How do you keep keep track of high volume rifle brass?

[Dr.Zubrato]

Would like to hear from more experienced reloaders.

For example:
I keep my 223 brass that's been fired multiple times separately, and I keep reloading those same cases until the wheels fall off the bus, which gives me a good idea how much life to expect from mixed head-stamp brass at my current loads which are close to max.

I do this in batches, but I was wondering if I should continue firing all my brass to spread the love around, and have lots more 2x fired brass, than a bucket of 5-6x fired brass.
I guess I like knowing I have a bunch of once fired brass lying around somewhere, for more urgent matters like a training class or home defense.

Ideas?

 

[kostner]

All my brass is range pickup don't shoot any factory new ammo. That being saved for serious times that seems closer everyday.

 

[HDMF04]

I usually use my brass in cycles. I try to go thru all the twice fired up before moving to 3rd firing etc.

 

[rcmodel]

I don't try to keep much track of .223 cases.

I lose then in the weeds & gravel before they get loaded too many times.

Besides that, I check every one for a stretch ring after firing & resizing with a bent wire 'feeler ' during final case inspection before loading them again.

rc

 

[jwrowland77]

I have 10 100 round cases. I keep the same 100 together and I'll cycle through them. Let's say all 10 cases were loaded up, I'd fire 100 rounds and then I set them to the side. I'll go through all 10 cases before reloading again. I have brass sitting in the wing once I start having several in the same batch that start getting loose primer pockets and whatnot. Then I throw the whole lot in the recycle bin after crushing the necks.

I made it where I only shoot one case a month of those in matches. It's strictly match ammo. I made it though where it could get me through the year without having to load them again. I figure I got enough brass to last me awhile.

 

[plodder]

I have about 3,000 to 4,000 .223 cases in my normal rotation and usually leave the range with more than I brought. When I have a pile of 1000 to 1500 freshly fired, I will toss them in the stainless steel tumbler to clean them up and put them in the lineup for case prep & reloading.

 

[cfullgraf]

223 Rem blasting ammunition tends to be mixed brass and I don't keep track of much with it. I scrap cases when they shows signs of distress.

When I shot Service Rifle, I kept track of the number of times cases were loaded. Match cases were kept separated from the general population.

Other cartridges, it depends. For example, 204 Ruger I run hot to reach out and touch the prairie dogs so I want to know how many reloads are on the cases but 300 BLK i do not keep track but load more for extended case life.

And so forth.

 

[witchhunter]

I shoot pdogs mostly and I don't separate batches. I have between 500 and a thousand cases for those calibers that I load and shoot. I inspect them each time. If I shoot say 150 of one caliber, I just load em back up and put em back in the rotation, sometimes I lose a few to split necks. When I get down to around 300 of one size, I prep up a couple of hundred new ones. I like to keep a few hundred pieces of new brass in reserve. Been working for me for 35 or 40 years now.

 

[VrockTDSaz]

I don't try to keep much track of .223 cases.

I lose then in the weeds & gravel before they get loaded too many times.

Besides that, I check every one for a stretch ring after firing & resizing with a bent wire 'feeler ' during final case inspection before loading them again.

rc

RC: Can you explain what you are doing with the wire feeler in a bit more detail. I haven't heard of it before.

 

[rcmodel]

http://www.thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=9530461&postcount=7

Here is the best explanation I have seen on case stretch & how to 'feel' for it from Walkalong.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=8541053&postcount=11

http://www.thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=8541262&postcount=15

An L-bent paper-clip or piece of small stiff wire will work as well as a $20 buck stainless steel dental pick too!


Now, the next question is going go be, why does this happen?
When you fire a bottle-neck rife round, the brass expands under pressure to fill all available space in the chamber, while also pushing back between the case shoulder into the bolt face as hard as it can.

You have to have a certain very small amount of 'excess headspace' on the loaded round, or you could not chamber it.
It stretches on firing to fit.

Then when you re-size it again, the excess growth it pushed forward and makes case trimming necessary at some point.

But, the initial 'stretch' cannot be put back where it came from by resizing.
Which is at the point inside the case where the thick 'web' in front of the case head ends, and the thinner case wall begins.

So, eventually, a Stretch Ring will grow inside the case at that point.
And you can feel it if it's there with the above wire or dental pick.

If you keep on reloading it, the stretch ring continues to get deeper inside the case each time.
And the case will eventually crack & break at that point.

In other words, an incipient case head separation will become a complete case head separation if reloaded enough times.

Thats the best I got to try to explain it this late at night!

rc

 

[GJSchulze]

Either way you get the same number of reloads from them. The difference is when they start failing. If you only fire one batch until they wear out and then go to the next batch, you will experience failed brass sooner than if you go through them all once before reusing them. If you do the latter than you have a greater chance of losing them and replacing them before they fail, so you might actually see fewer failures.

 

[gamestalker]

For my bottle neck stuff, I have a bunch of bins, each one will have all 22-250, 6mm, .243, .280, 7mm RM, 30-06, 30-30, 300 wm, or what ever the flavor in it. Then inside each bin are large bags of head stamp sorted brass, which is then labeled with the number of times it's been loaded.

I used to just sort by head stamp, and then just do a close inspection of each piece, thus giving little consideration for the number of times it has been loaded. That always worked fine for me. But then I decided that I would also like to track the number of reloads per, though I still closely inspect it, I now know what my average life span is for different head stamps.

I also load very near or at max pressures, the little extra tracking kind of gives me a heads up as to how close I'm getting close to the last loading for that batch. But don't misunderstand me, I don't retire any brass based solely on it's history, if it's still in good condition, it gets loaded as usual.

GS

 

[medalguy]

I load rifle in batches. Every new batch has a paper tag with the box detailing the date loaded and how many times they have been loaded. Fired brass is kept separated by batch. When reloaded, they get a new batch number and the number of reloads is incremented by one. Easy to keep track.

Most of my rifle brass, usually military calibers, gets loaded 5 times then tossed. I don't bother checking each case before reloading and haven't experienced case separations yet.

Pistol brass just gets dumped back in the in and reloaded again.

 

[Walkalong]

I load .223 plinking/blasting ammo in batches. I internally check each case before loading. If a primer goes in too easily, I push it back out and scrap the case. When this starts happening a lot with a batch, I scrap the batch.

 

[345 DeSoto]

I have a couple of thousand LC pull down M1 Carbine that I keep, unfired. The couple thousand mixed range brass is sized, trimmed, belled, primed and stored in Military ammo cans. As I load these and use them, the fired brass goes into another ammo can. I keep loading out of one, and dumping into another....

 

[edfardos]

I make bags of 50 sorted by headstamp and i write down the number of times the bag has been reloaded. 223s get 10% neck splits after the 7th reload, so i chuck the entire bag after that.

30-06 is boxes of 20. Maybe 10 reloads until primer pocket is too loose, or fear of insipient head separation, which hasnt been an issue yet with neck sizing.

edfardos

 

[Arkansas Paul]

I toss em in a bucket.
Or with stuff like .243 or .30-06 I toss them in coffee cans.

I do the paper clip trick to check for impending case head separation but most of the time the neck splits before that happens.
I've never had an issue the way I do things. I have no idea how many times each case has been fired, but I carefully inspect each piece of brass after it comes out of the tumbler to make sure it is in good condition and safe to load.

 

[Walkalong]

I do the paper clip trick to check for impending case head separation but most of the time the neck splits before that happens.

Yep. If one is not over sizing the cases (pushing the shoulder too far back), this, or a loose primer pocket, will almost always happen first, which is a good thing.

 

[gamestalker]

Yep, the old paper clip trick.

I sharpen the tip, that way it will easily catch on the internal depression indicative of impending incipient head separation.

GS

 

[docsleepy]

I have had Mosin-Nagant and I think 308 cases begin to separate, had a Mosin-Nagant actually separate.

But I don't think I've ever had a 223 separate. I don't load mine very hot. And I try to set the sizer not to size them excessively. How many 223 cases have you had actually begin to separate?

 

[Walkalong]

I haven't had a .223 separate. They always get loose primer pockets first, with an occasional split in the neck.

I have seen once fired factory ammo show a bright line and even a partially split case in only one firing in a weapon with bad head space. That was not good. I do not know if the fellow ever got it checked out. I hope so. That was my advise to him.

Over sizing and/or big/bad chambers cause case head separations. Don't give the case too much space to stretch, and you'll be in good shape.