How much brass do you need and how do you organize it?

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As others have said, I also pick up all of the brass around me when I am done shooting (Obviously after performing the customary courtesy check to make sure other shooters do not want their brass). I don't reload .40 or .223 but always pick it up because it is in demand and I trade it for other calibers that I do reload.
 
Brass

Coffee cans work for me.I put them in empty kitty litter buckets which stack nicely. IMO,I can't have too much brass in the calibers my son and I shoot especially handgun calibers.:evil:
 
Plastic bins.

Do not get them to large or they get awfully heavy to try and move around easily (or even start to crack when stacked).
 
I sort brass as soon as I get home, by caliber, into Akro bins. Then it's bagged up until I need it. Since I have brass that might be already cleaned, maybe deprimed or have other operations completed, I figured I needed a way to keep track of where I was in the stages of processing. So I started making up paper tags to put inside each container of brass indicating what had been accomplished. Essentially this is what's on the tags and I just either enter data or circle the steps accomplished:



CLEANED
LUBED
DEPRIMED
SWAGED
SIZED
EXPANDED
CLEANED
PRIMED________
CHARGED _____ GR _____
LOADED ____________
CLEANED

QTY _________
CAL __________
LOT # _____________

I enter data for primer type, powder charge and type, and bullet info. This goes into the gallon baggies or whatever the brass is stored in, and may go in the ammo can the brass is stored in later. This keeps me from resizing brass that's already been sized and reminds me what primer or powder I used or the bullet used, all of which is useful information to have.

I simply generated these tags using Excel and print out sheets of 6 tags per page.
 
I built this machine to sort brass. It will sort a 5 gallon bucket in 15 minutes.

sorter.jpg

Sell the brass you don't use or buy another gun.

It is also a lot better to have brass that you don't need than to need brass that you don't have.
Need more info on your sorter please.
Would you sell a set of plans?
 
I pick up everything I can. Sort it, what I can't use I pass on to fellow reloaders.

Brass not being immediately used goes into clear plastic bins. Brass going to be reloaded goes into plastic ammo boxes by headstamp and is labeled.
 
The main thing those straining pans won't do, is keep .380s out of my 9mms. I might get them anyway.

They make a .380 plate that fits inside of the .40 or .45 sorting pans. Works well, but adds another sorting step. I find that if you sort smaller batches of 9mm/.380 it works better.
 
I'm pretty anal about my brass. Winchester, Remington, Federal and PMC are all seperated. Misc headstamped brass in another bucket.
The big coffee containers are fantastic for storing brass, BTW.
How much brass? I have more brass than I could use in my lifetime. The only brass I pick up anymore is 45acp and 40S&W. I loose a lot shooting competition. 9mm and 38spl aren't going to run out, ever.
 
"I'm shooting 3 semi-auto calibers only. 9mm MAK, 9x19 and .45ACP"

I thought 9x19 and 9mm were the same....? Is a 9mm MAK different than a 9mm Lugar? I don't mean to redirect the thread but it occurred to me when the OP said he was shooting 3 calibers..

Thanks,
Dave
 
"I'm shooting 3 semi-auto calibers only. 9mm MAK, 9x19 and .45ACP"

I thought 9x19 and 9mm were the same....? Is a 9mm MAK different than a 9mm Lugar? I don't mean to redirect the thread but it occurred to me when the OP said he was shooting 3 calibers..

Thanks,
Dave

9mm Makarov is 9x18.
 
OP Here!

Guys, couple things.

1. I don't drink plastic container coffee :) Coffee geek here, buying from local roster fresh espresso beans...

2. I don't shoot rifle and I shoot competitions and I don't have time. So, sorting by timestamp is not an option. I will have either "dirty" or "clean" brass. Thats it.


I get some brass fom range after matches and need to take care of it. I don't think I want 5gal buckets of brass, I just need enough to load 1-2k at time.


9mm MAKAROV is different from 9mm Luger. It's 1mm shorter, otherwise almost identical. Royal PITA to separate. And I really need MAK brass..
 
I sort out what I reload versus what I use for barter. I then throw them all in. Since I only reload the 9mm's and .44Mag in Pistol calibers, I don't have the issue with the cases getting stuck (unless a .40 gets in there by mistake).
 
I need tens of thousands empty cases. I need all calibers. I can't help it. I only reload for 5 calibers but I pick up everything. I hand sort everything then I tumble everything. I have clear containers about the volume of coffee cans lined up by caliber on the top shelf, many calibers then I have ammo boxes crammed full of the calibers I reload for. I can't help it. I open the box and it looks like treasure.
I scored 3600 Winchester (WSP) Small Pistol Primers today for $100. I keep doing that too, along with all the other gun goodies. Sue me. :uhoh:
 
9mm MAKAROV is different from 9mm Luger. It's 1mm shorter, otherwise almost identical. Royal PITA to separate. And I really need MAK brass..

so how can you tell the case is a MAK without measuring, is it on the headstamp?
 
OP, you asked how much brass do we need and how to organize/store.
The first answer is how much do YOU need? Keep in mind that brass is the single most expensive component in reloading.
For some of us -- that is an awfully large number -- to the tune of whatever we can get a hold of and keep somewhere. Space constraints are probably one answer to that. I am by nature a brass whore/hoarder. I actually do believe that in some calibers I probably have more brass than I'll ever shoot. In some, the cushion is not as thick.
At this point, I am only picking up range pistol brass occasionally instead of on every outing. Now, rifle gets picked up every time and whatever else is around that is fair play.

Question 2 -- how to organize -- what makes sense to you?
You mention not drinking the regular coffee swill, but do others around you do so? Work, neighbor, friends? If so, then they can be the source of free storage containers. At my office, the ladies know that I am keeping the big coffee "cans" and the empties keep appearing at my desk for me to take home.

As you read above, many use some type of scheme that makes sense - keep like calibers in containers, zip lock bags, akro bins, etc. I also use a method as the one described earlier to mark what process that batch is on. There were some sample labels that were posted here some time ago. I modified mine to fit my needs and I print them out on plain paper in MS Word. Cut to size and then tape on the container. My markings use checkboxes and are mostly:
Caliber
Clean
Lube
Size/Deprimed
Belled
Primed

there are also some for rifle that have a mark for pockets swaged (military crimped brass)

My process is bring home a bunch of brass, if mostly pistol - toss into the sorter bins from Midway, toss into cans/bins by caliber, then clean in caliber batches. Once clean AL pistol brass goes into appropriate containers (do check/sort 45 ACP for primer size). 38 spcl gets sorted by headstamp, as does rifle. For rifle I use zip lock bags for each headstamp and then stuff those either in a big coffee can or ammo can.

Hope this helps...
EM
 
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