Nitpicking (?) - 09/13/19
When I first got into reloading in 2000, I did everything I could to be as exact and precise and consistent as I possibly could.
I had saved every bit of rifle brass I'd shot for 20 years prior with the idea that someday I would reload. As a result, I knew my brass' history from picking it up at the store-- which rifle had fired it, etc. Over the years, I started to buy brass-- most of it was internet sales, and most of it was once-fired. Now I'm approaching 20-40 years of history, and I'm beginning wonder. I'm asking these questions because I don't want to do needless things.
Top of the list is this: Let's say I have a two-batches of brass. Both came from the same original lot. They have been fired in the same rifle but with different loads multiple times. One batch has been fired 4 times. The other just 2 times. Is it reasonable to combine those two batches?
Here's another: Let's say I have two rifles firing pretty much the same load. I take the brass from both and combine them and load all the brass from both rifles, and do a full-length resize as I go. Is this reasonable?
Or this: Let's say I've got 2 twenty-round batches of the same load. I've been working up a good working load for a new deer rifle. They both have the same number of firings. I'm all ready to set the best load in stone and use this as "THE LOAD" for this rifle. I now load these two batches and add another 10 rounds of brass from the same lot as the other two for a total of 50 rounds. Have I screwed up?
Corollary: Let's say I lose some brass from a batch-- it takes two shots to put down a buck and I lose a round of brass in doing so. I come back from the hunt with an empty hole in the box. Do I leave the hole empty forever, or do I pull a fresh round out of the same original lot (or another batch) and fill the hole?
I had saved every bit of rifle brass I'd shot for 20 years prior with the idea that someday I would reload. As a result, I knew my brass' history from picking it up at the store-- which rifle had fired it, etc. Over the years, I started to buy brass-- most of it was internet sales, and most of it was once-fired. Now I'm approaching 20-40 years of history, and I'm beginning wonder. I'm asking these questions because I don't want to do needless things.
Top of the list is this: Let's say I have a two-batches of brass. Both came from the same original lot. They have been fired in the same rifle but with different loads multiple times. One batch has been fired 4 times. The other just 2 times. Is it reasonable to combine those two batches?
Here's another: Let's say I have two rifles firing pretty much the same load. I take the brass from both and combine them and load all the brass from both rifles, and do a full-length resize as I go. Is this reasonable?
Or this: Let's say I've got 2 twenty-round batches of the same load. I've been working up a good working load for a new deer rifle. They both have the same number of firings. I'm all ready to set the best load in stone and use this as "THE LOAD" for this rifle. I now load these two batches and add another 10 rounds of brass from the same lot as the other two for a total of 50 rounds. Have I screwed up?
Corollary: Let's say I lose some brass from a batch-- it takes two shots to put down a buck and I lose a round of brass in doing so. I come back from the hunt with an empty hole in the box. Do I leave the hole empty forever, or do I pull a fresh round out of the same original lot (or another batch) and fill the hole?