Could use some pointers on keeping track

Start and maintain a hand loaders log book. If your computer savy set a up spread sheet on your computer. if not so much , like me, visit a few web sites, like Amazon and download or buy spreadsheets that can be kept in a three ring binder. MTM publishes several.
I’ve maintain my going on 40 years now. Each caliber has its own section. I record each reloading session by batch. Date, amount, powder weight and brand, bullet style and weight, brass head stamp, times fired, primer size and brand. Notes section includes OAL, and range notes.
New powder/bullet loads are loaded and recorded in 5 to 10 round” ladder” steps.
As to times fired, pistol I don’t bother,high power hunting rounds for rifle I did and kept the brass in 20 round lots labeled by number. . High capacity rifle like the 223 I personally wouldn’t bother.

I'll second the suggestion of keeping records. I have a large 3 ring binder and use a spread sheet copied from the MTM log with a few personal changes. I have it set up by caliber with sections dedicated to individual guns if needed.

I keep my surplus brass in plastic coffee cans with the caliber written on the front with a sharpie and a note inside detailing any other work thats been done to them.

I keep the stuff that I shoot and load regulary in MTM plastic boxes. I use both the 50 and hundred round boxes. I also have the caliber posted on the outside and the load data on a label inside of the box on the inside of the lid.

I should have stock in both Folgers and MTM!

whughett said:

High capacity rifle like the 223 I personally wouldn’t bother.

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That's sort of my opinion.

It would be pretty difficult to keep 100 case lots segregated by x fired if you are working with 10 or more lots... and, as you say, you do batch prep work. That seems quite tedious to me.... and I don't like tedium, and... inevitably... some of those cases are going to be mixed together, negating any effort you might have taken.

I actually batch my .223 by headstamp. I have 4 or 5 different lots of about 400 to 800 cases of one particular headstamp, and that's how I process them... keeping them together as a lot. It works, mostly, with the understanding I'm not going to have an exact x times loaded count for every case.

I just bought 1200 mixed range brass....
I’m wanting to know how many times each has been fired?

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Impossible, if you pick up a piece of brass at a range all you can be certain of is that it has been shot at least once. If you knew it came from my gun you could make that at least twice. Could have been reloaded many times before I decided to not pick it up or lost it.

If I know there is going to be say a police training day at the range and I know everything is going to be once fired, same headstamp, etc. I don’t mix it with other stuff I can’t be sure of. So I don’t have a 55 gal drum of .223. 5 gallon buckets of various states from unknown to separate ziplock bags in a given bucket so the brass stays together.

Charlie98 said:

That's sort of my opinion.

It would be pretty difficult to keep 100 case lots segregated by x fired if you are working with 10 or more lots... and, as you say, you do batch prep work. That seems quite tedious to me.... and I don't like tedium, and... inevitably... some of those cases are going to be mixed together, negating any effort you might have taken.

I actually batch my .223 by headstamp. I have 4 or 5 different lots of about 400 to 800 cases of one particular headstamp, and that's how I process them... keeping them together as a lot. It works, mostly, with the understanding I'm not going to have an exact x times loaded count for every case.

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Yah, there’s enough tedium built into reloading with out getting anal about it. 99% of my shooting these days is a mix of center fire pistol and black powder revolvers. The pistol cases are all “pied” for cleaning prepping and reloading but I’m just anal enough to box them by head stamp.

Delete - Repetitive

When I get range brass, I form, anneal and trim it. When it gets loaded the first time, I run a brown marker around the primer. Next loading I use a red marker. Then orange. Skip yellow because it is hard to see, then on to green and blue.

Factory ammo gets a silver mark.

At the range, I know which brass on the ground is mine, and I always know where each case is in its life cycle.

To be honest, and as whuggett suggests, unless it's going into a target or benchrest rifle, bulk .223 is just a commodity... used until it separates or the primers fall out. I'm doing that with my .30-06 brass for my M1... it's got enough cycles on it that I'm starting to find case head weaknesses. I'll likely run it one more time and then scrap the lot. I guesstimate some of the brass has 5- or 6 cycles on it, some probably more... but it's what the overall lot does that dictates it's future.

.223, particularly for blasting ammo, just load it until you start to see issues. Could be 4 loadings, could be 12.

If you are really determined to keep them separated by firings, your best bet is to just get a few ammo cans. From this point, take all of them that have been fired once and dump them into a 50 cal ammo can(1200 cases should fit), and label it as 1x fired. Load from the 1x fired can, and toss them in to a can labeled 1x reloaded. Keep a third can and label it 2x fired. As you fire the ones from the 1x reloaded can, toss the brass into the 2x fired can. Don't do anything with the brass in the 2x fired can until you have emptied the 1x fired and turned them into 1x reloaded and put them in the appropriate can. When the 1x fired can becomes empty, label it 2x reloaded, and start filling it with reloads from the 2x fired can. Don't start shooting any of these until the 1x reloaded can is empty. When the 1x reloaded can is empty, label it 3x fired, and keep repeating the process as long as you wish. If you want to work in steps, just add in another can for the step along the way and instead of three cans, use four(1x fired, 1x prepped, 2x loaded, 2x fired), five cans(1x fired, 1x trimmed/swaged, 1x chamfered/deburred, 2x loaded, 2x fired), or however many cans you need in between for the steps you want to break them into. Obviously, the more "breakpoints" you want in the process, the more cans you need to keep them separated.

Having said that, if you are starting with range brass, you have no idea how many firings they truly have on them, so your best bet is to just inspect your brass as you load it, cull any questionable pieces, and call it a day.

I use plastic totes from Wally World to keep brass organized. I also make liberal use of those full sticky post it notes to tell me what’s in it and how many times I’ve fired them

AR. Hillbilly said:

I started loading about 20 years ago. I only ever loaded 25-06. I didn’t load a lot. I started with brass I’d saved and at one point I bought a new bag of 50. It was easy to keep track of on the small scale.
Now I’ve gotten into loading 223. I been loading what I shoot but I tend to be shooting much more than my ole deer rifle.
I just bought 1200 mixed range brass.
I have one tub for prepped brass and a bucket full of de-primed/resized brass and a bucket full of untouched.
I’m wanting to know how many times each has been fired?
Looking for an organized way to go through this all then start over. Hoping to take up as little space as possible all while keeping track of once fired twice fired and so on. I prefer to prep 50 to 100 at a time. I do like to de-prime/size in big batches.
Looking for advice on order of business.

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Here is my system. 243 is the caliber or course. MHK1 (MHK=Mohawk for the rifle) is the base lot number, which I have logged in a book. In this particular case, lot MHK1 is a small one of 50 rounds. The "Fire x 2" means the brass IN THIS BAG has been fired twice.

Start with your base lot, MHK1 50 rds new. If I pull 20 rounds out for testing and fire them, the fired cases go in a new bag marked MHK1 X 1. Eventually, all of MHK1 brass will end up in the X 1 bag. Then, if I pull out ten MHK1 X1 pieces for testing, those would go in a new bag marked like the picture MHK1 X 2. And so on and so on.

You can make your lots any size you want. I typically run 50 or 100 round lots because that is how I buy brass. If I am using found range brass, lot size will vary.

View attachment 970938

I do the same as Nature Boy, but use the little garage sale "dot" stickers, since I use the green ones to mark my shotgun reloads. (Green Dot. Get it?) When I loaded up the 3# of Unique a friend gave me, I used the orange dots.

I put tumbled brass for calibers I don't reload in baggies or small reused food containers.

AR. Hillbilly said:

I started loading about 20 years ago. I only ever loaded 25-06. I didn’t load a lot. I started with brass I’d saved and at one point I bought a new bag of 50. It was easy to keep track of on the small scale.
Now I’ve gotten into loading 223. I been loading what I shoot but I tend to be shooting much more than my ole deer rifle.
I just bought 1200 mixed range brass.
I have one tub for prepped brass and a bucket full of de-primed/resized brass and a bucket full of untouched.
I’m wanting to know how many times each has been fired?
Looking for an organized way to go through this all then start over. Hoping to take up as little space as possible all while keeping track of once fired twice fired and so on. I prefer to prep 50 to 100 at a time. I do like to de-prime/size in big batches.
Looking for advice on order of business.

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I've been pretty fortunate in buying 5.56 deprimed and swedged Lake City and Federal brass. Like you, I buy by the 1,000 and bullets (Hornady) as well. If you're buying from a military buying agent, they've probably only been fired once, and a lot will have come out of automatic weapons. No problem there other than worn chambers.

From public ranges, who knows? I personally got tired of all the different head stamps and started buying from military surplus. Pitched it. That's probably not important for range ammo. But, if it's swedged, then chances are high it's first fired. Close visual inspection is important. I mic anything suspect. Loose primer pockets get pitched.

I varmint hunt and want decent accuracy. I process and trim, weigh and separate, store in zip locks marked with the info. Some smaller bags are stuffed in a bigger bag waiting for a match. I try to load in lots of a least 500 and I test the load for the accuracy I want. I use plastic 100 round boxes to protect this ammo which is marked with all the info, and the fired brass goes into a plastic bag marked with that same info. I anneal at three firings. I take pretty good care of my hunting brass.

For range ammo, I don't bother with the boxes, just put it in ziplok plastic bags and keep track of firings.

I currently have three 1,000 zip lock bags of process brass stacked one in front of the other. Another zip lock of orphans. Doesn't take up a lot of room. I also have ten 10- round boxes of loaded ammo ready to go which doesn't take up much room either. A couple thousand primers, a couple thousand bullets .......

Harbor freight ammo cans are your friend along with 3x3:Avery labels. You can set them up anyway you like, this is how I do mine. I just check off each step as it gets done and I know what stage each can of brass is at. The cans can be had for 3.99 with a coupon and are hard to beat.

Could use some pointers...

Here's some spare pointers I can share...

rfwobbly said:

Could use some pointers...

Here's some spare pointers I can share...
View attachment 970943

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I use those every day now.

They show my path through the kitchen when I come in to get something.

Sometimes I even leave with what I think I actually came in the house for.

I don't keep track. Load it until it fails.

dredd said:

I use those every day now.

They show my path through the kitchen when I come in to get something.

Sometimes I even leave with what I think I actually came in the house for.

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Your pointers would work well with Round Tuits.

mrawesome22-250 said:

I don't keep track. Load it until it fails.

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I certainly do it that way with 22K Hornet brass or pistol brass. If you are OC enough, you can spend all of your time "keeping track" and no time doing anything else.