Stocking up

[brewer12345]

I am trying to exercise budget discipline given that it is the shopping/holiday season, but given the sales that are going on and the electoral trends in my state (all controlled by the enemy now) and nationally I am having a hard time resisting the urge to pad my supplies. I have as much powder and primers as I can safely store, try to keep my brass primed and ready to load (that which isn't actually loaded), and I recently acquired a muzzleloader to further hedge my bets. In the past week I toped up my small pistol primer supply (Midway had a great sale) and I just bought a couple thousand of my favorite 22 shorts at a really low price (nickel each, gotta feed the new short-only Browning rifle). I have enough lead to cast years' worth of what I shoot and molds for everything. Scratching my head as to what else I can do to make sure I am insulated from what I expect to be the inevitable idiocy we will see.

Anyone else doing similar? Or is everyone already swimming in ammo and components?

[shaper]

camping supplies

[BUCKEYE BANDIT]

100 views, 1 reply,=OPSEC

[lightman]

Years ago I went from keeping a years supply of components to two election cycles worth. Thats probably a little too much but I was able to keep shooting a few times over the years when others were begging to find components. Ammo, the only factory ammo that I buy is rimfire.

Its sorry to see such a beautiful state as Colorado becoming so liberal.

[MrWolf]

I am in the same boat. My stuff is still in boxes from my move last year as I have had a bunch of stuff to do to the place. Think I have enough 22's. Only about 2,000 lbs of lead but I will be making my own range to recycle. Hopefully I can figure out what I have fairly soon so I don't get caught without. Good luck.

[Dusty Bannister]

Bees wax, powder coat, bullet lube? Perhaps gas checks or a check maker and materials.

On the other hand, the more chatter, the more attention you will get.

[jdfoxinc]

Food. Good on components. Too good on hardware according to the wife. Just ordered power supplies for plating and powering an induction heater.

[bob208]

brass with out it the lead and primers are usless. I pick up all the brass I see at the ranges. also at auctions I buy up all the brass and powder.

I am casting bullets and storing them in coffee cans. also soing brass sizing swag primer pockets tumbling and trimming.

[RogerDat]

Balance matters. Look at the lead, primer, powder situation looking for are the amounts of each balanced against the amounts of others. Two ton of lead and 4k primers are not balanced. Mostly soft lead or all hard printers alloy (not great for low power revolver) wouldn't be a good balance. I can make any bullet I need out of 94/3/3 so I look at my lead stock in terms of how much of that can it make with some soft lead for black powder round balls.

If I load 23.5 grains of Varget for a caliber that yields just under 300 rounds per pound. So I need 3.5# of powder and 1k of primers and lead ingredients to make 10# of Lyman #2 or Hardball to balance each other to yield 1000 rounds of that caliber. Probably only 500 or so cases. At least for the first couple of reloads.

See what I mean balance. If I had an outbuilding that was secure I would consider a second supply of powder kept in an old refrigerator to insulate it from heat and cold changes. I would expect that if supplies were difficult to replace one would shoot less and your supplies on hand would last longer.

[Handloader109]

Plenty of powder, Not enough Primers. Got to get more. Have plenty of 9mm brass, 223, and 300bo, and some 233 can be converted as necessary. New 38/357 revolvers and rifle this year.
Got plenty of powder as the Bullseye, WSF, unique and a bit of SR4795 will suffice. Just bought another 2000+ 38sp brass, I'm tending to use it more that 357 as its much harder to come by.
Decent amount of lead, I CAN dig it out and recycle what doesn't hit the metal gongs. Should get a few hundred more pounds next year. Other than primers and maybe lead, I'm set for my lifetime I expect.
At least 10 more years of my current shooting, and possibly 15. At 75+ by then, It'll be enough.

[JBinMN]

100 views, 1 reply,=OPSEC

Yep.
;)

[Wis Tom]

How do you find out how many primers, you can store? I am in Wis. Thanks

[Catshooter]

Tom,

Storage requirements are often set by the fire department, or the local government uses them for guidance.

However, I've never seen any regulations on primers, just powder (usually 50 lbs).


Cat

[JBinMN]

How do you find out how many primers, you can store? I am in Wis. Thanks

Short answer is likely, 10,000 primers of any type for small arms.(rifle, handgun,shotgun,etc.)

This link may or may not help you.
https://codes.iccsafe.org/content/IFC2015/chapter-56-explosives-and-fireworks

The info you are seeking can likely be found at the link above & you can try to find something more recent than 2015-16, if you are concerned. Or you can look for other sources if you like. I am just offering this one for you to look at right now.

If you go to that page you will find that there is a Section 5606, Small Arms Ammunition & Small Arms Ammunition Components.
In that Section you can find more info.
A part of that Section is 5606.4.3.
It reads:
Not more than 10,000 primers may be stored in occupancies limited to Group R-3.

There are other mentions of small arms primers in that Section. You will have to do the research yourself as to what all is contained in there. As well as what you do with such information.

You will also have to be the one to decide what personal responsibility you have, for accommodating a greater amount of small arms components than what is recommended there, based on your local & state laws, if you chose to do otherwise.

I Do Not Recommend you speak to the local Fire Marshal, or any other gooberment authorities, as well as your insurance company(ies), about this subject, on your own. This is one of those things where it would be best to ask someone who is not related to you & is not in handloading, and is, "asking for a friend", and who will not tell them your name to gather more info locally.
Not due to anything illegal, but to cover what was mentioned earlier in the topic & that is, "OpSec." (Operational Security).
I mention this so you can make the choice of whether or not you want others to know what is/should be, Your Private information & how many others will know that info as well. { Who do you want knowing your business & what you have in your possession?}

Up to you, but that is "My" suggestion. Do as you like.
;)

BTW, you can also check in to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) that has a publication (Regulation #495) for primer storage that has become law in many jurisdictions.
"NFPA#495 states that no more than 10,000 primers should be stored in a private residence. Keeping more primers on hand is often a violation of state or local fire laws."

That is the best I can do for you right now, after spending just a short time looking up that info. If ya want to know more, you may want to do a bit of research on your own.

Note: I take NO Responsibility for what others do, as a result of my offering the information I am offering here. Any information used by any reader is the responsibility of the reader, and used or shared at their OWN RISK. (^ My "disclaimer" for providing the info in this post.^)

G'Luck! & Be Safe!

[bob208]

I agree what is your business is your business not any one else's. one thing I learned the closer to the bottom of the government machine the more important they will try to make themselves seem.

[blackthorn]

Is that ten thousand per building??? If so and you have ten well separated out-buildings------??

[Springfield]

10,000 is just 2 sleeves of pistol primers. I know people who will shoot that much in a couple of months.

[JBinMN]

10,000 is just 2 sleeves of pistol primers. I know people who will shoot that much in a couple of months.

My "sleeves" hold 1000 primers each,( 10 packs of 10) but perhaps our use of the term, "sleeves" is not the same. Most "cases" hold 5,000. ( Except maybe, Fiochi brand)
;)

Regardless, there was a reason I mentioned back a couple posts why "your business", is not necessarily "others" business. Unless you allow or make it so. ( < "your" meaning "anyones", of course)

Posting up "your" business, {I.E. - what you have stored up for supplies, etc.}, on an basically non private international venue like the Internet, is pretty much sharing your business with the world.

That is all I am saying... No matter to me, if others wish to do what they like... so be it, do it.
I am perhaps a bit more "privacy oriented" ( OpSec) than others on a lot of things & some are even more private than I am... It all depends on the subject, of course. ;)

Your path in life, you get to choose how to travel it... Unless you let others influence/affect it or you in some way.

To get back to the OP directly...

I never have enough, it seems, of anything I would like to have more of in my possession for the future.
;)

So, I am constantly juggling a limited income these days, to try to cover all the possible needs I may have for the future. Sometimes I am effective & sometimes I am not. I keep working on it though & try to keep most of it "close to my chest" , if ya know what I mean.
;)

G'Luck on finding out what suits you the best!
:)

[dverna]

I do not worry too much about OP-SEC. I maintain about 150k primers and about 150 lbs of powder in stock in my heated reloading shop that is detached from the house. No issues with home insurance with detached building. Over 20k .22’s. 35k cast bullets ready to go, and 3000 lbs of alloy. Thousands of jacketed bullets, rifle case, and pistol cases. 20k wads, 15k shotgun hulls, 100 bags of shot, and 2-10k rounds of shotgun shells depending on the time of year. I have some loaded pistol and rifle ammunition too...

Might be a bit more than I need but I will not run out of anything for a little while.

[RogerDat]

Well on one hand if 70# of powder catches fire I'm pretty sure the resulting fire will leave little evidence to determine how much powder was really there. Primers are a bit more likely to survive to be counted if anyone was real inclined to dig through the ashes trying to collect all the non-magnetic primers by hand. Sorry to say this Don but your shotgun primers are magnetic. You're making it too easy for them.

Reason I mentioned an outbuilding was to encourage people to either split the stash into smaller amounts to comply with regulations or sacrifice the shed with it not getting covered after a fire due to reloading component quantities stored in that shed so that the house would remain covered by insurance because the bulk of reloading components are not in the house.

I would guess given what I know of insurance companies trying every way possible to weasel out of a claim that NOT talking about your inventory is smarter than talking about it. Might never matter but if it does matter the downside could be pretty significant.

[dverna]

You are right Roger. One reason I keep them out of the house. But with the quantities of primers I maintain, having the maximum of 10k primers in every location would be a pain. I thought about building a shed for them and may still do that. Losing a $300 shed is better than the $60k in the pole building.

I wonder how far I need to put the shed away from any other structure?

[ShooterAZ]

I'm already stocked up from the 2016 election when I thought for sure HRC was going to get elected. It'll get me through to 2020 and well beyond.

[dragon813gt]

Reason I mentioned an outbuilding was to encourage people to either split the stash into smaller amounts to comply with regulations or sacrifice the shed with it not getting covered after a fire due to reloading component quantities stored in that shed so that the house would remain covered by insurance because the bulk of reloading components are not in the house.

Mine is split across the structures on my property as well as a few family members so I stay in compliance. My father looked at me odd when I told him what I was storing at his house. Told him about the fire code, he’s been a fire fighter since 16yo, and he kind of laughed. Told me he was worried about household solvents and propane tanks more than anything else. That’s when I pointed out the solvents he had w/in 2’ of a natural draft gas furnace. He promptly moved them to the garage.

[FISH4BUGS]

I do not worry too much about OP-SEC. I maintain about 150k primers and about 150 lbs of powder in stock in my heated reloading shop that is detached from the house. No issues with home insurance with detached building. Over 20k .22’s. 35k cast bullets ready to go, and 3000 lbs of alloy. Thousands of jacketed bullets, rifle case, and pistol cases. 20k wads, 15k shotgun hulls, 100 bags of shot, and 2-10k rounds of shotgun shells depending on the time of year. I have some loaded pistol and rifle ammunition too...
Might be a bit more than I need but I will not run out of anything for a little while.
Why so little? :)

[Wis Tom]

Thanks for the advice. I moved some of the primers out to the workshop, so I have under 10,000 in the house. I didn't bother to "ask", as from what I read, it is 10,000, but only in the house.