I have been doing shotshells for a while and finally got them all loaded up. 3000 odd rounds of 12 gauge is a heck of a pile of shells and takes a while on a single stage.

I am now out of 38/44, 38 super, 38 super comp, 38 special, 357 magnum, 357 sig and 9mm. I am low on 357Max, 10mm, 44/40 and 45 Colt.

I still have tons of 380, 45acp and 40S&W. The rest of the rounds are reasonable.

I decided to start with the 38 super and it has been so long since I loaded them I had to go back and retumble the brass to get it shiny for loading. I must have about 35,000 pieces of brass to load up now, but I can't get started until the brass is shiny again.

I find it interesting which rounds I tap down and which ones I have plenty of. Some of that depends on how much brass I started with. For example in 10mm, I started with 5000 loaded rounds, so getting down to 750 odd left loaded leaves a lot to get done.

I am thinking I will order 2000 pieces of 38 special+p for my 38/44 loads just to keep them separate from my 38 specials. I will also load up the extra 2000 pieces of 357Maximum to get them into rotation.

The fun of doing the hobby again!

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SWCA 1646

Wait till you see what reloading components cost now . Yikes !

Glad to have you back among the living!

I would think tumbling all of that brass is counterproductive and a use of time that could be spent on actual reloading. Besides, tumbling destroys the aroma of RCBS I case lube.

How on earth did you allow yourself to get down to 35,000 pieces of brass?
Ed

Somebody bragging about how much brass they got.

No, bragging would be the 19,709 rounds I have fired this year so far or the 22,821 rounds I fired last year. Just kidding by the way.

I shoot at a public range where a good 95% of the folks just let their brass fly. It is an outdoor range where by monday afternoon you can scoop up the brass with a snow shovel it is so thick. The RO's sweep constantly to keep it to a reasonable level of trip hazard. The rules are not to pick up "range brass" but I find it hard to not end up with more than I came with. I try to keep it discrete but I pretty much hoover up anything in my zone that I can use. Do that twice a month for roughly a year or two and you will end up with a lot more brass than you started with.

I store the brass in buckets now. Folger's can's are too small and don't hold enough but since I have a bunch of them I still use them until I get them full.

I have been accumulating primers, powder and resources. A shooting buddy and I laid in around 100,000 primers in the fall and I have been routinely ordering bullets and powder. I am still short 9mm lead and jacketed bullets though.

Next trip to the range I will get some shots of the brass piles and post them for your entertainment. It is amazing what you find when you paw through it. The one that kills me is the rifle brass. There are times it is a pile 2 or 3" deep and thicker in spots.

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SWCA 1646

At my gun club you'd be lucky to find a 100 empty 9mm at any given time. Almost never any revolver brass or rifle brass. Last time I saw large amounts was 5yrs ago. It isn't open to the public and most load their own. Most of anything I have is 10,000 9mm. At one time they tell me there were 55 gallon drums of it just sitting there.