How much 223 brass do I need

[devster55]

So I shoot about 3-400 rounds a month out of my ar I have about 40lbs of brass. Should I stop buying brass and concentrate on projectiles as I stocked up on Tula primers (which shoot very well) and I am buying a pound of powder a week. How long should this brass last me?

[joelogic]

Well you have about 3000 cases at 7-10 firings each is 21k-30k.

You will need about 75 pounds of powder.

[edrex]

40lbs = approx 3,000 pieces.
Reload each piece 5 times (conservative) = 15,000 rounds
15,000 rounds divided by 400 rounds per month = 37.5 months.

You easily have over 3 years worth of brass. Which won't do you any good if you don't have the projectiles to fire out of them.

[devster55]

Well I have a couple thousand projectiles but I know I need more, so I think I will stop buying brass. Well I don't really buy it. I mostly pick it up at the range that others leave behind. Thanks for the advise.

[highpower790]

Buy often ,buy as much as you can afford.

[klewan]

Widener's is doing the 5000 52grain .224 for $470 shipping included thang again...

[Enfield47]

Sound like all you need is bullets and you will be GTG for quite a while. You might want to save up your money and buy an 8 lb jug instead of 8 one pounders. It will be a little cheaper in the long run and you use the savings for bullets.

[devster55]

well I have been getting it for 27 a pound average depending what I get.

[Excaliburr]

well I have been getting it for 27 a pound average depending what I get.

Some people up here buy an 8 pound jug for $169.99 + tax. You do the math, but that saves quite a bit if you want 75 pounds. Order it through powder valley if you want to safve some real money, just be prepared to wait for your order.

[joelogic]

At $27 a pound you really aren't beating Wolf pricing. I would almost go back at that price.

[ExtremeX]

Brass is the least of my concerns... point being you can reload it. It just come down to how much do you want to load at one time...

If you want to play the bulk game play the bulk game... Just figure out what your primary load(s) are and go to town... its the only way to really save money, plus its convenient.

2k projectiles is a start... I really like those 6000 pack of Hornady bullets, along with 5000 pack of bulk 75s from wideners.

Same with powder... just make sure you like the load before committing to a large order.

[Germz]

Should I stop buying brass...?

you should have never started! 223 brass is literally top 3 easiest casings to come across at ranges.

[ptmn]

An earlier poster calculated that you have 3 years worth of brass. That is perfect. You need to figure on a years worth for shooting and having 2 years worth in reserve will allow you to wait out any supply storms like the one that is slowly starting to ease up now. Just make sure you build up stocks on the rest if your components to match your brass. I had plenty of stock before the current supply storm, so I never had to purchase any components at the ridiculous "panic buy" pricing. If you slowly build up 3 years of stock, then you should be fine for the next storm

[devster55]

yeah I think I will be picking up some more extreme projectiles

[ocabj]

When I was still actively competing in High Power XTC, I would keep about 700-1000 rounds of short line 200/300yard ammo (77gr mag length) and maybe 100 rounds of long line 600 yard (80gr VLD) loaded and ready to go.

Note that the reason I didn't have much long line ammo loaded and ready to go is because I shot VLD so I like to load about .005" into the lands, so I'm chasing the lands during the life of the barrel.

My practice ammo I would keep around 300-500 rounds. Note that I would only shoot about 50-70 rounds per practice session.

Outside of the loaded ammo, I would have about 3000 cases in rotation (e.g. dirty and not sized, clean but no processed, sized and primed, etc).