Keeping track of number of times brass has been reloaded

I used to just keep a note card with each lot, usually detailing bullet weight, powder load, etc. Each time I reloaded them, I'd put another hash mark on the card. I stopped doing that many years ago, though. Now I just wait until I start to see case mouth splits on a regular basis and that's when I toss the whole batch.

I started out using multiple bins to keep my various brass cases separated. New, Once Fired, Once Reloaded, and so on. I gave up. My experience was as OP's - I can only keep track of MY brass when I'm the only one at the range. I also consider myself a brass miser...since I'll pick up any cases I'm allowed to, and given the short range time I get I don't waste any of it trying to separate mine from yours from reloaded or new.
Since I've only bought new brass in 300 AAC Black Out and .45 ACP, those are the only cases I track now. If I were starting with new brass I'd track that as well. I had once considered taking a quantity of brass and shooting and reloading it over and over, but that would require me to clean the brass more frequently than I do now.
I've experienced a few split mouths/cases in my short reloading experience, and as I recall, it's always 380ACP, and most of those were due to ejection failures...these cases are quite thin and can't take any pressure on the mouth without ruining the case. Although I did have one case split nearly to the extraction groove.

What your shooting them in makes a huge difference. If you have a semi and are shooting at a public range keeping things sorted and tracked will give you heartburn. If your shooting a bolt rifle it's easy. Dont burn yourself out counting cycles unless you need to know.

I personally think it’s important only for full power rifle bottle neck cartridges. Like many here I shoot straight wall pistol cartridges until the mouth splits either after firing or when bullet seating, usually the former. I’ve noticed lately larger cases like the 45Colt seems to split sooner that the 38’s. No experience with the few shouldered, bottle neck?, pistol cartridges

With some looking, you could track a batch back in time through my databook. Each batch notes the batch from which the brass came last time.

But I don't really care, since the brass will tell you when it's ready to go to the great recycle bucket in the sky.

A follow up. One can always use paint, marker, nail polish what ever to mark your rounds. A friend does that. Seldom will someone at the range be using the same scheme. Firing pin strikes are also usually different between guns.
I practice with wax bullets and because the primer pocket are drilled out the cases are marked with notched rims.

I only load handgun bass, so it's all straight, haven't really kept count of how many uses, I guess I could estimate on the pistols based on the number of rounds I've loaded. But I think most of the bass will probably outlast me.

For my prairie dog rifle (204 Ruger) and when I was competing in Service Rifle (223 Remington), I'd kept track of the number of loadings my cases went through. Both rifles are AR-15's and the cases begin to have reloading issues after 5 or so loadings.

I'd keep them together by the number of reloading cycles. After the fifth firing, I'd move them to be used in a bolt action rifles for casual shooting where they could be used for many more reloading cycles. Or, I'd scrap them if I accumulated too many of the "worn out" cases.

Most of my other shooting is casual and I do not keep track of the number of reloading cycles a case goes through.

I only do it for rifle brass bolt action. Not worth it for the quantity of pistol and semi auto rifle shooting.

I don't keep track. Load them until they fail.

Loose pockets, splits, bright ring appears etc.

Many decades of reloading and I have never sorted pistol brass based on firings. I just toss those that are damaged. I sort rifle brass firings using bins.
I do not pick up strange range brass unless offered once fired.

My match stuff; 9mm, .45ACP & .223 gets lost long before it wears out, so I don't track.

All the other rifle brass is packaged in 50 or 100 rd "lots" where I track; how sized, annealed, trimmed (weight range, for the precision brass) and times fired . I use cut down 3x5 cards, that stay in the box.

as long as your not annealing and loaded at max, high pressure brass should split at the neck before becoming unsafe. Revolver brass doesn't seem to care unless its overloaded, and I have never seen a pistol case wear out, loading 20 or more times. I have had a few cases separate at the head in .223, but all were loaded fairly hot. Its somewhat normal for rimmed bottleneck cases to fail at the head as well. I have personally experienced 5 head separations (1 in 38-44 loaded hot) and 4 in .223, but with approximately 70,000 round loaded.
Case failure is the primary concern for keeping brass, but if you have another reason, let us know?
If its for match reasons, just don't let them extract, or use a brass catcher. I use a cheap net type, and while it does not catch well, it does keep the brass at my feet.

When brass is new, I run a silver Magic Marker around the primer. First time reload gets a black marker. Second time gets brown, third gets red, fourth gets orange. Yellow is too hard to see, so I skip that. Fifth is green, and sixth is blue.

After that, brass gets trimmed and annealed, and goes back to silver.

This makes sure that the brass you pick up is yours, and that your brass has uniform neck tension.

whughett said:

I personally think it’s important only for full power rifle bottle neck cartridges. Like many here I shoot straight wall pistol cartridges until the mouth splits either after firing or when bullet seating, usually the former. I’ve noticed lately larger cases like the 45Colt seems to split sooner that the 38’s. No experience with the few shouldered, bottle neck?, pistol cartridges

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This is what I do too. About 1/2 my straight-wall pistol brass is range pickup, the other 1/2 is from factory ammo I shot. Only load to <1100 fps in 9mm, and it seems to last forever.

Just started loading for rifle and I will have to devise a plan for that (following this thread w/ interest).

NHdeerhunter said:

I'll just do my due diligent on inspection of the brass.

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That's the key.
From brass prep to loaded round, you'll touch each piece of brass a few times, even if you load on a progressive.
Just inspect carefully and you'll be fine.

I've never tried to keep track. I have .45 Colt brass I know I've loaded a dozen times and have never had one split yet.

Rifle cases, yes I count reloadings (mostly Garand 30-06, 308 Win, and 223/5.56). For an accurate count I keep them separate, in a group. Load and fire, empties collected and kept separate. Hand gun brass, nope, just inspect before reloading...

For my AR-15 plinkers I've been trying to keep track of it by putting little slips of paper in with the different headstamp groups I have.

^^^ Rifle brass that I care about stays with the ammo box, sorted by weight and marked for # times fired and # annealed.

For pistol brass I don't keep track, I do take any once fired I come across and store it separate from my multi fired brass figuring that I will wear out of loose the multi fired stuff and have fresh brass to start again.
I guess this works good, for my .40 I have about 7000 multi fired in rotation and another 10,000 once fired waiting to get called up, it's gotten to the point that any .40 brass I come across just gets thrown in the multi fired bin.
For rifle I do keep track of the number of firings, in a bolt gun I keep close track and in the auto rifles it's a loose tracking. If I come across a few pieces of say 223 at the range I just add them to the batch I'm currently shooting and don't worry about it.

Walkalong said:

For the ones I keep track of, I just write a note and put it in with the empty brass or the loaded rounds.

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This is about how I keep track of the number of loadings as well. I keep the paper with the reload info and number of times the cases had been reloaded with the cases until the cases are reloaded the next time. Then the info gets updated with the new piece of paper.

I track my once fired brass and then one reloaded brass for my .223. I use buckets to separate them. And because I use them for match purposes and I load them pretty hot, after the second load I don’t worry much because it all becomes plinking fodder.
For pistol brass I don’t bother specially because I pick up what I can get at the range.

Ultimately the most important thing is to inspect your brass as you handle it. I’ve seen brass fail after only 1-2 firings and I have also seen brass last many firings.