How much brass would you store?

[brant]

Scenerio#1
You have a favorite handgun that you shoot regularly. Not competition amounts but a lot. You have found out that all manufacturers will stop making brass and you need to stock up now. What is the least amount of brass that you would feel comfortable with.

Scenario #2
The same question but this time a hunting rifle that doesn’t get shot as much, but is used every season.

I KNOW THAT BUYING ALL THAT YOU CAN IS THE BEST ANSWER. BUT THAT IS NOT THE QUESTION.
Thank y’all

[Randominator]

#1 - Revolver 750-1000
#1 - Semi-Auto 1500-2000

#2 - Rifle 300-500

[longoval]

#1 (assuming low pressure, straight-wall) 2,000 minimum. Would feel way better with 5,000.
#2 (assuming high pressure, bottleneck) 200 would be plenty.

I'd expect at least 20 loads per case in #1 and 3 loads per case in #2.

[nicholst55]

Determine your minimum number, and then double it.

[sharps4590]

How old are you? I don't need near as many at 71 as I did at 41.

[axman]

500 handgun.
200 rifle.
But being the hoarder I am I'd like to be able to double all.

[jeffh]

How old YOU are,
How hard your loads are on brass,
How hard your guns are on brass,
How well your chosen cartridges' cases hold up over time...

I shoot nothing but cast, except in the 223 and only shoot the 223 when I have a coyote within range.

By far, most of my cast loads are pretty mild, the cartridges I have chosen are pretty easy on brass anyway, I don't shoot any autos any more, so no mangled or lost brass. I don't shoot nearly as much as I used to and don't have to plan for another 30 or 40 years of shooting. Ten might be realistic, the way things are going.

If I were to give a quantitative answer, it would be based on irrelevant criteria, or I'd be guessing.

[Encore64]

I keep two rounds of extra brass. That my story and I'm sticking to it...

[brant]

I’ll be 51 next week.
I don’t shoot max loads in anything. I’m about to start loading 475 Linebaugh, and they will probably be just big heavy and slow.

[AxeHandle]

I measure my 32, 38, 44, 45 Colt and 45 ACP by the 5 gallon bucket. Need at least a couple of each. The rest maybe not quite that much. Bottlenecks? I load mostly 30-30 based Wildcats. More 5 gallon buckets.

Unobtanium? Ran up on a bunch of 500JRH, 500WE, 50 Alaskan, and like stuff while digging out 500L last week. I'll be posting it all up for sale here soon!

[bigbore5]

32H&R= 2200
38sp= 3500
357mag= 5000
41mag (I don't even have one right now)= 1500
44sp= 1500
44mag=@1800
45acp= 8000
45C= 3000
454= @1200
480= 500
475L= 2000
500L= 3000

And that's just what I have now and most are already loaded.

As to rifles= a whole bunch of 223 and 300Blk. A couple thousand or so each of 30-30,45-70,35Rem, 300Win,338-06. A few hundred each of 458Win,375H&H,416Rigby, and 475NE.

[jeffh]

You've got a lot of shooting years left.

As an example, I shoot other stuff, but mostly 357 Mag, in both revolvers and carbines. I've fixed or moved several 357s in the past, which required special sizing consideration for either brass or cast bullets. Now, anything I fire in one chamber will fit in the others. Same goes for sizing bullets - all the same size. My brass does not get stressed by over-sized chambers.

I rarely load the 357 Mag above 38 Special target-level to just over sub-sonic. All cast, from 125 grains to 200 grains.

I am currently working with a batch of 500 cases - shoot them, throw them in a can and eventually clean, resize, flare when the can fills up. Then, I start over with that same lot of 500 cases. I have no idea how many times each case has been fired and I can't remember exactly when I bought that 500, but it's probably ten years at least.

I have... Let's just say I have at least another 500 new cases in reserve. I figure if I'm lucky, I may be able to shoot for ten more years. The way the current 500 cases are holding up, the other 500 may well end up in my estate sale. But, maybe not. I don't feel I'll ever need to buy 357 brass again and have no anxiety about running out of it.

Now, if I had a total of 2k 357 cases, even if I knew I'd never use them all up, they're always worth something in trade or cash. And 2k of a common pistol brass isn't tying up oodles of cash.

1k works for ME. 2k would not cause me any consternation taking up that little space.

[gnappi]

For automatics whatever fits in a 5 gallon bucket is sufficient insulation from lack of availability.

As far as revolvers go, one or two 2 gallon gallon buckets is sufficient.

I think many on this forum recently went through this with .480 brass and the potential of long term unavailability and decided to hedge their bets and stocked up more than they might on historically common calibers.

[500fksjr]

Aug 1, 2024 17:15:51 GMT -5 Encore64 said:

I keep two rounds of extra brass. That my story and I'm sticking to it...

I read this and just took a swig of coffee! Well I have cleaned up the coffee... Perfect answer!!

[Encore64]

Aug 2, 2024 16:26:43 GMT -5 500fksjr said:

Aug 1, 2024 17:15:51 GMT -5 Encore64 said:

I keep two rounds of extra brass. That my story and I'm sticking to it...

I read this and just took a swig of coffee! Well I have cleaned up the coffee... Perfect answer!!

I learned years ago that the less people know about you, the better.

I left a forum over posting about a really good deal on 10k primers.

The forum owner tried to intimidate me into trading the primers for work so he could distribute them "properly."

I "properly" departed the forum and kept the primers.

But, I'm usually well stocked!!!