I’ve got 99 cases…

[Otto]

♫ “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall”

 

[adcoch1]

Every time I start up a new cartridge to reload for, I build a dummy cartridge. So I have lots of 99rnd boxes of loaded ammo. Got to stay calm. I keep a sleeve of primers with the extra, or I load a small group with odd projectiles(cast or otherwise) different powder combo, etc just to try out one or two of something. I consider those little leftovers as diverting little side projects. Just keep good notes on them!

 

[goon]

If it’s for a revolver you might keep all the brass you shoot. But if it’s a semi automatic you’re probably going to lose some in the grass, weeds, under the bench, etc. That 99 casings will be down to 78 in no time.

I mostly have the opposite problem: I have hundreds of casings of mixed range pickups, my own once fired brass, my own reloads, etc. I have a five gallon bucket full of .38 Special brass I was given when a family member sold his last 38. When I need a hundred of the same headstamp, I just dig through the mess until I have enough.

 

[entropy]

Through years of therapy, and heavy doses of psychotropic drugs, I've come to a place in my life where I can almost tolerate an empty spot in the cartridge box. I finish up the box, look away as I close the lid, and put it under the bench with the other loaded, full, happy, productive, full boxes... that are full of fullness... and run away. But then, later, after I've forgotten about it, I'll open that box... and the severed head of emptiness hurtles towards me like a jack-in-the-box with a cream pie in it's hand... and I'm back in therapy again.

How many mg. of Haldol did it take? ; )

Hunting loads I like to keep LC headstamps and years together, but I usually only load those in 20 round lots anyway. Everything else, I don't get all edgy about it.

 

[jmorris]

I've got 99 problems but an empty hole ain't one.

Throw the box away and use a bag, if it bothers you?

I keep certain brass together, like for a given firearm. Some stuff gets loaded mixed in bulk though. Depends on what I want out of the ammunition.

 

[westernrover]

Get 11, 9, or 3 magazines of 9, 11, or 33 round capacity and fill them up,
or just shoot them.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

Through years of therapy, and heavy doses of psychotropic drugs, I've come to a place in my life where I can almost tolerate an empty spot in the cartridge box. I finish up the box, look away as I close the lid, and put it under the bench with the other loaded, full, happy, productive, full boxes... that are full of fullness... and run away. But then, later, after I've forgotten about it, I'll open that box... and the severed head of emptiness hurtles towards me like a jack-in-the-box with a cream pie in it's hand... and I'm back in therapy again.

What's really weird is, 99 primers in a sleeve doesn't bother me one bit but, 49 ready-to-load cases in a 50/pcs box drives me nuts. Put those same cases in a baggie and all is good with the world again.
I blame it on my uncle Charlie. And coffee.

 

[Charlie98]

Actually, I've gone to keeping only full trays (or boxes) of primers in my primer stash boxes, any partial trays are up on one of the bench shelves. It's funny how often you need 5 or 10... or one... primer, and so I don't feel so bad about that now... I don't even carry them on the inventory sheet.

Put those same cases in a baggie and all is good with the world again.

Nope. I can get past a box with 49 or 99 rounds in it, I can NOT get past a random baggie with who knows how many rounds in it??? Why, I'll just have to open it up and count them... even though I have a count slip in there from the last time I opened them up and counted them.

Humor aside... I don't care. I don't like loose rounds, normally, but I've gotten past that by using those smaller plastic Harbor Freight ammo cans, rather than boxing up everything. Boxes make sense for target rounds in .308, for example, but 200 rounds of 7.62mm blasting ammo loose in a box works just as well. If I'm really trying to max out my reloading session, I'll put a different headstamp in with the others to make a full box... or more likely, to empty a box of bullets. I HATE random bullets rolling around.

 

[ballman6711]

What's really weird is, 99 primers in a sleeve doesn't bother me one bit but, 49 ready-to-load cases in a 50/pcs box drives me nuts. Put those same cases in a baggie and all is good with the world again.
I blame it on my uncle Charlie. And coffee.

I'm ok if they're in a baggie or coffee can as well. But a 50 or 100 round ammo box with one missing causes me issues.

Actually, I've gone to keeping only full trays (or boxes) of primers in my primer stash boxes, any partial trays are up on one of the bench shelves. It's funny how often you need 5 or 10... or one... primer, and so I don't feel so bad about that now... I don't even carry them on the inventory sheet.

I have tried but a primer missing from a tray causes me issues. I can deal with 70 left in the tray knowing I loaded 30 for a ladder test though.

Humor aside... I don't care. I don't like loose rounds, normally, but I've gotten past that by using those smaller plastic Harbor Freight ammo cans, rather than boxing up everything. Boxes make sense for target rounds in .308, for example, but 200 rounds of 7.62mm blasting ammo loose in a box works just as well

I'll also load 100 rounds for the AR and put them in a baggie with the data written down and placed inside the baggie, and then place that in an ammo can. It makes it easy to grab a hundred or two rounds to take to the range, or the whole can. The next problem comes when I have ten rounds left in the bag and only brought thirty round magazines.

chris

 

[lightman]

It bothers me some but not to the point that I need treatment! (ain't that what we all say) Like Charlie said, I put that/those odd primers back in the box and put them on the shelf, not back in the sleeve. I do bullets the same way except I write how many of them are in the box.

 

[GRIZ22]

Don't be so anal. Unless you're shooting bench rest it won't make no.difference at all.

Don't take being anal as an offense. I separate brass by headstamp even though I know it doesn't make much of a difference

 

[Buzznrose]

I know the feeling, I have 99 125 grain critical defense 357 bullets. I can’t make myself load them and trying to sell them will just make someone else deal with it.

If it will easy your mind, I’ll take them off your hands. I have some .38 lead bullets…I’ll send you 2 for 1 and round up to an even 200 or 250. This is the flavor…



PM me.

 

[.45Coltguy]

Heeey, what happened to OP?

 

[Walkalong]

He's trying to find case # 100......

 

[Howland937]

Load 1 dummy round with a different head stamp.
Sacrifice 1 primer to the reloading gods
Shoot 33 groups of 3 rounds.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

I've been joking in the thread, but I'll say I am more picky about that stuff with hunting ammo than I am with range plinking ammo.
I start out with a full box of ammo for deer rifles each year. I don't care about there being empty slots during deer season.
However when season is over, the box is refilled to capacity and put on the shelf to await next deer season.

With range ammo, it's not even an issue.
Plinking loads are loaded and tossed loosely into an ammo can. Who cares how many .38 specials I have in the can. If it gets low, I load more. Loads I'm testing at the range to see if they're worth loading in volume go in zip baggies with the data written on it in Sharpie.
But yeah, I'm serious about the hunting stuff.

 

[tmd16556]

I feel like I belong. There are enough of you more normal or more crazy than myself. I spent the day
repairing a leaky toilet. At least the flange was brass, so it’s somewhat related?

I’ve learned to love the 50 round box. Although revolvers add another dimension. Multiples of six when shooting. I guess loading 96 would make sense. Maybe if I left the empty ones at each corner…

Im ok with a row of 10 or 20 missing, particularly in odd brass like 9 Makarov. But it’s harder when there are fewer than 10 missing. I do keep a baggie of sized and flared 9mm cases in the three headstamps I load just to make up for lost or messed up cases.
I care less in 9mm on empties, a replacement will come along soon. Plus I now have containers of surplus cases in storage that I will never use. It was crushing 2 of 100 cases of 222 brass after overcleaning and under-lubing my dies. I’ll get over it though. I just bought 100 shiny new Starline cases and I can keep the old PPU ones in 50 or 20 round boxes.

I also have a box just for partial sleeves of primers. It helps me count. The problem is forgetting you had an open box and getting another out, leading to two partials.

 

[film495]

just switch to smaller boxes of say 20 rounds

 

[Riomouse911]

Unless I have new 50-100 round ammo boxes to fill, it isn’t often that I have even numbers to reload.

When loading odd numbers, I use what bullets, cases and primers I need. I then keep the primer sleeve marked with how many I used from it.




Stay safe

 

[higgite]

I can't imagine how some of you guys must agonize over shooting up a full 100 round box of reloads with a six shooter. What in the world do you do with the two empty chambers at the end of the session?

 

[41 Mag]

I load for enough calibers and such that I usually end up with something being out of whack. Sometimes I find a split case or have one split during the sizing or seating process. Sometimes I just squash a case when seating. Stuff happens. I have come to the realization that an odd number of rounds isn't the end of the world.

I usually have a batch of 1K primers I will start out with and by the end I have one sleeve that has a few primers in it. These are placed in the cabinet by the press to "fill in" as needed to make up or replace one that gets dropped into the black hole under my bench. Sometimes one gets crunched on the progressive so I have an extra.

As for the odd number in the ammo box, I just shoot the short row first and then all is well. Eventually I will find another case to make up an even number, but on most occasions I only need to look under my bench for a replacement. I usually have several zippy's with a random amount of my most popular loaded rounds handy for the above mentioned issues. Since I try to stick to like branded cases they are usually the same headstamp anyway. As for specific batches of cases that started life together and have remained together, yeah right, not around here. Only the Ackley or the magnum brass is separated like that, and only because it is different, and only gets loaded when the box is empty.

 

[jmorris]

I guess it wouldn't bother me but I have a stack of partial 100 count primer containers from/for trying different things. If I am loading out another 100, my primers come from a different location.

 

[mstreddy]

Some people just want to watch the world burn. LOL

Paul, that is me some days. I've been known to bring the marshmallows as well. At my last job I gifted one of the admin assistants a box of matches and a bag of marshmallows to help get past the dumpster fire of the project she was involved in.

And, for some fun -- I have a friend who is really CDO. When we shoot together, somehow or another one of his rounds ends up upside down in the box. Or an empty spot is created in the middle. I don't know how that happens . But the next time we get together - I hear something to the effect of "you @R#@*hole" as he starts unpacking.
He doesn't reload as he also worries that his attention will wander.

 

[Buzznrose]

My only issue with ammo is I want the bins more full than empty…LOL!

 

[gwpercle]

I don't want that "empty hole" ... I would rather have one mixed headstamp ... and a box of 100 !
Gary