How Much Ammo Do You Keep?

[DocDoc]

An option for longer storage of accurate ammunition would be to seat the bullets long and then reseat to shorter more accurate length just before use.

 

[cowboy]

For cowboy and others who keep reloading supplies: is there a reason you keep the supplies on hand instead of loading them up? Just curious on that as well.

Does everyone else agree that ammo can basically last forever if kept dry? Is there a time limit any of you put on your ammo?

There are a number of reasons why I keep components on hand. Obviously there has been the availability factor but on the big picture I try to buy primer, powder and bullets in quantity so as to have the same lot number for consistancy reasons. I don't want to reinvent the wheel so to speak on my loads by buying one pound of powder and then find out a short time later that the next pound has slight burn rate difference etc. - same with primers and bullets. This has really been made evident since pretty reliable chronographs have been made available to the general public.

As far as loading up more than I can use in a reasonable time frame I don't do it. Things change - throats on barrels ware and you may need to do a little tweaking to reobtain the accuracy you were accustomed too. If something drastically changes I would prefer to pull dozens or hundreds of bullets - not thousands. I guess a lot of it depends on what you want/expect out of your ammo/rifle performance and at what distances you use them at.

As to the situation of ammo basically lasting forever if kept dry. I would say it would last longer and still go boom for a very very long time. How accurate and consistant it is at longer distance is something that in my opinion would have to be tested/proven.