I'd like to get some feedback/opinions on ammunition quantity purchases and how to sell and/or package these. When selling ammo, I prefer to sell them in 100 count quantities. Brass and bullets generally come in 50 or 100 count boxes, so it's easy to keep a 100 count on loaded ammo. When setting up a press to load single stage, it takes some time to get it dialed in. If I were to load only 1 box of 20 rounds, it would break up the 50/100 count of bullets and brass, and increase the labor cost for just 20 rounds. But I often get requests for a small amount (20 or 40 rounds) of ammo to try. I'm wondering how I could tackle this small amount. I'm thinking about offering some ammo in small amounts, in the common rounds and calibers that sell a lot of. Any thoughts?

Some people most likely want some to try. You can run in lots of 100. Than break up into a few lots of 10. From there you can sale a lot of 10 or have a package with a few lots of 10 to try.

Same question I have wondered about actual bullets from makers. Small samplers like dishes at a restaurant. Why can't you load 100, 250, or 500 at certain COAL, 500 at another COAL, then switch powder charge weights, then switch powders, then switch bullets, etc. That way you have your measurements set for 100, 250 or 500 rounds. Seating depth, charge weight, bullet style, etc.

What ever change you make, load another "run", then make another change. Sooner or later you will say enough, stop, and for example if you are loading in runs/groups of 250 and make ten (10) changes then you would have a total of 2500 rounds, then sell them in sample packs of 100, with 10 samples of 10 each.

For people who wanted 50 Hornady or 50 Sierra, sell them in smaller units but with a premium. Take them out of your original batch.

Start with a limit of 10 most reloaded cartridges. 223. 22/250, 243, 260, 6.5, 270, 7mm/08, 308, 30-06, 300 wm, 7mm mag, etc. Some for hunting, some for long range, some for suppressed.

Face the facts, one of the pleasures of reloading is the ultimate round. But when you consider all the factors involved, it is almost impossible for a reloader to say they have tested every possible factor for just one cartridge. Too many variables, like winning the lotto...

One of the reason I finally settled down to 308 bullets was the convenience of maker, bullet, style, weight, etc. At least I could try them in a variety of calibers.

JMO

I won't bother taking 10 or 20 of anything anywhere. I'm not good enough for that to tell me anything. If someone is that picky, they need to learn to load their own. 50 is the smallest I'd make for anyone but family and even then I'd charge a lot more to change set ups that often. If I were in the business (I'm not) of selling custom loads and someone wanted dead perfect everything on 10 rounds I'd sure make it worth my while and they might not like it.

With the large number of members in the DFW area, it shouldn't be too hard for a member that buys 50 to dump the other 40 if the first 10 don't shoot as planned, or to find buddies with the same caliber to go in on a lot of 50-100 to try out.

I think the option to trade back the unused portion of say a 50 round package to get some other ammo if it did not perform as expected might be a consideration.

Market it as new gun/barrel sight in packs.
Total 100 rounds
Buyer picks bullet he wants to shoot and preferred powder
5 loads at 10 rounds each with a different powder charge to see what gun likes
When decided buyer gets the remaining 50 of the perfect load

Chad, 15 years ago 5 of us were sitting around a camp fire at our deer lease in Llano. All 5 of us reload, some of them have loaded rounds since the late 60's. We discussed load development, the idea was: instead of buy a 1 lb of powder how about 1/5 lbs bottles as well as containers of 20 or 30 projectiles, and do step loading.
Anyway, don't know about your loaded ammo ideas... but I can say EVERY load I got from you was greatness!

you're selling bulk to save shooters money

separating into 50-100 takes too much time

how about 250, 500, 1000 rds

I would buy 500 - 1000 at a time

If you do decide to sell in 20 round lots, find a cheap source of the 20 slider cases, something like this: http://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/it...0-H-and-H-Smoke

Then sell them for what your extra time and effort is worth. If they work for someone, they can 'return the case' for credit towards an order of 50-100 rounds. If they don't like it, they have brass and a slip-top box for their next try.

Just my .02c

There are some good ideas already posted. I would lean toward a 100 round lot with case. I use the "Case Guard R-100" for the big guns. If the customer can return all the brass and case for reloading ( they order more ammo) then it could be necked sized and loaded for the appropriate amount of firings before FL resize. Hopefully this would be a plus for the business and the shooter. You could also offer the 100 round lot with 10 different powder combos. They could shoot 5 of each and still have 5 of each to make it through deer season with.