Keeping primed cases on hand

[Huskerguy]

I have most every caliber at one stage or another from my days of the single stage and Lee hand primer. I have litterally thousands of 9's, 38's, 357, and a few hundred 45's ready to go at all different stages. I use the good ole plastic coffee cans and put half of an index card in each can to list what primers I used and when and as they went through each step I would add it on the list. I know I can tell by looking but when a guys gets thousands if not hundreds of thousands of cases stored it is nice to know.

 

[Sunray]

Shoe/boot boxes, coffee cans, plastic bags. Makes reloading quicker.

 

[CoalTrain49]

I load for 3 cartridges and keep about 200 primed for each ready to load. All of my brass is in one of three stages, clean and decapped, primed and flared or loaded. As all I have is a SS press I tend to work several hundred pieces one stage at a time.

 

[Dudedog]

Yes, in tupperware. I hand prime so I like to have some ready to go.


rondog...
OCD you need help.
Send me all that stuff to take care of until you get better.

 

[bhhacker]

Rondog if I put up pictures of my reloading bench and the disarray its in will you come fly up to Alaska and pimp my reloading bench? I feel like you might have a coronary if you saw it. In fact, i think ill put a pic up tomorrow of it just to show you the exact opposite of what you have going on over there!

 

[rondog]

If OCD is the same as anal, then I'm guilty. And I'm not putting up any shots of my bench! It disgusts even me. My reloading/gun shop area needs a makeover. Badly.

 

[gamestalker]

Oh ya, I have a bunch of already prepped and primed brass for almost all the cartridges I load. It does make for a much quicker task when I need some loads ready. Matter of fact, I just did up a bunch of 38 spcl tonight, and considering I load on a single stage, it went relatively quick.

GS

 

[Reefinmike]

Yup! I used to reload the cases as soon as possible, but i find it a lot easier to work in lots of atleast 500. preferably 1,000. Keeping consistent lead alloys and large batches keep "ammo management" much easier. nothing worse than shooting up a thousand rounds from 10 different loading sessions.

I like to size/prime cases as I shoot them, and once I have a significant pile, I load up a large batch on my lee turret, simply switching between powder/flare die and the seating/crimp die. As a result, I can load very fast while keeping my eyes and mind sharp on the goal. One powder charge, one bullet! I just repeat "powder, bullet, powder bullet, powder bu...." in my mind as I load

Maybe I just have a short attention span, but I find it much less tedious to prime beforehand.

 

[gamestalker]

The only thing I won't do is buy primed brass from vendors at gun shows, bottle necks or straight walled. I see quite a few vendors doing this, and when I ask them what they're primed with, they almost always reply with "I dunna know". And especially bottle necks, why anyone would try to sell once fired primed bottle neck cases. I don't know about anyone else, but I insist on prepping my own bottle neck brass before ever priming them. For all I know they may not even fit my chambers, and I have no idea what primer they were primed with.

GS

 

[FROGO207]

A few years ago when primers were easy to find and less expensive I would process the brass and prime in batches, store in Zip-Loc freezer bags in 5 GAL buckets. Then the madness hit and primer supplies dried up. Now I process the brass and store without primers for long term and then prime just what I plan to reload shortly before a reloading session. I agree with cfullgraf in post #16. The reason I changed is I needed some 357 ammo and had to deprime about 300 22 Hornet brass to get the primers so I could reload them.

 

[45lcshooter]

Yes i keep primed brass around. GI cans, plastic bag, containers grape tomatoes come in, etc. I have brass in all different stages of the reloading process laid out all over the bench. The only process i will start to finish is powder and seating bullet, other than that i get done what i can get done. If i want an easy night i will deprime and resize different calibers for a while, then maybe trim, or reprime. I have enough loaded right now, that i don't need to be at the bench for nights on end.

 

[Walkalong]

I just loaded 50 primed .357 Mag cases last night. They came out of a container marked 10-13. I finally got the 2400 to load them with. I plan to shoot some today.

Sometimes it is handy to have cases sized, primed, and ready to go. I have been so busy lately I would have loaded them if I had needed to start with dirty fired cases.

I also loaded 25 .32 Mag last night. I started with clean cases, although they were not sized or primed. Still sped things way up.

And I still have a long list of stuff to do today to get ready to feed 30+ people tomorrow.

 

[PhilMc]

Just this morning I took 50 of my 38spcl primed cases and loaded them up in the LNL AP in short order. Love not messing with primers in the press. Took them to the range and shot them in my Blackhawk.