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I normally do 50 or 100.

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Originally Posted by Blacktailer
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.
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.

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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.


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


Good bullets properly placed always work, but not everyone knows what good bullets are, or can reliably place them in the field
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When friends and family are up hunting we do a lot of shooting. There's no such thing as having to much ammo.


Life is good live it while you can.
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[/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.

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

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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.


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


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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.

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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.


Our forefathers did not politely protest the British.They did not vote them out of office, nor did they impeach the king,march on the capitol or ask permission for their rights. ----------------They just shot them.
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Originally Posted by Coiloil37
[/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.



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.

Last edited by Jim270; 06/29/22.
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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....


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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!

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Originally Posted by PJGunner
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.
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


I am continually astounded at how quickly people make up their minds on little evidence or none at all.
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Jim270,

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

John


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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.

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Originally Posted by JPro
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.

This

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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 .

Last edited by EddieSouthgate; 06/30/22.

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RiflesandMore: I load at least 100 additional rounds for my Varmint Rifles and at least 60 for my Big Game Rifles.
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