Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters How many do you load?

When load development is finished, how many do you load and put away?

Just enough for the season? A box of twenty, forty, 50?

Just curious as to what you keep on hand for hunting and what you just go and load for as season approaches.

Good question. The short answer for me is only as much as I will shoot up within a year or so.
Here is my completely unscientific reasoning. Several years ago I commented to a guide who does a lot of competition shooting that when I was preparing for our hunt I shot a few rounds to check my zero and was disappointed in the accuracy. Thinking there was something wrong with my rifle or optic I checked all of the usual things like action screws and cleaned the barrel then switched scopes none of which solved the problem. At this point I needed to load some more ammo and voila, accuracy restored.
My friend said he had seen the same thing with his competition rifles and theorized that the culprit was possibly bullets welding in the case neck and messing up the neck tension. I have never tried to prove that but now only load up smaller quantities.
Be interested if anyone has experienced similar or has proved/disproved this.

Usually load up about 30ish, enough to verify zero, enough in case I switch scopes, and when the hunt actually begins I like to have 7 or 8 with me. I have never had any cold welding take place in any cartridge, possibly because I never clean or tumble brass, carboned necks won't weld in my experience.

About 40 once loads are developed. I shoot a ton of hogs and whitetail does. Makes for good bullet performance testing as well.

I just worked up a load that I'm quite happy with. I loaded an extra 40 and put them in a marked case for my hunt.

Generally a full box, but it really depends on what cartridge it is for and how much I shoot said rifle. I may load up 300, but it all depends.. They don't make boxes that hold 40, so that is stupid..

Usually 50 for most cartridges, a bunch of 223’s and 308’s

For the first thirty-five years or so of reloading i would always load a hundred round box of the preferred load for a rifle that was intended for fairly steady hunting, even though it would sometimes take me years to use them up. Then, after having an 8 lb jug of one powder go bad and my 14-15 lb stash of old 4831 go bad as well (w/i a couple of months of each other), I stopped that practice. I only had one large batch of loads with one of the affected powder, but that was enough. I now load a box (20) or so at a time. It's no problem...anyway, I get to try more new powders/bullets and combinations that way.

Thought better of it, after the fact.

Typically 50 cartridges, more for varmint rifles. I normally pack 40 cartridges in two plastic 20rd cases for a hunting trip.

Some big rifles only might get 20-30 rounds loaded at a time. Most get 30-50 rounds. A few rifles that shoot factory ammo will often have half a dozen boxes on standby.

That box that you have pictured holds 40 rds.-----JUST TAKE OUT 10 rds.!!!

Hip

Once a load is established - 50 at a time. When I get down to 10 or so I load up the balance to 50.

For load development, could take 10 or 50+ depending on my requirements and the particular rifle. If it’s taking 50+ then the rifle better sure be worth it.

My .02

50 for big game, in the hundreds for ground squirrels/coyotes. Also depends how much powder is left in the can. No point in not finishing up an almost empty can of powder. Same goes with bullets. Why leave 8 or 10 bullets sit on the shelf. For pistols I'll load up until all the bullets are gone.

Once I get a load developed for a particular rifle, I'll usually load one or two hundred rounds, plus what's left in the open box I've been working on. I like to shoot my rifles.

At least 50, so I can get some shooting in with that recipe before the season. Of course current things being what they are, that can change.

Usually fifty which is why I have not developed a load in many years.

A weekend match may require 200

For hunting, usually 50 rounds. For competition, usually several hundred. Most of my loading for competition is 9mm on a Dillon 750 XL.

I'll typically have 200 rounds loaded and ready to go for most of my bolt guns.

Used to buy a pound of powder, a box of bullets, and 100 primers(!). Loaded up whatever was left after picking the best combination of those components and used them until there were too few for he next season. Most were used to check the sighting and maybe a few practice pokes.

Now, with a number of rifles available, I figure I can get by with enough for any of them for a day’s hunt, and grab something else if need be. Still, I generally load about 40.

Another reason I don't load big lots of hunting bullets.....I have a tendency to buy/sell rifles more than I should. I'd rather develop loads for each and not rely on the new rifle shooting the same load equally as well.

I go overboard is loading up range and hunting ammo once a load is developed..... usually 200 to 400 rounds.

100 for every rifle that isn't a pdog rifle, pdog rifles get 200 or 300.

I typically have 200-300 cases in rotation for any particular rifle and that many more new cases set aside for a rainy day. I keep my brass separated into 50 count boxes. When I have less than 2 boxes of loaded ammo left i immediately load whatever the rest of the rotation set is for that rifle be it 2, 3, or 4 50-count boxes. Then I set the thing aside and may not load for it again for a couple years .. depends on how much practice a particular rifle demands. I'm not load-on-demand, I am load-on-opportunity.

Tom

I don’t know why but I don’t like to have too many hunting loads on hand.

.223 I load 100 at a time and I don’t mind stockpiling them.

The least I'll load is 10, for local big game hunting (which is mostly what I do anymore). Will load 50 if going on a trip.

Have only loaded 20 even for trips to Alaska or Africa, depending on how much that rifle will be used. It also depends whether I bring more than one rifle, and the length of the hunt. Brought 100 7x57s to Africa on a month-long "cull" safari, along with 50 9.3x62s.

For "colony varmint" cartridges at least 200 and sometimes 1000--depending on how many rifles are going, and for how long.

If I start with a new can of powder and work up the load I use up the whole pound. Fug that stupid 20 or 40 rd chit...mb

This. Summer is when I tend to load up. Too hot to do much outside plus no hunting going on.

A lot of the labels in my load boxes are labeled July and August.

Been a bit off this summer. 600 or so rounds loaded in the last 2 weeks.

223, 6mm Remington and 35 Remington. Need to load another 50 or 100 for the 7-08 plus load 100 or so for my cousins kids 243.

Hopefully have a new to me 700 in 222 next weekend so once I find a load for it load up a couple hundred.

Yesterday I prepped and primed 250 Starline .357 cases and managed to find the 50 I’d put “in a safe place” that were ready to go as well. I plan to load these in batches of 100 with XTP 158 HP and FN for my S&W 620/Henry SS combo, my current Geezer project. Next up is checking to see if cases sized in a Lee Loader will fit both, “pure research” as I can’t imagine a much easier chore than prepping pistol cases with carbide dies, even in a single-stage.

Also planning to test uncrimped loads for accuracy in the rifle. I’ve seen mixed opinions on that subject, and unless there’s a marked difference, the inconvenience of keeping loads separate wouldn’t be worth the trouble.

FPs are for the rifle as they’re rated to 1800fps as opposed to 1400 for the HPs.

For range-Blasters, up to 500 at time. Mostly 200 at a time, though.

For Hunting rifles, a box of 50, rotate with another for a total of 100. One box gets shot, start on #2 and load the first one.

One of the end-of-season chores is shooting the in-use box and get it loaded.

In most cartridges, I've streamlined things to enable me to load them on a 550 or 650 Dillon. I like to have brass prepped and components on-hand but other than 223's for PD's, rarely do I load more than 50 of anything at a time.

for son and my deer rifles both are 257 Weatherby mags. and same rifles Ruger #1 i try to load 40-50 cartridges and try to keep a 100 cartridges loaded on inventory. now for the rest of the family wife and daughter both have a 257 Roberts i loaded 15 boxes of 20 rds., also have 10 year old grandson who now has a 257 Roberts Ruger #1 , granddaughter in the future will also have a Ruger #1 in a 257 Roberts. its much easier if all have the same cartridges for me and them. for a trip out west i also bring 2 boxes of 20 for the hunt on big game, prarie dogs boy the sky could be the limit ? maybe 1,000 total rds. ? when i hunt deer in my home state of Minnesota my gun boot has 6 cartridges thats all i take to the stand my rifle is a single shot ,never need more than one or two catridges all season long. every year i try to now load 100 257 Roberts cartridges for the family also.

Depends on gun I am loading for. Hunting guns, I usually load 50 rounds, that way I don't have to load for a few years.
On range toys, 100 or more.

Ready for rat season.

Depends on the round/rifle. Depends on the mood I'm in. Always busy and time is usually limited. Honestly, I don't enjoy reloading....I hate trimming brass. I enjoy the end result and I like to shoot....but reloading is just a means to an end for me.

Some rifles I'll just check zero on and hunt with them. They are just hunters, not so much shooters. A little .358 win I hunt often in woods but only shoot to check zero or kill something. I'm fine having 10 of these loaded for a year.

Other's I'll shoot all year. On those I'll usually load up two 50 round boxes or a 100 round box. If I had more time, I'd load a lot more to avoid having to do it sooner. I try to limit how many I take with me when I start shooting as I'll run through all of them once I start. The thought of "having" to reload again slows me down when I get around 20 left.

I have several 100 rounds loaded for our rifles, .243 .270 .308 .30.06 300 H&H

I've never noticed a problem, maybe I missed it? Is it problem like a few think? I dont know just curious

Well I guess I'll be the odd man in this thread. In the past I've loaded like most of you, but a couple of years ago I looked at all the components on hand and decided ammo ready to go was more valuable than components. So I've been on a mission to load everything I've got.

In times past when I loaded for myself and had fewer cartridge/rifles to load for, I tailored everything to one rifle. As I've become the loader for two families I now tend to load more of what I would call a factory equivalent load. With a couple of exceptions, anyone can grab a box of ammo appropriate to their rifle and go shoot and hunt. Those exceptions being for rifles chambered in cartridges that only I have and that the rest of the family will not likely buy, such as .338 Win. and 6.5x55.

So far I'm about 1/3 way through what I want to load. When done, every rifle/cartridge will have between 500-1,000 rounds loaded. My family will be shooting my ammo long after I'm gone.

The exception to this being handgun and .223 ammo. I/we load and shoot it more than the big game rifles.

No Aboltfan not the odd man at all. I load for many different carts so when I load for something I work the load up to where I want. Then I load up as many as I can until I run out of that lot of powder. Don't care to have part cans of powder laying around..mb

Depends on how much brass I have on hand.

I normally do 50 or 100.

Tubb says the neck tension on a loaded case will change. I believe he said 3 months, but I haven't found it in either of his books, maybe he said it in one of his videos.

I use to load at least 200-300 when I was shooting a lot for whatever cartridge. Getting ready for Africa, or banging steel. Now I like to have about 20-50 on hand, but supplies to load more a any time.

Really like having prepped brass on hand. Prime, charge, and seat bullet. Ready to go.

I have also noticed accuracy degradation with older loaded ammo.

Hunting rifles I load 20 rounds
Varmint rifle 300
Pistol 300
Long Range rifle 50

When friends and family are up hunting we do a lot of shooting. There's no such thing as having to much ammo.

[/quote]Tubb says the neck tension on a loaded case will change. I believe he said 3 months, but I haven't found it in either of his books, maybe he said it in one of his videos.[/quote]



It’s possible he saw that, I wasn’t there. In my lifetime I’ve never seen it and I’ve got stuff I loaded over 20 years ago. It’s shoots the same today as it did then.

I have at least 500 loaded for each of my hunting rifles and if I’m topping up a load I’ll do a minimum of 150 at a time. I have a couple thousand rounds of hunting ammo in the safe. Varmint rifles I’ll triple that number. A typical spring/summer sees me shooting 10k plus rounds in the gopher patch.

Now that I’ve read this thread, I know why guys are complaining about running out of components and talking about how hard they are to find. I could see out my life and my boys lives on the ammo and components I have stocked up.

Usually 40-60 at a time for hunting rounds, and 200-ish per loading session for plinkers/varmint ammo.

For me, it depends on the gun and its intended use.

.30-06, mostly M2 Ball-equivelant for use in the Springfields&Garand, and for that reason I try to keep 4-500 rounds on hand, in clips and bandoliers. I reload pretty much only to replenish what I shoot at a range session, usually 40-50 rounds.

For hunting rifles I keep a couple boxes of pet loads on hand ready to go, and they linger a long time as I just don't hunt as much as I used to. If trying a new load for a new rifle, I load just enough to accomplish finding a pet load and then I follow the same protocol for it as I do the previous hunting rifles. These guns are .30-06's (aside from the above mentioned SpringfieldsGarand which serve a different purpose), and .223, .250-3000, 6.5x55, and a couple obscure calibers (all single shots) and a couple Hornets.

Most of my shooting though is with cast bullets anymore, and if a plinking session is in store for any of the above rifles I'll load up maybe 100, when I need them. The target guns (all traditional under .40 calibers), and all single shots, pretty much don't get any ammo loaded for them at all (but a helluva lot of bullets are cast) as they're loaded at the shooting bench with bullets seated separately into the breech ahead of the charged case which gets used over and over virtually forever.

Pistols, a different scenario all together. Usually load them in batches of 100 and try to maintain an inventory of around 500 rounds of pet loads for each caliber, again exclusively with cast bullets.

Varmint up to 1,000
Game up to 50, depends on how much practice.
Some larger cartridges - 20

It depends. My main hunting rifle is .280AI and for it, I load in batches of 100. It's the same load I settled on 20 years ago. for my .223's I load in larger batches. For my steel bangers, I try lots of different loads so for them it's smaller batches.

Before the shortages and high gas prices hit I would go to the ranges sometimes as many as three times a week, especially when doing a series of load work ups.

On January 2, 2020 I was in a very bad accident in my truck. Truck was totaled and I had to cancel my elk hunt which was due to start January 6. Messed up bad enough that the doc wouldn't allow me to shoot for a year, then a heart attack and now cancer. Since the start of 2020 I haven't fired a shot and it's frustrating as hell. I wonder if I'll ever be able to go shooting again. At 84, I don't have a hell of a lot of time left.
Paul B.

It’s possible he saw that, I wasn’t there. In my lifetime I’ve never seen it and I’ve got stuff I loaded over 20 years ago. It’s shoots the same today as it did then.

I have at least 500 loaded for each of my hunting rifles and if I’m topping up a load I’ll do a minimum of 150 at a time. I have a couple thousand rounds of hunting ammo in the safe. Varmint rifles I’ll triple that number. A typical spring/summer sees me shooting 10k plus rounds in the gopher patch.

Now that I’ve read this thread, I know why guys are complaining about running out of components and talking about how hard they are to find. I could see out my life and my boys lives on the ammo and components I have stocked up.[/quote]I'm pretty sure when David noticed the neck tension change on his ammo, it was in one of his rifles that was chambered with tighter tolerances than a factory rifle would be. If one was worried about the tension changing on their case but wanted to load up more than they were going to shoot, they could load up the excess longer than they normally would then reseat them when they wanted to shoot them. Especially if the barrel is showing some wear and if they are chasing the lands.

Jim,

I generally don't load that many rounds of big game ammo because of what I do--which involves trying a bunch of different bullets from a bunch of different rifles and cartridges. If I have most of my brass tied up in one load, then there's no flexibility in trying something else. Hence having enough of on hand for that year, and maybe the next. But I can assure you I have hundreds of rounds of big game ammo on hand, in several dozen cartridges.

Also generally keep tens of thousands of rounds of varmint ammo on hand, due to shooting plenty of ground squirrels and prairie dogs. But for ground squirrels only keep a limited amount of handloads on hand--say 3000--because I long ago changed over to the .17 Hornady Rimfire Magnum for 95% of my "gopher" shooting--and when I did stocked up on sale-priced ammo whenever and wherever it appeared. Which is why I have a lifetime supply, all purchased for about the price most .22 Long Rifle high-velocity hollow-point ammo is going for these days--or even less.

But congratulations on your supply....

John, I think my ramblings got mixed up with Coiloil37's. I don't have that much stocked up. I do have a few of your books. Thanks for the good read!

Paul,
Sounds worse than what I went through 6-8 years ago with chemo and radiation twice. For a while I was on a steroid that made me shake so bad I couldn't look through binoculars. Hopefully things improve for you. Makes you appreciate how precious time is. All the best and Godspeed.
Russ

Jim270,

Sorry about the mix-up! Glad you like my books.

John

I usually load 50 or whatever is left if less for my hunting rounds. I am messing with some .223, but it’s for a single shot rifle so maybe 100 max. Since I don’t load for my handguns at the moment, I don’t stock pile for them, except factory ammo I buy. Nor to I reload for my .223/5.56 AR’s.

This

Once I decide on a keeper load I load it in 500 round batches . .223 is the exception and I loaded 8lbs of powder the last time I loaded them , that's somewhere in the 2300 round range .

RiflesandMore: I load at least 100 additional rounds for my Varmint Rifles and at least 60 for my Big Game Rifles.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I load 20 every 10 years.
One per year to check zero and one to kill the deer.
It’ll take me all day whaking on that ole Lee Loader.

I load two boxes (40) for each rifle that I take on road trip deer and elk hunts. One box goes under the back seat and the other goes in my kit just in case one gets misplaced. I keep a third box for practice ammo. Most hunts I’ll only shoot 4 rounds max. Two for check zero and 1 or two at 300 or 400 yard steel. From last 3 years I have 8 cases to reload. I didn’t go to the range the day before in 2019 because of snow and cold. 1 shot, dead elk.

Depends on what I may have planned out for any given year.
10-40 rounds.

Each rifle i have, i keep about 200 rnds loaded, once i settle on a load for each rifle i don't change it, no sage rats or p. dogs here so i have almost no use for anything but .22 which i have way to much ammo for as i have no use for a .22 except when i am trapping. .223 it's cheaper to buy a few cases than reload it,and i find reloading .223 a pain in the butt. Rio7

For most of the past 20-some years, I've kept my batches of rifle ammo small-- 20-25 rounds. This was because it was the amount I could do in an hour or so of reloading. When I was working and raising a family, that was usually just right.

For pistol ammunition, I generally loaded 50 rounds at a time.

The first big change was about 5 years ago when I started casting pistol bullets. I was doing more loading and more shooting, and I needed to do bigger batches. I invested in a Hornady LNL Auto-Progressive. At that point, a loading session started yielding 200 to 500 rounds.

Most recently, I've decided to reformulate some of the family's top loads and do large runs. My sons each got 50 rounds of their best 30-06 deer ammo. I did 50 rounds of my new 150 grain 30-06 load. All told, I cranked out 150 rounds, and did it all as one batch, with minor changes along the way.

I started reloading about 30 years ago for my Savage 110 in 270 and maybe my dad's Rem 700 in the same. I think I loaded about 3 boxes and lasted me the next 10 or 12 years. By then I was loading for around 20 more cartridges. I had decided to try some of the Barnes ttsx 130gn and work up a load for both of our 270's. After finally getting one together and shooting it in his rifle and mine I think I loaded up about 300 of those. Probably the most I've loaded up for a hunting rifle at one time. I thought we would never use those up then about 5 years later he told me just before deer season one year he needed some more of them! I thought where the heck did 150 rounds go when I knew he'd only killed 8 or 10 deer in that time. He then told me it takes 20 or so to get his scope on every year! Lol, I just about cried over all those expensive bullets! I took his rifle apart, cleaned it good including the trigger which was full of junk and decoppered the barrel really good and it was all much better then.

Dad passed away in 2019, he had open heart surgery and then pancreatic cancer immediately after he got healed up from the heart surgery. Haven't gotten to hunt much last 6 or 7 years. But I had bought a stock and trigger for that 270 of his while he was still down from the heart surgery. He never got to shoot it after I had gotten it stuck back together. I'm hoping to pop a few meat deer with it this year. Still have a 100 or so of those Barnes ttsx I had loaded up to shoot in it. I just hope it doesn't take them all to get it straightened out and the scope back on target.

Pistol ... Thousands however many cases I got a the time ..
Stuff I use for silhouette shooting like 260 708-7br at least a hundred more like 500
AR driven stuff at least 500 at a time

Hunting stuff at least 50 usually a hundred
Precision stuff such as bench rest as necessary.