How much brass is enough?

[tjen]

I shoot the 358win, 35rem, and 221rem which are seasonal run brass. I keep 300 or so on hand and reorder every year or so. Lapua just strated making 221rem brass, I picked up 200 of them so I have 400 new brass total. Hornady is making 358win brass as well so they are not as hard to find these days. With popular brass like the 270win 200 may be a good buy and keep a min of 100 new brass on hand.


Its going a year or two with out any new brass thats rough or worse a total stop of production on your favorite rifle brass due to scaling down.

 

[efw]

Dang I thought that Guy had crazy bullets; between the two of you you could get through at least a few more Obama reelections!

I've got buckets of 223 from when I used to take my boys to local gun
Clubs & dumpster dive; never imagined I'd need it all (since I had no desire for an AR!)

Got one bucket of 7.62x51 that came in handy when I finally built a 7-08; stuff is a hoot to prep!

Got several buckets of 30-06 and 270 so set on both straight & gay for a long, long time !

Can't have too much, I know that!

 

[DrMike]

Dang I thought that Guy had crazy bullets; between the two of you you could get through at least a few more Obama reelections!

Don't even joke about that. Another election like that and people make HAVE to have many bullets just to stay alive.

 

[nvbroncrider]

I have no idea what I got for brass but I got extra brass in bags for everything but 3. I know it's in the 1000's but it's not enough bullets. To take inventory would be a month long project and cut into my shooting time. I got 1000+ 7mm don't know on .308 but enough for my brother considering he hasn't gone through 150 since the gun was new and I got him 1000+ 6mm 1000+. 338 kinda lacking since I've sold a bunch that wouldn't shoot. 9.3 about 500. 224 is over 2500. 6.5 500+. But I'm lacking in all of them. Except for maybe 224. Only 200 for .357 which is very lacking and I need to find 35 Rem brass. Now if SPS just had what I need!!

 

[Oldtrader3]

Dang I thought that Guy had crazy bullets; between the two of you you could get through at least a few more Obama reelections!


Can't have too much, I know that!

Don't even talk about another Obama election!! That s--t has me with my teeth on edge about his bumbling incompetence with Iran!! Give away our freedom Bosco the clown!

 

[greenheadcaller]

My answer to how much powder, how many bullets, how much brass, etc etc etc is ...

If you're not sure you have enough, you don't have enough :grin:

In all seriousness.....in calibers I hope to shoot for a lifetime, I have a lot of brass, in some instances, an estimated lifetimes worth lol. Brass obviously isn't volatile, stores, well....and is decent currency at swap meets or whatever if you have a lot of one and need something else.

Other supplies I keep enough around to get me through three years of shooting minimum....and dip in the stash when things get crazy $ or unavailable .... replenish when things when things get back to normal....whatever normal is lol. Three years just about wasn't enough on this last go around.

 

[HomerOz]

G'Day Fella's,

I have some firearms/calibers that get a lot of use in my business.
These include the .223 Rem and .308 Win among others!
Here is an image of some of the empty .308 Win cases I have.


Mind you, I presently have a similar amount of already loaded .308 Win ammo as well!

You can never have enough!!!

Doh!
Homer

 

[ksubuck]

Geez, I have some work to do in the acquisition process to catch up to some of you. I'll show wifey the pictures to prove I need more.

 

[boomer68]

I need to buy more 300WM brass. Only have 100 Nosler [emoji6]
Probably 2000 9mm though.

 

[greenheadcaller]

Or, you could come at it mathematically.

a = average number of rounds you hope to shoot a year in that caliber (lets say 3000)
b = number of years you hope to shoot it (lets say 20 - god willing)
c = a * b
d = number of loads you expect to get from your brass before toast/lost/unrecovered (lets say 10)
e = c / d
f = e / .9 to allow for some margin of error
round f up to the nearest thousand because we like brass

In my example. ((a * b)/d)/.9 = 6,666 .... round up to 7000 pieces of brass for the 223

((3000 * 20)/10) / .9 = 6,666 < 7000

In this example, 7000 pieces of brass is a good start to allow for 223 shooting pleasure for a while.

Adjust math to your estimated reality/situation/caliber/whathaveyou .....and as long as you always round up to the nearest thousand at the end, you will have at least 1000 of everything you plan to shoot.

Tell her the numbers never lie, its just math 8)

 

[DrMike]

Can't argue with math! That settles the matter. :mrgreen:

 

[nvbroncrider]

I could see the next hundred but thousand geez. What would a guy do with 1000 .577 T-Rex cases. I doubt you would shoot 10,000 rounds out of that in your lifetime.

 

[DrMike]

I could see the next hundred but thousand geez. What would a guy do with 1000 .577 T-Rex cases. I doubt you would shoot 10,000 rounds out of that in your lifetime.

I dunno', Jake; how many T-Rex do you anticipate needing to shoot? :?

 

[nvbroncrider]

I could see the next hundred but thousand geez. What would a guy do with 1000 .577 T-Rex cases. I doubt you would shoot 10,000 rounds out of that in your lifetime.

I dunno', Jake; how many T-Rex do you anticipate needing to shoot? :?

None but like you said can't argue with the math!!

 

[ksubuck]

So, if I get the formula right, I should also start stockpiling barrels as well.

Adding to the equation, if 7000 pieces of brass fired 10 times each, 70,000 rounds down range.

Average accurate barrel life 10,000 rounds. Need 6 barrels in addition to the current one. Round up to next 1000.

Now I need 1000 barrels too. Hehehe

 

[nvbroncrider]

No you got that all wrong. If your getting 10,000 rounds out of a barrel that's unheard of and you better send that unobtainum to me quick that way it doesn't get in the wrong hands.

If you get 3000 rounds out of a barrel that's excellent. Depending on powders used volumes and velocity. I know there's a barrel chart floating around here somewhere.

 

[ksubuck]

Was figuring for the average AR barrel with less than stellar accuracy expectations... and figured I had myself covered with a few extra barrels with the rounding factor. With most of my rifles I figure 1000 to 1500 rounds is excellent barrel life. But there is no way my weakly repaired labrum will take 70,000 rounds out of those in my remaining 20 years of life, God willing...