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Posted: 9/14/2009 5:35:20 AM EDT
[#1]
I keep a good supply sized, cleaned, and trimmed but not primed. If I get enough spare time I'd like to get all my brass to this stage, but it's a never ending cycle 'cause there's always dirty brass coming into the mix. Since the brass prep is the slowest part of the process (for me at least) it would be great to have that completed as soon as I get new brass, but I'm rarely that motivated
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I don't see a downside, even primed, as long as the brass is kept clean and dry. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 5:38:35 AM EDT
[#2]
I use to only keep a handful of brass prepped without primers in them back in the days. Now all of my brass are prepped without primers in them. I keep most of them in 5 gallon buckets in Ziploc bags.
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Posted: 9/14/2009 8:49:51 AM EDT
[#3]
I prep all my brass before storing. It is labeled "RTL"––Ready To Load.
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Posted: 9/14/2009 8:51:03 AM EDT
[#4]
The only downside I find is the incredable urge to load'm all !
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Posted: 9/14/2009 8:55:21 AM EDT
[#5]
I have two types of storage:
1) tumbled but unprocessed 2) processed (sized, trimmed, primer pocket decrimped) , ready for primer, powder, bullet I'll process brass off and on while shooting up my last batch of reloads, about 7K rounds, then when I'm about to run out of ammo, I'll have 7K of processed brass |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 9:12:13 AM EDT
[#6]
I sort my .223 / 5.56 brass into two types, 'LC' brass and 'Win' brass. All other head stamps are collected as trading material or scrap. I prep all my brass before I store them so that I can inspect the cases for damage and I cycle my brass in lots of 1,600 ea (pretzel keg), however, I store my prep'd brass kegs two different ways.
1st - My 'in cycle' brass keg (brass I've reloaded) is tumbled, lubed, decapped, resized, trimmed (automatically with my Dillon trimmer), and then tumbled clean. Its stored as "LC Prep'd-X Reloads" or "Win Prep'd-X Reloads" and I only have one keg of each as 'in-cycle' at a time. 2nd - My 'reserve' brass kegs are truly 'once fired' as I tumble, lube, decap, resize, trim, and tumble clean. Then I inspect for a primer crimp. If it's still there, it goes into my jugs as reserve brass. If it doesn't have a crimp, I'll reload it a single time as blasting brass and leave it at the range. Its stored as "LC Crimp'd" or "Win Crimp'd" so I know that its processed as my reserve brass that still has the crimp in it. When I'm ready to retire my 'in-cycle' brass keg with one of my 'reserve' brass kegs, I simply swage the reserve brass and it becomes my 'in-cycle' keg. The old brass is scrapped. I keep my reserve brass with the crimp in it to ensure me that it's truly once fired. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 9:20:55 AM EDT
[#7]
I try to keep as much prepped as I can. Take advantage of my slow times so that when I decide to develop loads, all I have to do is put in a primer, powder and bullet. Never get all the way ahead of the game, but it is nice to have a supply of prepped and ready to go brass.
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Posted: 9/14/2009 9:27:21 AM EDT
[#8]
I keep it ready to load.
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Posted: 9/14/2009 9:29:49 AM EDT
[#9]
I'm in the middle of prepping 16k pieces of once fired brass for use and storing.
Resized, cleaned, trimmed |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 10:06:17 AM EDT
[#10]
All my .223 is prepped and ready to load.
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Posted: 9/14/2009 10:07:52 AM EDT
[#11]
Quoted:
I keep it ready to load. Sir, FWIW the only brass that I store is part of a loaded cartriges, ie: loaded ammo. All the rest of my brass is in some stage of the reloading process. Which particular reloading stage any particular group of brass may be depends mostly on what my most immediate shooting needs are. If I have enough loaded ammo for the next year of high power competitions I may be presently working on processing all my .30-06 brass for reloading for practice with my Garands or 1903s. When all that brass turns into loaded cartridges I start into another group of brass, perhaps .308 for the M1As or R700s. It just depends on how much of a given cartridge I actually have on hand to support a planned upcoming shooting outing. I try to keep all my brass sorted but with multiple cartridges sorted by head stamps and the number of times a given case has been reloaded it becomes a linguistic nightmare to try and describe how I keep them all sorted. I have all manner of coffee cans, dry wall paste buckets etc. that I use for the purpose and I have them all labled accordingly the reloading stage that any particular group may be is moot at any given time. HTH, 7zero1. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 12:29:10 PM EDT
[#12]
Sir: I only prep the cases I need, as I am constantly looking for new combinations of components that better my tried and true ammo combinations for each of my rifles.
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Posted: 9/14/2009 12:41:52 PM EDT
[#13]
All my 223/5.56 brass is stored prepped, ready to load, its cleaned, then sized and trimmed, stored unprimed and ready to load.
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Posted: 9/14/2009 1:20:01 PM EDT
[#14]
The only down side is all brass will discolor somewhat if left in storage long enough. Provided you haven't primed the cases, a short run in the tumbler will bring them back to life. I use large zip lock freezer bags, ammo cans or any other air tight container I can get my hands on. Small spiders will nest in brass if it's not contained. A spider nest will reduce your case capacity and potentially cause pressure problems. They are almost impossible to detect short of looking inside each case with a flashlight.
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Posted: 9/14/2009 1:28:20 PM EDT
[#15]
I probably have 3k in .223/5.56 brass primed and ready to load. Loading from primed brass is pure heaven.
Pistol brass, I just clean and back with no further prep. |
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Posted: 9/14/2009 1:49:37 PM EDT
[#16]
When I process .223 I make runs of 10K. I do not prime the brass this is done when it gets loaded.
Once fired brass gets tumbled for 1 Hr. then stored. It then comes out of storage to be sorted and tumbled once more for about 3Hrs. Then it is fully processed and stored once more till it gets loaded. The reason for making runs of 10K is that this is when its time for the press to be taken down for a good cleaning. 8k of processed Lake City .223 brass 
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Posted: 9/14/2009 6:08:16 PM EDT
[#17]
I store all of my brass tumbled clean and sorted.
Some of my 223 brass is prepped, about 2k. Rest is stored. All of my match 223 brass is either loaded or it's prepped. 9mm brass stored in a 5 gal bucket. Have several 50 cal cans of sorted 45 brass. 1 can has primed RTL cases. Almost all (95%) of my 7.62 x 39 brass is loaded.
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Posted: 9/14/2009 6:41:31 PM EDT
[#18]
Keep all prepped brass in un-used paint cans. Air tight and clean. Good for primers as well. See your local dealer. Works for loaded as well.
458 |
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Posted: 9/15/2009 7:03:00 AM EDT
[#19]
Quoted:
Quoted:
I keep it ready to load. Sir, FWIW the only brass that I store is part of a loaded cartriges, ie: loaded ammo. All the rest of my brass is in some stage of the reloading process. Which particular reloading stage any particular group of brass may be depends mostly on what my most immediate shooting needs are. If I have enough loaded ammo for the next year of high power competitions I may be presently working on processing all my .30-06 brass for reloading for practice with my Garands or 1903s. When all that brass turns into loaded cartridges I start into another group of brass, perhaps .308 for the M1As or R700s. It just depends on how much of a given cartridge I actually have on hand to support a planned upcoming shooting outing. I try to keep all my brass sorted but with multiple cartridges sorted by head stamps and the number of times a given case has been reloaded it becomes a linguistic nightmare to try and describe how I keep them all sorted. I have all manner of coffee cans, dry wall paste buckets etc. that I use for the purpose and I have them all labled accordingly the reloading stage that any particular group may be is moot at any given time. HTH, 7zero1. All of my brass is in zip loc bags. The bags are labled with cal, x fired, firearm fired from, times trimmed/annealed, headstamp and quantity. Inside every bag is a sheet with a list of the loading steps I printed out. Every time a step is completed, it's crossed off of the list. I can go to any bag and I know right away that: it's 364 pieces of WCC NATO brass from 1970, it's been fired 2 times from a M1A, it's been deprimmed, cleaned, sized, trimmed and needs to be deburred. I keep the bags in stacks according to the firearm it belongs to. |
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Posted: 9/15/2009 9:38:33 AM EDT
[#20]
Wow, I didn't think most everyone would keep it that way, but it has it's advantages.
Priming the brass before storage would speed things up quite a bit, as long as I intend to use those primed cases in the near future... |
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Posted: 9/15/2009 9:47:35 AM EDT
[#21]
Quoted:
Priming the brass before storage would speed things up quite a bit, as long as I intend to use those primed cases in the near future... Why? There's no downside to storing primers in brass rather than in a box. People have this hysterical fear that primers are very delicate. Or there's some shelf life on them if they leave the safety of their original packaging. It's just not true. There was a guy on one of the boards who thought he couldn't handle primers with his bare hands for fear that they would become contaminated from the oils in his finger tips. 
In fact, primers are somewhat hard to kill according to some of the goofball attempts I've read about here. |
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Posted: 9/15/2009 2:00:28 PM EDT
[#22]
Quoted: When I process .223 I make runs of 10K. I do not prime the brass this is done when it gets loaded. Once fired brass gets tumbled for 1 Hr. then stored. It then comes out of storage to be sorted and tumbled once more for about 3Hrs. Then it is fully processed and stored once more till it gets loaded. The reason for making runs of 10K is that this is when its time for the press to be taken down for a good cleaning. 8k of processed Lake City .223 brass http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/7194/forsale077.jpg Wow, I wish I had 10k of brass to prep! I'm excited that I'm just over 1k now! LOL |
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Posted: 9/15/2009 3:13:38 PM EDT
[#23]
Quoted:
Quoted:
When I process .223 I make runs of 10K. I do not prime the brass this is done when it gets loaded. Once fired brass gets tumbled for 1 Hr. then stored. It then comes out of storage to be sorted and tumbled once more for about 3Hrs. Then it is fully processed and stored once more till it gets loaded. The reason for making runs of 10K is that this is when its time for the press to be taken down for a good cleaning. 8k of processed Lake City .223 brass http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/7194/forsale077.jpg Wow, I wish I had 10k of brass to prep! I'm excited that I'm just over 1k now! LOL This should get you rolling on the floor then 
One of the bins of brass that has been tumbled for 1Hr. It still needs to have the WCC sorted out of the LC. 
A fresh load of Winchester that just came in this alone is over 30K The 2 pails to the left are all RP
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Posted: 9/15/2009 4:31:36 PM EDT
[#24]
ReefRaider,
Can I come over and fondle your brass? 
Wait, that didn't sound right .
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Posted: 9/15/2009 5:12:58 PM EDT
[#25]
Quoted:
ReefRaider, Can I come over and fondle your brass?
Wait, that didn't sound right .Maybe but will you still love it in the morning 
Believe me when I say this "You can get tired of looking at brass" 
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Posted: 9/16/2009 5:40:25 AM EDT
[#26]
Yuck! I had to prep about 250 pieces of LC and I'm sick of looking at it. I hate once fired brass that requires trimming, but my buddy shot a bunch of XM193 up and I wasn't leaving the brass out at the range.
I'm guessing you have a Giraud trimmer. 
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Posted: 9/16/2009 8:48:43 AM EDT
[#27]
I always prep my brass directly after coming home from the range unless something else prohibits me from doing so. Deprime, resize, trim and clean. Don't prime it until I'm ready to load them though.
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Posted: 9/16/2009 9:08:50 AM EDT
[#28]
I prep my brass as soon as I can after a shooting session. All dirty brass goes into one holding bin. When I have some time I do an initial wash/dry, universal decapper, then sort by caliber and headstamp. I then work through each caliber until it is fully prepped, without primer, labeled and stored.
Prepping includes: - initial wash/dry to get range grit off - decapping with universal die - if "new" rifle brass, then size and trim for X-Die, swage primer pocket if military - sort by caliber and headstamp, label containers - polish in tumbler with corn cob media and squirt of car wax - make sure primer holes ar clear and store in labeled containers When I go to reload I would just run the clean, shiny cases through the sizer which primes at the bottom at the stroke and continue through the other dies. I decap with the universal die as a separate step because many of my die sets are RCBS which do not hold up very well to crimped primers or the overlooked Berdan case. A Lee universal decapper die whips through everything, fast and no breaks or bends. |
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Posted: 9/16/2009 2:34:18 PM EDT
[#29]
Quoted:
Yuck! I had to prep about 250 pieces of LC and I'm sick of looking at it. I hate once fired brass that requires trimming, but my buddy shot a bunch of XM193 up and I wasn't leaving the brass out at the range. I'm guessing you have a Giraud trimmer. Super 1050 with 1 tool head set up to process .223 brass only. There are a lot of people out there who only buy Lake City brass. As for me I like the Winchester just as much thus the 30K of it in the pics.
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Posted: 9/17/2009 5:35:56 AM EDT
[#30]
Quoted:
Super 1050 with 1 tool head set up to process .223 brass only. Ahhh... cool. |
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