Sequence and frequency of using your Brass?

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DynoDan1 said:
Yeah, I read something like that in Fire Arms news. Author basically said reload 'em until they can't be reloaded.
I haven't kept records of how many reloads I've made for my handguns, I used to shoot the wazoo out of them until I got my rifles.
I am still reloading 9mm/.38 special from about 3 years ago when I started this hobby and I shoot A LOT!!!
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Shooting them a lot is shooting your 38 SPL brass so much the headstamp is peened off enough that you dont know who actually made them anymore. Some have been reloaded with WC loads several times a year since I started in about 1975 when I got my first 357. About 15 years of that time in a bullseye league where I shot for practice/score at least 3 times a week. Typically shot 400 rounds each session. Still have a good portion of the 2 gallon bucket I started with today. Light loads of Red Dot/Promo and minimal taper crimp worked wonders.
 
Yep, that'd be me. All that in just under 3 years!
I've shot so much and often my hand would cramp, blisters formed!
And then I'd switch hands! I can shoot purty durn good either way!
I gotsta shoot man!!!
Good thing I live off of ice cube sandwiches and live in my van down by the river under a bridge!!!;)
 
gifbohane said:
Better question yet. If you had 50,000 how would you proceed? Saying that you shot 5 thousand a year.
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If I only had 50,000 9mm cases but only shot 5,000 a year, I might not even pick them up. A decades worth of brass gives one a long time to add to the collection.
 
I pick up any brass I find left at the range and put it in 5 gallon paint buckets.
At the current price of $1.80 a pound I'm trying to gather up enough to buy me another gun.
A few more buckets and I should be there.
I saw a guy at the range one day digging in the dirt behind the target stands' gathering up lead and copper!!
He said he uses the lead for his guns and sells the copper to a recycling center.
Seemed like a fair amount of work, separating the lead from the copper I thought, but he said he makes decent money doing it.
 
I shoot the same batch of brass until it isn't fit any more, than move to another batch. I do sort by head stamps and keep the most common ones for the largest batches. A common size batch for me to reload is 1500-2000 at a time.
I just keep the rest for reserve for when I need them.
Pretty much like the rest of us do.
 
The very idea of having a 5 gallon bucket full of brass is foreign to me since I have to buy my brass.

Pre-panic, I paid $29/500 for once fired, unprocessed 45ACP at the range. Now, my range no longer sells brass and I pay at least $60-$75 after shipping WHEN some online outfit actually has any. (Everglades is fairly reliable.)

And, part of my cost is losing about 10% of the cases each range trip—every case landing in front of firing line is lost as is a case landing in another lane if the lane is in use. Looks like a little gold ingot out there, not brass.

Replacement cost is a real thing to me well before any wear and tear enters into the equation—I’ll lose a case before it wears out.

I wonder how you all that get brass for free (well, minus the manual labor) would change your habits/process if you had to buy it like me and others?

Never mind, just ranting.
 
CQB45ACP said:
The very idea of having a 5 gallon bucket full of brass is foreign to me since I have to buy my brass.

Pre-panic, I paid $29/500 for once fired, unprocessed 45ACP at the range. Now, my range no longer sells brass and I pay at least $60-$75 after shipping WHEN some online outfit actually has any. (Everglades is fairly reliable.)

And, part of my cost is losing about 10% of the cases each range trip—every case landing in front of firing line is lost as is a case landing in another lane if the lane is in use. Looks like a little gold ingot out there, not brass.

Replacement cost is a real thing to me well before any wear and tear enters into the equation—I’ll lose a case before it wears out.

I wonder how you all that get brass for free (well, minus the manual labor) would change your habits/process if you had to buy it like me and others?

Never mind, just ranting.
Click to expand...
I'd move.
 
CQB45ACP said:
The very idea of having a 5 gallon bucket full of brass is foreign to me since I have to buy my brass.

Pre-panic, I paid $29/500 for once fired, unprocessed 45ACP at the range. Now, my range no longer sells brass and I pay at least $60-$75 after shipping WHEN some online outfit actually has any. (Everglades is fairly reliable.)

And, part of my cost is losing about 10% of the cases each range trip—every case landing in front of firing line is lost as is a case landing in another lane if the lane is in use. Looks like a little gold ingot out there, not brass.

Replacement cost is a real thing to me well before any wear and tear enters into the equation—I’ll lose a case before it wears out.

I wonder how you all that get brass for free (well, minus the manual labor) would change your habits/process if you had to buy it like me and others?

Never mind, just ranting.
Click to expand...
Ouch! And to think of how much I fret over not being able to find 1 lost piece of brass. :uhoh:
 
CQB45ACP said:
The very idea of having a 5 gallon bucket full of brass is foreign to me since I have to buy my brass.

Pre-panic, I paid $29/500 for once fired, unprocessed 45ACP at the range. Now, my range no longer sells brass and I pay at least $60-$75 after shipping WHEN some online outfit actually has any. (Everglades is fairly reliable.)

And, part of my cost is losing about 10% of the cases each range trip—every case landing in front of firing line is lost as is a case landing in another lane if the lane is in use. Looks like a little gold ingot out there, not brass.

Replacement cost is a real thing to me well before any wear and tear enters into the equation—I’ll lose a case before it wears out.

I wonder how you all that get brass for free (well, minus the manual labor) would change your habits/process if you had to buy it like me and others?

Never mind, just ranting.
Click to expand...
Not trying to rub it in at all but several decades of being a crow and collecting any and all brass that crosses my path have yeilded literally buckets of it for free. First about three stacked up full of 223/5.56 20210906_114730.jpg 20210906_115041.jpg Then almost three of 9MM. flowed by more than two of 30-06. 20210906_115055.jpg
 
I load handgun in 50 round boxes and rifle (.30-30) in 20 round boxes and track firings for each box.
I may have to change that grouping since I am starting to load 7.62x39 and 5.56x45 for family.
 
20210906_123121[1].jpg 20210906_123208[1].jpg 20210906_123317[1].jpg 20210906_123912[1].jpg This is what I have in the house.
Most of it is .308. Then there's a bunch of .38/.357/22lr and 12ga (red lunch bag)
At any given time I have about 700-1000 rounds ready to go.
I keep my buckets of brass at my storage unit. Next time I am there I'll post pics.
My buddy has his garage loaded up as well as his crawl space with ammo, brass, lead and reloading gear.
Waaay more than I got but he doesn't shoot as often as I do. I'm just a piker compared to him and some of you guys.
 
FROGO207 said:
Not trying to rub it in at all but several decades of being a crow and collecting any and all brass that crosses my path have yeilded literally buckets of it for free. First about three stacked up full of 223/5.56View attachment 1023641 View attachment 1023651 Then almost three of 9MM. flowed by more than two of 30-06. View attachment 1023653
Click to expand...

Ya know, with all that brass you could turn it in for cash and get yourself the gun you've always dreamed of. (unless of course you already have that gun)
That's why I'm scrounging up all the brass I find at the range.
 
DynoDan1 said:
Ya know, with all that brass you could turn it in for cash and get yourself the gun you've always dreamed of. (unless of course you already have that gun)
That's why I'm scrounging up all the brass I find at the range.
Click to expand...
I have a story for you.:D
At this point in my life i figure that if I took each firearm to the range one at a time without repeating I could do it for at least a year and a half. For a lot of my working life I was a member of the gun of the month club. Sometimes it would even the gun of the week if I scored major overtime. Add to that reloading since 1964 and that all could fund my retirement if need be. I have about 35 calibers that I reload for and supplies to keep shooting for the next 5 years before I need to slow down any.
Keep an end plan of what and where you want your life to end up. Work to that end and roll with the punches/adapt to what life deals out. It can be a wonderful life!
 
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