Do you count your bullets after casting and sorting?

[Namerifrats]

My process has been to cast, then go through and sort good vs remelts. Then I would arrange the bullets by type in rows of 10 to know many I made that session. Usually anywhere from 450-1,100 bullets each time I cast. I usually cast 4-6 different types of bullets during a session. Has gotten kind of tedious and time consuming counting after sorting, etc. Thinking of trying to do it by weight now to save time and get a close approx number. Honestly, not even sure why I do it, lol. Does anybody else bother? I just like to keep my plastic jugs full of ready to load bullets. So after I count them they just end up in trays waiting to be sized/lubed and finally into those containers with hundreds more that I don't really know how many are in there. Waste of time? Lol

[44Blam]

I count them after casting. If it is air drop, after I let them cool; water drop, after they dry off.
I count *roughly* by 10s so it is just an estimate.

[MT Gianni]

I count pours and assume 10% culls. I cast enough to load what I plan for or 500 to store.

[Tripplebeards]

No, I usually start out with 10 or 20 lbs of alloy so I do the math after casting.

[WHITETAIL]

I try to cast as needed.
If I plan on loading a cal.
I count my empty brass and then
make that many plus another 50 or
so for culling.
That way I can make it through the
winter, with out going stur crazy!!!!

[Walks]

I cast from 2-4 different molds at a time. Quench and spread out to dry. Next day I cull, sort & count. Store in boxes of 500.

I load my pistol ammo into boxes of 50 or 100rds. I load in batches of 300-500. So I wanna know if I have enough bullets to load a given batch.

[Peregrine]

God no, weigh them!

If you weigh the sorted bullets you cast that session on a postal scale, and you know how much a bullet from that batch weighs (I tend to weigh 5 or so from each batch and write down the results and the calculated SD and ED) then you can very accurately determine how many bullets you have in that batch.

I'm sure as heck not counting out hundreds or thousands of bullets after a session or weekend of casting, but do like to know how many I produced to figure out my reject rate (weighing the bullets I sorted as well of course) and other assorted things.

You have a scale anyways to calculate the correct proportions of different alloys to produce the desired one for those particular boolits, right?

[Dieselhorses]

I'm somewhat OCD so I count all mine. I like to powder coat so I do this not too long after I cast it's easier to size. After sizing I label the jar/box "qty., cal., weight, type and sized.

[BrutalAB]

I count by 50s.

Take the plastic/styrofoam bin that comes in a box of factory and every time you fill up every hole in the bin its 50, put in ziplock baggies every two trays and it's really simple and fast to know how many you got put away.

[Bigslug]

Depends. . .

Tumble lube - rough guess based on approximate weight and what was in the pot.

Lube-sized - gets staged after lube in the compartments of plastic 50rd. Federal/Speer .45 ACP ammo box liners, so the math is real easy from there.

[Texas by God]

I don't count them. I cast with 3 different moulds at once, throw the cooled culls into the pot for next time. I size them and lube them and load them till I run out of brass or boolits.

[Taterhead]

Heck no. Which is weird, since my nature is to be OCD about all things reloading.

I cast until the pile of fresh boolits tells me, "it's about enough for now." Then they get PC'd, sized then into a plastic storage container.

Only when I drain the storage container down to the last 100 or so do I count to know how many primers to load into the APS strips.

[JBinMN]

Not usually. I learned early on what a pile of approx. 100-150 , a pile of approx. 300-500, and piles that are approx. larger than 500+ look like for each caliber I cast, so I do not see the need to count them each casting session. I am not looking for exact amounts of shootable boolits when I cast. I just want to reach an approximate number of what type I am casting, so I estimate "high" knowing there will be "culls" in with the good ones.

So, for pistol boolits, I usually only count them when preparing to load them, with pan lubed, or to tumble lube them, before loading. I cull them as I go, the ones getting pan lubed are culled before going into the pans, then again right before loading( pan lubed ones) in case I missed one that was a "cull", or, I cull as I am counting the boolits to tumble lube before loading. The culls go into the "re-cast" container, and the rest get loaded.

Rifle boolits are not counted either, until time to load, but so far, they are all pan lubed & culling is also done during each step, like the pistol boolits that are pan lubed.

[Rcmaveric]

I use weight. I have containers that hold 20lbs of bullets.

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[dkonrai]

I don't count them. I cast with 3 different moulds at once, throw the cooled culls into the pot for next time. I size them and lube them and load them till I run out of brass or boolits.

Same here. If I see the Cb are getting low. I fire up the kettle and pour 100 or so pounds. I will cast for many calibers at a time. Then powder coat them.


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[kevin c]

They get counted when I load them, usually by the hundred, as that is one primer tube's worth.

I do get a rough estimate from the amount of alloy used up in a session (# of ingots of a given weight range, and known # of casts per pound), and a better estimate when I weigh the casts to HiTek them. The coated and baked casts get stored in buckets of about a thousand, based on weight.

[Petrol & Powder]

I don't count them while casting. The bullets get cast, rejects are culled and tossed back in the pot. When done the bullets are stored as-cast.

For my standard loads I don't even count them when sizing or loading. The completed rounds just go into ammo cans. I gave up on 50 round ammo boxes years ago, it serves no purpose.

Now when loading some of my non-standard loads, I'll count the brass I intend to load and size/lube just enough bullets to load those casings. I prefer to store the un-loaded bullets in their as cast un-lubed state.

[OS OK]

Heck naw...don't be counting them thangs...they are like jelly beans. Just keep an eye on the jars and keep them reasonably full and they will always be there when you want them.
Also, this way...you don't have to cast first each time to load a specific round...it's like a candy store, walk up to the jars and get your candy for the day.
Simple huh?

[daloper]

I don't count them. I have a bunch of the clear mixed nuts containers. I cast and after they cool I PC and put in the container. When it is full I figure that I have enough for now and move on to the next casting needed.

[lightman]

No, I don't count but it would be pretty easy if I did. I use mostly cigar boxes for storage and stack them neatly inside. Simple math to count the rows and multiply by the number in a row. I save the backer boards off of note pads for using to separate the layers. I'll eventually have to find something else since paper note pads are about a thing of the past.

I also don't sort or cull as a separate operation. What I do is cull the obvious rejects when casting, again when sizing and again when loading. I actually have a really low number of rejects that make it to the sizer and even fewer that get loaded. The lube makes for good flux when remelting! I guess that overall I have a pretty good casting technique because once the mold is up to temp and throws good bullets I seldom get a bad one.