How do you keep track of how many times you've used your brass?

I use them until they split. I am too lazy to keep track of how many times loaded and reloaded.

For straight wall I shoot it till it's cracked or the primer pocket gets sloppy.

I have 500pc of lake city 223/5.56 and its 90% the same year so I separated it by year for rifle constancy and when I shoot its with the same cases every time. I will shoot say 50rds and they get sized and reloaded again while everything else stays boxed up until the multiple loaded brass goes bad then I will go to the next 50rds. I'm using up the odd ball years first. handgun I just run it until I lose it or it cracks.

For rifle brass, fired brass goes into a ziploc bag with a note inside that says "X-Times Fired".

Pistol brass is fired until it splits.

this ^

I bought a large lot of once fired once fired brass and I have kept them separated into bins labeled ** fired as I rotate through them over and over. I will still continue shooting them until they split, I'm just keeping track...

I have a card that goes with my rifle brass that keeps up where it's at during the prep (check list) and how many times it's been fired. For pistol I just use till it fails...

I've got buckets of brass, so I just shoot it until it wears out, lose it, or I get tired of carrying it home.

Hope this helps.

Fred

readyeddy said:

For rifle brass, fired brass goes into a ziploc bag with a note inside that says "X-Times Fired".

Pistol brass is fired until it splits.

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Basically, I do what readyeddy does although semi-auto hand gun cases tend to get lost before they fail.

But, I do not keep track of all my rifle cases for all rifles.

Plinking or blasting ammunition, the cases get shot till they fail. I keep track of the number of firings for cases used for hunting or competition.

I put a bar-code on each piece of brass and scan it with a handheld scanner which uploads to my Smart Phone.

Available at Sinclair/Brownells.

I clean and load by batch. So I have bags with fired 4X or 5X etc. So I keep going until I hit 10 or so and see what happens after that. Curious to see how far I can go, not loading anywhere near max and they are plinkers.

Rule3 said:

I put a bar-code on each piece of brass and scan it with a handheld scanner which uploads to my Smart Phone.

Available at Sinclair/Brownells.

Click to expand...

I don't care who you are, that right there is funny
JD

The only brass I count reloading is my Garand brass and bolt gun 308 stuff. I keep each group separate, in baggies. When I fire a group, I'll pick up the empties immediately and bag them up with a note on the reloading label. Brass is kept separate through out the reloading process too. Easier than it sounds...

I gave up trying to keep track....Too much brass in too many calibers. So I shoot it until I lose it, the case splits or the primer pocket is too loose to hold the primer.

I don't bother

The only time I ever kept track of any brass was when I was loading for a Rem 700 PSS 308. I had 300 cases and once they were all empty they all got reloaded at the same time and documented. Pistol rounds get dumped into bins and when the bin gets full the brass gets processed. I keep plenty of brass primed and ready to load so it isnt an issue.

So the follow up ? For those who keep track, what's the magic number to throw them away?

I don't keep track but I do try to keep them all loaded the same number of times. So if I have 150 cases and I load 100 of them and shoot them, I will load and shoot the remaining 50 before I start over on the original 100

Case life greatly depends on the thickness of the brass and how much they are sized down in the die. I have dies that size necks down by almost .020" before the expander sizes them back up, and I have others that only size down .002" or so. Too much neck sizing splits necks. If you size the shoulders to far back the case heads will separate. If they are loaded too hot the primer pockets will loosen up. I've had brass that was junk in 5 loadings and others that are going on 30 times

Meticulous recordkeeping.

When they are prepped, cases go into a plastic box with individual compartments for each round. Each box gets a unique identifying number. That number ties to a reloading form that travels with the box until it is shot and then it goes into a 3 ring binder. When the case is loaded, it is returned to the box from which it came. And when it is fired, it returns to that box as well. So, I know the history of each 50 or 100 round plastic box from the day I acquired the brass.

For the precision rifle stuff and the hunting rifle brass, I keep it boxed in "lots" of 50-100 with a data card that tracks how many time loaded, when annealed, how sized etc.

Pistol brass stays in Kitty Litter containers; A & B per caliber. I'll load from A, and put fired cleaned brass in B. When A's empty, I swap. It's just my way of rotating so my pistol brass gets even use. Normally I'll lose it in a match or class long before it splits or has issues.

Chuck

Newtosavage said:

So the follow up ? For those who keep track, what's the magic number to throw them away?

Click to expand...

Till they fail. This is normally due to loose primer pockets. My brass processing includes a annealing cycle for all rifle brass. Have never had a case head separation, been doing this for over 40 yrs now. School of old knocks, learn to setup your dies correctly and the brass will last a very long time. My Lapula 223R brass has over 10 cycles on it and the primer pockets are where only the #41 have enough tension to hold the primer. 1 more firing and they will all be scraped.

Interesting. I've reloaded my Remington brass for my 7x57 I dunno how many times now, but at least 7 or 8. No loose primer pockets that I can detect. They all still feel firm when I seat the primers. I did have one neck split on me but that was the only one. If I could find new 7x57 brass, I would have replaced all mine by now.

I don't load or shoot nearly as much as some here. I don't keep track of the number of loadings, but I do inspect each piece of brass. Most of my pistol brass is range pick-ups, so I don't know what most of it saw before I got it. My last batch of .40 S&W, that was in the bottom of the box (so I knew that I was loading it for MY second time) actually lost one due to a loose primer pocket. My rifle brass is separated between HUNTING (perfect, new or ONCE-fired) and RANGE (everything else).

All of that to say, it is easier for me to inspect my brass, than to try to keep them separated into batches based on number of loadings, especially when there is no guarantee how many loadings a piece of brass can take.