash.

[serf 'rett]

It's not about round count.

Reloading is thereputic; it helps me deal with the stress caused by work and my two addictions - eating and reloading!

[Stressfire]

Well, I'm nowhere even close to 9k in brass.

But I do find myself picking up calibers that I don't even own guns for, much less dies

I figure if I get enough of a caliber that I don't want, I can give 'em away and make a new friend

[5R milspec]

There will never be to much range brass around my place.You can buy sale or trade with it.If its to bad then just scrape it,so win win win with it to me.

[Slamfire]

Gunpowder lifetime is the limiting factor for ammunition lifetime. Lifetime expectancy for single based powders is 45 years and 20 years for double. High heat and bad storage conditions can reduce this life time to months.

See, paragraph 7.3, how temperature reduces the lifetime of ammunition.

United Nations (UN) Manual

IATG 07.20 Surveillance and in-service proof

http://www.un.org/disarmament/convar...Proof(V.1).pdf

I think it makes sense to rotate your stock, shoot the oldest ammunition up first.

[solitude127]

Wow, I have about a thousand rounds and I feel pretty good.

[m&p45acp10+1]

When my wife gets mad at me stating that there is no room left in the hall closet for putting stuff it is time to work out a trade somewhere. I have had eight 5 Gal buckets full of sorted brass in my hall closet before. I have it down to 5 two gal. wash pails of what I shoot.

[sc928porsche]

M&P...............its time to make another closet.

[Sport45]

I have quite a large stash of brass. Not so much loaded ammo. I find myself playing with the load data too much and don't want to have thousands of rounds on hand when I decide something else will work better or I've sold the gun the load was developed for.

[solocam72]

I am the same on this one as sport45

[CrustyFN]

I have quite a large stash of brass. Not so much loaded ammo. I find myself playing with the load data too much and don't want to have thousands of rounds on hand when I decide something else will work better or I've sold the gun the load was developed for.

That sounds like me also. I think this Winter I'm going to load one full ammo can of each caliber I shoot.

[mikld]

Hi, my name is Mike and I'm a reloader...

[valleyforge.1777]

Slamfire said: "Gunpowder lifetime is the limiting factor for ammunition lifetime. Lifetime expectancy for single based powders is 45 years and 20 years for double. High heat and bad storage conditions can reduce this life time to months."

My reply:
You, sir, are the only one I ever see posting that. Either you are right and a few hundred thousand of us are totally wrong, or your information is not really applicable. There are differences in how ammo is made today compared to before the 1950's, and so the stories of old British 303 ammo deteriorating, etc are probably true, but one does not see the same stories about ammo from the 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, etc. By your estimation, double-based powder ammo from the early 1990's would be unsuitable for use today, and yet many of us, probably most of us, have fired rounds from the 1970's that were just fine. Many people have fired rounds from way before the 1970's without any problems. And, there are numerous stories of guys keeping ammo in un-air-conditioned garages in southern states for decades without problems.

So, like I said, maybe you are right, and the rest of us are totally wrong. Maybe. Maybe not.

[wncchester]

"How many is just plain too many?"

Anything over one box per weekend between loading sessions. Otherwise you're going to the range for a 'spray and pray' party without concentrating on accuracy. ??

I agree that high storage temps will reduce ammo to trash. Anything in the 300F and up range would damage it in a month or so. But ammo can take any temp you can take and do it for a few years without significant change. I still have some reloads I made in the mid-60s that have been stored in my open garage and it functions quite well (when I try it at all).

[Sport45]

Originally Posted by valleyforge.1777

Slamfire said: "Gunpowder lifetime is the limiting factor for ammunition lifetime. Lifetime expectancy for single based powders is 45 years and 20 years for double. High heat and bad storage conditions can reduce this life time to months."

My reply:
You, sir, are the only one I ever see posting that. Either you are right and a few hundred thousand of us are totally wrong, or your information is not really applicable.

I believe he's right, but I don't think the rest are totally wrong. Many of us store our ammunition in the same air conditioned and heated house that we live in. That should extend powder life quite a bit.

The military stores their ammunition and such in non-climate controlled bunkers with much larger swings in temperature and humidity. They also move the stuff around the world exposing it to even greater overall swings. I've bought surplus ammo that I couldn't even pull the bullets from without the necks cracking and I've bought a lot that shot fine.

Powder does degrade and what Slamfire says makes sense to me. It would be irresponsible to tell anyone that powder and loaded ammunition has an unlimited shelf life.

[mikld]

I've read of a keg of original Unique (circa 1900) being stored under water. Each year the keg is opened and loaded in some ammo (don't know what ammo) and test fired. Each testing session results in near original preformance. Of course this could be just a web hoax, but I personally have some Unique left from a bunch I bought in '86 and it still shoots fine...

[Brian Pfleuger]

Originally Posted by mikld

I've read of a keg of original Unique (circa 1900) being stored under water. Each year the keg is opened and loaded in some ammo (don't know what ammo) and test fired. Each testing session results in near original preformance. Of course this could be just a web hoax, but I personally have some Unique left from a bunch I bought in '86 and it still shoots fine...

I contacted Hodgdon directly regarding this rumor.

The story gets a bit exaggerated here and there but is essentially true.

They don't test it "every year" or even on a predetermined interval but, rather, just whenever they get curious. The powder is stored literally in water, wet. A sample is removed, dried and tested. They told me that it still works fine.

Actually, here is the story, straight from Hodgdon, numbered page 13 of the PDF, page 19 from the start. There's even a picture of the bottle.

The story says that they test it in a 12ga load and includes a disclaimer NOT to store "modern powder" in water.

[mikld]

Brian, thanks for clearing that up for me...