How do you store components as cartridges or in bulk?

[Blacksmith]

One of the other threads got me wondering how do you store your components? Do you make them up into ammunition or store them as brass, powder, primers, and projectiles or ingots. What are your reasons for doing what you do? I can see advantages to both ways.

[Ed Barrett]

All of the above.

[Trey45]

I usually do what I call "a run".. This is where I cast a few hundred of a certain bullet, lube-size shortly after(usually within a week) then load and store the cartridges. I like having empty brass on hand and components on hand just in case I may want to try a new load. I learned my lesson a while ago about loading every single empty piece of brass I had on hand. I bought a new mold that I really wanted to try and had no empty brass to try it in! The upside of course was that I had to go shooting :)

[runfiverun]

I keep the majority of my brass loaded.

I try to keep a running inventory of how much brass I have, and a life expectancy for it, this allows me to gather that many components.

[roberto mervicini]

Both.

71137

[opos]

I keep some loaded on hand but keep most components in bulk. Reason being if I get pressed and have to sell something off or if something should happen to me and someone has to liquidate my stuff...my experience is that "home grown" ammo is not very salable while components are...lots of folks don't trust reloaded ammo...I won't shoot anything I don't load and won't load for anyone else and wouldn't expect them to buy reloads from me. Just my thoughts

[MKastning]

I keep some loaded on hand but keep most components in bulk. Reason being if I get pressed and have to sell something off or if something should happen to me and someone has to liquidate my stuff...my experience is that "home grown" ammo is not very salable while components are...lots of folks don't trust reloaded ammo...I won't shoot anything I don't load and won't load for anyone else and wouldn't expect them to buy reloads from me. Just my thoughts

Same here, for exactly the same reasons.

[mold maker]

Both.

71137

Robert Thank you for posting a reloading room pix that looks active. Most are so steril they belong in a storefront.
I especially like the master key standing against the bench leg.:-D

[Recluse]

I keep around 1,000 rounds of loaded ammo for each of my handgun calibers and for the long guns, it varies from keeping several hundred rounds of loaded ammo for the 30-30 and 7.62x39mm guns to fifty to seventy "match loads" for the hunting rifles to several thousand rounds of surplus .223.

I keep far more than that on hand in components because:

• I enjoy reloading as much, if not more, than shooting. I especially enjoy developing new loads, testing new boolits and designs, etc. Gotta have components on hand in order to do that.

• Components are great trade/barter material.

:coffee:

[longusmc]

Primers are stored in ammo cans with desicant packs, powder is stored on the shelf in the reloading room.

[PS Paul]

That's a pretty cool little "reloading shop" ya got there, Mr. Mold Maker! I have a garage where I do all my casting, but my kitchen table becomes my reloading bench cuz my garage can be cold and there is no television.

[FISH4BUGS]

Well....I keep a minimum of 3000 9mm (just finished a marathon loading session - 1k each of cast, plated and 147gr subsonic), 2000 45, 1000 38, 1000 380, 1000 357 and 1000 44 handgun rounds, and 1000 each of 308 and 223 loaded at all times. Plus I have enough components to load at least 5000 of each....more if I use cast.
Lead is stored in 5 gallon buckets with lids either in ingot form or ww's. Powder and primers are kept in a cool dry closet in the house. Cast bullets (sized and lubed or just cast) and jacketed/plated are kept in ammo cans.
I started stockpiling lead ten years ago in my girlfriend's house that she rented. We finally bought the house.....I joke (sort of) that I bought the house with her so I wouldn't have to move the 2000 lbs of lead.
That's the fun of shooting machine guns. You buy and load in very large quantities and keep tons of components on hand.
What shortage?

[btroj]

Well, I see it this way. Once the ammo is loaded the components are no longer components, they are ammo.

I like to keep some handgun ammo loaded. Rifle, it depends on what I am shooting. Nothing is worse than wanting to try a load and finding all your brass is already loaded.

I prefer to have lots of powder, primers, and lead on hand. I can make ammo when I need it, the components aren't always available when I need them.

[bobthenailer]

All of the above

[Smitty's Retired]

Loading rooms / work shops are like storage closets. You never seem to have enough room? LOL What kind of stock you got there on the left side of the photo? Looks to be unfinished.

[roberto mervicini]

Loading rooms / work shops are like storage closets. You never seem to have enough room? LOL What kind of stock you got there on the left side of the photo? Looks to be unfinished.

Sharp eye.... yes it was unfinished at the time. For my Arisaka 7.7 project, the barreled action is sitting right next to it. found in one local ad, the seller want 120, the original stock was already cannibalized, so I finish stripping it down, recup 60 $ for the unwanted metal parts on e-bay and made it a clean sporter and not a bad shooter ! Reform brass using 06 casing.

712337123471235

[429421Cowboy]

My pistol loads have been pretty well set as one load for 99% of the shooting/work they see, so I generally try and keep as much loaded as I can on hand, but have far more components than I do brass. I also trade back and forth between my brothers and close friends that also reload, so I like to keep things on hand in their original containers for the safety of everyone. Storing large amounts of loaded ammo doesn't make as much sense to me, and I enjoy reloading as much as I do shooting, so it's not like I'm in a big hurry to fill up all my empty brass and quit loading for awhile.
When it comes to rifle, I keep at least a box of my standard hunting loads with each rifle, which is more than enough to get me through the season, then I load all of the other brass as I get time, to have on hand for practice shooting.

[Smitty's Retired]

Sharp eye.... yes it was unfinished at the time. For my Arisaka 7.7 project, the barreled action is sitting right next to it. found in one local ad, the seller want 120, the original stock was already cannibalized, so I finish stripping it down, recup 60 $ for the unwanted metal parts on e-bay and made it a clean sporter and not a bad shooter ! Reform brass using 06 casing.

712337123471235

Very nice job. Love the older mil-surps. It surprizes some how accurate you can get the 7.7 and 6.5 Arisaka's to shoot. I've got a 6.5 Type 38 that dispels the old belief that the Jap rifles weren't that accurate. A friend of mine that reloads and casts as well, has had some pretty accurate cast loads.

Again, very nice job on the rifle and great looking loading room.

[H.Callahan]

Well, I see it this way. Once the ammo is loaded the components are no longer components, they are ammo.

I like to keep some handgun ammo loaded. Rifle, it depends on what I am shooting. Nothing is worse than wanting to try a load and finding all your brass is already loaded.

I prefer to have lots of powder, primers, and lead on hand. I can make ammo when I need it, the components aren't always available when I need them.

Yup! Me too.

[SciFiJim]

I keep about 1K of each of the pistol calibers loaded and stored. The rest is mostly in components. If I know something is coming up that will need a lot of ammo (like the holidays with the family burning up MY ammo) I will start loading for it a couple of months ahead.

[Bzcraig]

Both.

71137

I want his play room!

[Boerrancher]

I don't like to keep more than what I typically shoot in a year for any given firearm assembled and here is the reason. I have found that leaving ammo loaded for long periods wil result in cracked necks on the cases. Because brass work hardens, a case neck under tension from holding the bullet will get hard and brittle. They will eventually crack oft times before they are ever fired. I keep components sealed in ammo cans and only keep a small amount loaded. I can crank out a bunch of ammo in short order when all the components are already prepped and ready to load.

Best wishes

Joe

[M-Tecs]

Joe

I believe if you start neck annealing you will find that you will have no issues with neck cracking on loaded ammo. The work hardening is a result of the expansion from firing and resizing. Most brass alloys don’t age harden. Chemicals like ammonia will propagate neck cracking. When I first start shooting NRA Highpower I used Brasso as a case polish. Brasso contains ammonia. That was the only time I have had neck splits that was not from overworking without annealing.

As a Team Captain I have issued over ¾’s of a million rounds most of which had headstamps that were 10 to 45 years old. None cracked before or after firing.

Interesting read here http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?158091-Brass-Hardening-with-Age.

I use to get neck cracks on brass that was sized many times. They would crack after firing or as you noted after the bullet was seated. Since I started annealing neck cracking is a thing of the past.

[snuffy]

One of the other threads got me wondering how do you store your components? Do you make them up into ammunition or store them as brass, powder, primers, and projectiles or ingots. What are your reasons for doing what you do? I can see advantages to both ways.

As for components, they're stored in the original containers on whatever shelf space I have in the house. Temp is pretty stable that way, never much above or below 70 degrees. There's a reason that powder containers now days is dense BLACK plastic. Or in the IMR series, metal cans. To keep sunlight off the powder. Clear plastic or glass where the sun can get at it will deteriorate it fast!

Primers require NO special consideration. They're sealed by a drop of lacquer when made. The boxes are open to the air, offering little barrier to the atmosphere. None is needed.

As for what I keep loaded, well lets just say it's a bunch. It too is stored on shelving, although I have quite a bit of it in 50 cal. ammo cans for the SHTF scenario.

[gifford]

I have both factory ammo and reloads for my pistols and revolvers, I tend to confine the shooting to the reloads. A good friend casts all winter and I get most all of my lead boolits from him. That's also when I reload the most. Since I reload with an old RCBS Jr (circa 68) press, I also try to keep the reloading to a minimum during summer and fall, gots other things to do. Kinda a long way of saying that 'all of the above' is my answer.