How Do You Manage Your Case Use?

Walkalong said:
I posted about pistol cases because that’s what the OP mentioned.

Rifle cases:

.223 play ammo? I track number of firings and shoot cases until they start showing signs of the batch failing. The occasional loose primer pocket case gets scrapped, the odd neck split gets scrapped, but if a batch is nearing end of life, a dozen firings, and those things get common, the batch gets scrapped.

All other rifle gets tracked, some play ammo, some match ammo. Cases for match ammo are closely scrutinized each firing, and everything done to that case is documented.
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Yes I did. That’s all I load but the rifle stuff is another level.
 
GeoDudeFlorida said:
Albert. Yup. We’re getting plenty of rain to keep him and his kin happy.
I think what you really need is an engraving tool. Engrave a fancy scroll on each case with numbers in an oval going around the base from 1-10. Each time a case is fired, put a dot in the corner of the numbers oval. Four dots in each and the case is retired. (40 firings).
View attachment 1153753

Image from The Propstore public website. Yes, it is a live 9mm JHP.
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Hmmm, with “if found return to…”
 
When it's important to me, I'll buy a 500 or 1000 piece lot of new brass. As they get used, I'll tumble them and toss them into a big bag marked "once fired" or something similar. Once all of them are in that bag, I'll start the cycle over, tossing the empties into a "twice fired" bag, etc. Eventually I will start getting enough splits to toss the whole lot and start over with a fresh lot of brass.
 
CQB45ACP said:
Hmmm, with “if found return to…”
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There are hobbyist machines for doing this by the way. Not cheap (laser about $1800) through fairly inexpensive (CNC monograph at HD about $180). Or you can go old school with a loupe and metal pencil. You refer to your brass as jewelry - shouldn’t it be embellished?
 
When dealing with large quantity of brass , just use multiple buckets to store brass in different states. Loaded ammo goes into a box. Once shot goes into a bucket. Once it's cleaned it goes into another bucket labeled clean. As I load up the cleaned brass it goes into a different storage box. It's not shot till the earlier batch is used up. I do put a load card in with the loaded ammo indicating load data and # of times it's been reloaded.
 
Thanks for the suggestions.

I think I’m going to take 200 of each caliber and shoot just one headstamp until they’re worn out then move on to another headstamp.

I’ll start with Winchester for each caliber and it’ll take a while for each because of current number of Winchester on hand.

I shoot 100/wk X 2 and will clean and prepare those while loading the next week’s 200. I’m not really sure I can keep that pace though. May have to go to three batch’s per caliber.

I’m not adding cases to the mix except to replace lost or bad ones—want to keep full inventory. Will skew longevity but this isn’t about record keeping anyway. I’m not going to maintain any records as to how many times I’ve used the cases.

For sure I’m doing this for 45acp but 9mm ammo prices are coming down as is my SPP inventory so I may pause reloading it.

Thanks again
 
There's really no way to keep track of firings for semi-auto brass (esp. 9mm), since it falls with all the other range brass I scoop up, unless you want to start using a Sharpie to ID your own brass. I don't see the benefit in that unless you're competing in bullseye shooting, so for pistol brass, I have one or two clean brass buckets and a dirty bucket. When I'm getting low on ammo, I reload all the clean brass and then wet tumble all the dirty brass and move it into the "clean" bucket. That helps assure there's some rotation to the brass, anyway. I shoot it until it splits or becomes damaged, which is rarely. Some of my .45 Auto brass has headstamps back into the '60's. There's no telling how many times it's been loaded.

The only other thing I do is to cull some of the oddball and more beat up looking stuff. After I load up a batch of 9mm, I'll go through all the reloads and pull out the oldest looking, most beat up brass, those with cannelures, and/or oddball headstamps I may notice and mark the case heads of those with a black Sharpie stripe. I set those aside for when I'm shooting in the snow or some other condition where I won't be able to recover my brass.

I treat rifle brass a little differently depending on caliber and purpose.
 
koz4guns said:
The only pistol brass I track is my long line 45acp for bullseye, all of the rest I just shoot until it fails.
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I know 2700 Bullseye Shooters who do that, and also carefully keep track of their short range ammunition. I don't remember if I finally met my 45 ACP goal of keeping all ten 50 yards on the repair center , so I know, it is not the ammunition that is holding me back. And I am skeptical that all the brass segregating those conscientious shooters do, actually makes a difference on target. I do believe it makes a psychological difference to the shooter.

If you believe your lucky charm helps, then better have your lucky charm on the firing line.

I have yet to see a 50 yard clean at a match. Been some very impressive 25 yard cleans, seen some 98's and I think a 99 at 50 yards, but no cleans at 50 yards. I am very happy to shoot a 50 yard score in the middle to upper 80's with a 45.
 
Blue68f100 said:
When dealing with large quantity of brass , just use multiple buckets to store brass in different states. Loaded ammo goes into a box. Once shot goes into a bucket. Once it's cleaned it goes into another bucket labeled clean. As I load up the cleaned brass it goes into a different storage box. It's not shot till the earlier batch is used up. I do put a load card in with the loaded ammo indicating load data and # of times it's been reloaded.
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This is literally life goals, 5 gallon brass batches....
 
9mm is so plentyfull, I only track my new brass.

I keep my new 9mm brass that's been fired once in one bucket, and a separate bucket for all other 9mm brass. After the once fired brass has been loaded and fired again, it goes in the other bucket. So I only have three classes of brass, "New", "once fired" and "plinking" . When I get a few hundred rds in either of the fired bucket, it gets cleaned and sorted and labeled and thats when I check for cracks.
 
For my pistol brass, it goes in an ammo can when when it comes home. All my brass is range pickup, and most is once fired. When the can gets full, I deprime it all then wet tumble it. Next it gets resized, flared, then primed to be stored in another can. All my brass gets stored primed unless it's dirry. My ammo can shelf has 3 shelves, bottom is dirty range pickup, next shelf is primed and ready to load, and the top shelf is loaded ammo cans. Any extra brass is stored in cat litter buckets primed and ready to load. 9mm, 38, and 357 I don't measure, trim, separate by headstamp, track or sort in any way.
I do sort my brass in 223, only Lake City for the precision AR, only Win for the Savage bolt, and the other AR gets the rest. Only the LC brass gets tracked as to number of firings. Nothing I load is max, it's loaded for accuracy at under 300 and should hopefully last a little while.
 
I separate mine by headstamps also. I think it does help but it may be psychological like Slamfire said.
I have enough 9mm brass to last the rest of my life also now. It's sorted and sealed in bags.
I shoot them until they split also, my problem is mine don't split. I dry them under an inferred heater and I think it is softening them back up a little every time I do it. Because my brass is sorted, I know which brass is mine when I get back from the range. The only split cases I find are someone else's cases that get mixed in with mine.
I used to find them all the time, until I moved to NC and started using the inferred heater to dry them.
I can't prove it but it sure leans that direction.
At any rate, now I don't pay attention to how many times they have been fired. If I want to load 1200 I pick a bag that has 1200 in it and use that headstamp.

I'm with the rest of the guys that load their favorite loads in larger volumes and shoot them till they are gone.
These jars hold about 1250 9mms.
9mm jars.jpg Each jar is one of my favorite loads, and they all shoot good in all my 9mms.

I sort them and bag them like this. 0119191619.jpg So when I want to load they are sorted and ready to go.
9mm for Q5 SF Pro.jpg Here is some food for my Q5 Walther.
I shoot, deprime and clean, sort, bag, load and repeat.
 
tightgroup tiger said:
I separate mine by headstamps also. I think it does help but it may be psychological like Slamfire said.
I have enough 9mm brass to last the rest of my life also now. It's sorted and sealed in bags.
I shoot them until they split also, my problem is mine don't split. I dry them under an inferred heater and I think it is softening them back up a little every time I do it. Because my brass is sorted, I know which brass is mine when I get back from the range. The only split cases I find are someone else's cases that get mixed in with mine.
I used to find them all the time, until I moved to NC and started using the inferred heater to dry them.
I can't prove it but it sure leans that direction.
At any rate, now I don't pay attention to how many times they have been fired. If I want to load 1200 I pick a bag that has 1200 in it and use that headstamp.

I'm with the rest of the guys that load their favorite loads in larger volumes and shoot them till they are gone.
These jars hold about 1250 9mms.
View attachment 1153904 Each jar is one of my favorite loads, and they all shoot good in all my 9mms.

I sort them and bag them like this. View attachment 1153905 So when I want to load they are sorted and ready to go.
View attachment 1153906 Here is some food for my Q5 Walther.
I shoot, deprime and clean, sort, bag, load and repeat.
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Ay, Caramba!
 
kidneyboy said:
I am in this same camp. Separating by head stamp, which I still occasionally do, makes the press run better not the shooter.
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I agree and didn’t have to be told different brand cases had different characteristics. Very early on I quickly “felt” the difference between a Federal case and say a Winchester as I was expanding/priming or seating or taper crimping. Difference in brass thickness I suppose, but I can remember as I thought “there’s a Federal.”

But I didn’t separate them by headstamp until several years later. And it didn’t change my shooting performance one iota.
 
kidneyboy said:
I am in this same camp. Separating by head stamp, which I still occasionally do, makes the press run better not the shooter.
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I have to agree with this. I sort by head stamp if I have enough of a single type to make a batch. The press ends up having a very consistent feel, and if something is off you will know it right away. When I load with mixed brass, it seems every brand has a different feel, some sizes different and some seat bullets different. No real rhyme or reason, although some brass is more noticeable during these operations.

Same head stamp brass MAY be more consistent in the way it shoots, but I honestly can't shoot well enough to tell a difference. But I like having a box of ammo that's all as identical as I can make it, so I'll continue to sort my brass if I have enough.

Concerning tracking the number of loadings, I just don't. I tried when I first started reloading and got to maybe three before brass started getting mixed up. For me it's a waste of time and energy. Instead I inspect my brass before and during loading and take appropriate action when I find a problem. If I were competing or shooting at long range targets I would probably do things differently.

chris
 
CQB45ACP said:
I’m trying to figure a better method of circulating my 9mm & 45acp brass usage and could use suggestions.
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I shoot, sort, clean and reload. I have 45 ACP brass that’s older than me and I’m not a spring chicken.

I have come across some over the years, than have been loaded and fired enough times to not have readable information on the head stamp and they were still going. I have often wondered how many trips that’s took
 
jmorris said:
I shoot, sort, clean and reload. I have 45 ACP brass that’s older than me and I’m not a spring chicken.

I have come across some over the years, than have been loaded and fired enough times to not have readable information on the head stamp and they were still going. I have often wondered how many trips that’s took
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Of course it could be your eyesight. Like mine:)
 
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