How do you track your brass?

H

Helter

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Jul 1, 2011
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45
#1
I see people commenting pretty regularly how many firings they get out of their brass. What mechanism do you use to keep track? Do you just keep it separate? Or mark the brass in some way?

Keeping it separate would seem to be a little unwieldy... If you don't have much brass (like me), then you can't load and mix different batches on the same range trip, which limits how many rounds you can take out without mixing them up. If you have a lot of brass, then you what, keep a different container for each level of firing? Fire all of your once fired, then move on the twice fired?

Just curious, what method does everyone use? I was going to just put a hash mark on the base of my brass with a sharpie, but figured I'd ask first.
 
#2
Re: How do you track your brass?

First, I would start with enough brass. Not the place to skimp. If you are shooting precision rifle. Pistol plinking would be a different story.
You can mark the headstamp with Sharpies, notch the rim, use different colored primers, keep them organized as you shoot, e.g., put the fired brass back in the same place the loaded round was kept.
Good luck!
 
#3
Re: How do you track your brass?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: targaflorio</div><div class="ubbcode-body">First, I would start with enough brass. Not the place to skimp. If you are shooting precision rifle. Pistol plinking would be a different story.
You can mark the headstamp with Sharpies, notch the rim, use different colored primers, keep them organized as you shoot, e.g., put the fired brass back in the same place the loaded round was kept.
Good luck! </div></div>

I've been thinking of maybe buying a big batch of once fired brass, but until then I'm just keeping the factory brass that I shoot. I guess I'll try the sharpies on the headstamp method, see how that works out. I'm nowhere near organized enough to try keeping them segregated.
Thanks!
 
#4
Re: How do you track your brass?

I have tupperware type bins for each caliber I reload. Sometimes I will further separate by the maker of the brass, i.e. 7.62 Lake City vs Federal Match 308.

Within each bin I have large ziplock freezer backs that are simply labeled 1XFired, 2XFired, etc. So far this is working for me.
 
#6
Re: How do you track your brass?

I buy a couple of thousand of once fired FGMM. I load and then reload the first thousand with annealing when they need it. I get about 6 reloads from each...when they all die it is new barrel time anyway.
 
#8
Re: How do you track your brass?

I usually spend the chunk of change and get at least 250 pieces of brass. When you load and shoot say 25 rounds, take those fired cases and put them in a box. Now this is the tricky part, and why i get 250 pieces minimum. The trick is, dont reload your fired cases in your fired box until you fire your whole batch. Once your whole batch has been loaded and fired, then you can take your now full fired box, prep them and load them again. This is the simplest way for me to keep track of how many times ive fired my cases. And you wont have the issue of some cases having 4 reloads on them with the rest having two reloads. And you only need 2 boxes, ready to load, and fired. No markers, scratched cases, different primers or any other confusing crap. Hope this helps.
grin.gif
 
#10
Re: How do you track your brass?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Ballistic artist</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I usually spend the chunk of change and get at least 250 pieces of brass. When you load and shoot say 25 rounds, take those fired cases and put them in a box. Now this is the tricky part, and why i get 250 pieces minimum. The trick is, dont reload your fired cases in your fired box until you fire your whole batch. Once your whole batch has been loaded and fired, then you can take your now full fired box, prep them and load them again. This is the simplest way for me to keep track of how many times ive fired my cases. And you wont have the issue of some cases having 4 reloads on them with the rest having two reloads. And you only need 2 boxes, ready to load, and fired. No markers, scratched cases, different primers or any other confusing crap. Hope this helps.
grin.gif
</div></div>

Ok, that's about my speed organization wise.
Once I finish my factory ammo I'll have about 250 brass, so that will work out well.
 
#11
Re: How do you track your brass?

For me I don't really. As the primer pockets open up I just throw them away. For example after MW Palma at Lodi my one batch of Lapua .308 has some primer pockets that are a little loose now after about 4 firings. Going to load them up again but as soon as they can't hold a primer theyll be gone. My course ammo usually gets thrown back in the box after it is cleaned and I rotate the boxes so they all get equal wear but its a guess I'm sure there are some rounds that have been fired twice while others are four times. I don't see it being that big of a deal.
 
#12
Re: How do you track your brass?

I use gallon plastic bags with the caliber and number of times fired on the outside. Once prepped and primed it goes into another bag with the same thing written on it. I start with atleast 500 pieces of brass.
 
#13
Re: How do you track your brass?

Well now I'm feeling a bit anal about keeping up with brass. I do admire B A's simple approach. Two boxes and done.

I separate into 50 round boxes and keep a log of what prep work is done after each firing. Years of ISO AND FDA compliance have left me with the handicap. The 5 x 10 boxes really help keeping up with how many rounds are fired at each target during a match.

OFG
 
#14
Re: How do you track your brass?

Large Folgers plastic coffee containers, the red ones with the black snap-on lids. One holds 250 .308 cases. The family's coffee addiction yields an empty one every couple of weeks so there's never a shortage. I have two for each caliber I shoot. One stays in the drawer at my loading bench and holds the supply I load from. After shooting, the brass goes into the second container, which is marked with the number of firings using a sharpie on the outside of the container. When you cycle through the brass, just swap containers and re-mark the containers with the number of firings. If you run out of writing room on the container, just tell mother to save the next one for ya.
 
#15
Re: How do you track your brass?

Best way for me to deal with large amounts of brass is this. I have several large plastic dish washing tubs I got from Wallyworld for $2 each. When I buy my once fired brass, I do a full prep on the whole lot and separate by head stamp and store them in large freezer bags, which happen to stack perfectly in my plastic tubs. I mark each bag with a sharpie with the head stamp, what state of prep it's in, and how many times fired. I also have them organized by state of prep and caliber. Bags that are ready to go are front of the far left tub for that caliber, to the x fired stuff I just brought home needing a full prep on the back of the far right tub. Now that I explain it, it sounds kinda anal. But it's really simple and keeps me organized and I can just grab whatever brass I'm looking for right away.
 
#16
Re: How do you track your brass?

+1 with Rob: Start with 500+ pieces of brass, prep them all, sort them into gallon bags and batches of roughly 150-200 pieces. Keep the batches together; shoot them together; trim and anneal them together, and throw them into the recycle bin together. When you are using the last batch and the others have all been recycled, buy 500+ pieces of new brass. Start the process once again.

In the desert storing in plastic bags is not an issue; in Houston, each bag had a VPI tab to keep the brass from corroding.

Jeffvn
 
#17
Re: How do you track your brass?

This is what I do, once I've settled on a load. Caseguard boxes, with the "good Hinges" I try to load batches of 200, at a time.<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: InTraining</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I keep 50 each in a plastic box with a sticky label on the underside of the lid. After firing all 50, I put another hash mark on the label. Keep count this way.

DV </div></div>
 
#18
Re: How do you track your brass?

I usually just laser etch a unique bar code into each piece. After firing, I use a bar code scanner which integrates with my database. When a case is scanned the # of firings automatically gets incremented. It includes graphs, some warning prompts, tolerances, etc....

Otherwise, when I'm feeling lazy I just anneal. I'm always feeling lazy.

But if anyone is interested in the bar code system and have alittle bit of technical savy, I posted a howto video here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_zvEm1KyQ8

 
#19
Re: How do you track your brass?

This is definately something i need to start doing better. I do it really well (i think) with my rounds i shoot matches with, but my plinker brass has just been eyed for the 3-5 loadings i've had for them so far.

Break Bad for the win...
 
#20
Re: How do you track your brass?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Break Bad</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I usually just laser etch a unique bar code into each piece. After firing, I use a bar code scanner which integrates with my database. When a case is scanned the # of firings automatically gets incremented. It includes graphs, some warning prompts, tolerances, etc....

Otherwise, when I'm feeling lazy I just anneal. I'm always feeling lazy.

But if anyone is interested in the bar code system and have alittle bit of technical savy, I posted a howto video here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_zvEm1KyQ8

</div></div>

I put an RFID tag on each piece of brass, and have installed an RFID reader/writer that is activated by the trigger, in addition to a pressure sensor that confirms the round actually fired upon trigger pull. The RFID writer then increments the round count on that piece of brass, as well as recording pressure trace data. A highly sophisticated algorithm that I created correlates number of firings and pressure data to calculate when the case's life cycle is complete. The Satellite communicator in the rifle then uploads this data to "the cloud", as well as data-backup on a hard drive and an old school tape drive, so that no data is ever lost.

My press also has an RFID reader, that will activate an alarm bell, as well as the automatic case rejection system that kicks the case out of my press, into an incinerator that destroys that case. The press has a headspace checking system and primer pocket diameter gage that updates the RFID with pertinent data. Again, all data is stored in the cloud, the hard drive and a tape drive.

when the battery dies, I use gallon size freezer bags. They will hold about 350 .308 cases. An index card in the bag gets one extra "talley mark" once they all get resized and prepared for their next firing.
 
#21
Re: How do you track your brass?

I feel so much better, reading this. i started to think I was getting a little "Close to the edge". I find myself sitting in my shop, alone, in the wee hours of the night. Scrubbing primer pockets, and running the tumbler. I think I might be a "BIT" crazy?<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: turbo54</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Break Bad</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I usually just laser etch a unique bar code into each piece. After firing, I use a bar code scanner which integrates with my database. When a case is scanned the # of firings automatically gets incremented. It includes graphs, some warning prompts, tolerances, etc....

Otherwise, when I'm feeling lazy I just anneal. I'm always feeling lazy.

But if anyone is interested in the bar code system and have alittle bit of technical savy, I posted a howto video here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_zvEm1KyQ8

</div></div>

I put an RFID tag on each piece of brass, and have installed an RFID reader/writer that is activated by the trigger, in addition to a pressure sensor that confirms the round actually fired upon trigger pull. The RFID writer then increments the round count on that piece of brass, as well as recording pressure trace data. A highly sophisticated algorithm that I created correlates number of firings and pressure data to calculate when the case's life cycle is complete. The Satellite communicator in the rifle then uploads this data to "the cloud", as well as data-backup on a hard drive and an old school tape drive, so that no data is ever lost.

My press also has an RFID reader, that will activate an alarm bell, as well as the automatic case rejection system that kicks the case out of my press, into an incinerator that destroys that case. The press has a headspace checking system and primer pocket diameter gage that updates the RFID with pertinent data. Again, all data is stored in the cloud, the hard drive and a tape drive.

when the battery dies, I use gallon size freezer bags. They will hold about 350 .308 cases. An index card in the bag gets one extra "talley mark" once they all get resized and prepared for their next firing. </div></div>
 
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