Brass management

[MOShooter]

Getting ready to start loading for a new 6slr. I have 500 pieces of new brass. How do you guys manage your brass? Do you use them in one big lot or do you put say 300 in rotation and then fill in as some wear out. I'm will be using it for tactical style shooting so I'm sure I will have some lost in the field.

Scott

 

[Lapua40X]

Even though I have done this historically, I intend to do in the future.
I'm considering using large lots of a couple of hundred because that enables me to control my inventory without having a mix of one batch with x number of firings and another batch with y number of firings which happens when some unforeseen circumstance leaves me with odd lots of fired brass.

 

[jcampbellsmith]

I keep my brass in boxes of 50 cases. I try and keep the batch of 50 cases together for its lifetime. Obviously cases go astray and a couple of boxes have only 46 cases in them at the minute.

Regards JCS

 

[Keith Glasscock]

I'm taking a different route with my F-open brass. Instead of rotating 500 cases, I'm running 300. The reason is this: I can realistically only work about 200 cases a day, and I'm shooting just over 1000 per caliber per year. With losses (i.e. bent necks, over annealed, whatever other way of messing them up I come up with) I have more than 200 that are available for match use. I can, for the most part, shoot entire matches with brass with the same number of firings. No matter what you do, there will be a little lash at the end of a firing cycle that you will have to decide what to do with.

One other thing, I really like to anneal the entire batch at once. I seem to get more consistent annealing results across the entire lot than doing small batches. As soon as I get home from whatever match ran me out of cases, I anneal them all.

 

[wildhog]

Boxes of 50 for their life time , 150 in rotation .
cull as I go . Will not replace a cull or damaged ever .
MarK times fired on the box . Fire every round in box , and move on .
When the end comes , Trash everything , including the barrel (in my case) .
JIM
. .

 

[P1ZombieKiller]

Depends on the caliber and what I expect barrel life and brass life to be.
If my barrel life is expected to be 1500 rounds, I use 150ish, and get 10x firings out of them.

If my barrel life is approx. 4000 firings, I use 200ish and get 20x firings... If I do not expect to get 20x firings...I still use 200, and then start a new 200 mid barrel life. Bring the "NEW" cases in as foulers each match. This way by the time I get to 20x firings on the initial 200, the next 200 have already been fire formed, and thus ready for the 2nd half o barrel life.

I ALWAYS start off with new unfired brass for each new barrel. I sale barrel and brass to a newer shooter cheap so they can get their feet wet. I remember when I started.... people gave me things.... Just trying to pay it back.

 

[MOShooter]

Thanks for al the feed back. I have a couple more questions. I have 2 different lots of brass, thank you midway. Do you guys mix lots? I've been weighing them. To have 300 that are within 1gr weight I will need to mix them. Do any of you guys shooting tactical/PRS style matches weight you brass that close? It seems like I will need to buy a lot of brass if I plan to lose 25% per match.

Scott

 

[P1ZombieKiller]

I personally do not weigh my brass. I shoot short range BR. But I do always use the same lot. I buy my Lapua brass from Powder Valley and always ask for the same lot of brass (and have always been granted my request).

I do have customers that ask for their brass to be weight sorted. When I do that, I get all the weights with in .2 grns for their order. If they order 100 pcs, I sometimes have to use 250ish pieces. I have used some Remington brass or a 260 once, and if I wanted to get 100 pieces of brass within the same .2 grain weigh limit, I may have had to use 500 pieces.... and then I may have to increase that span to .4 grains to accomplish it.

I am not sure what you mean by "lose 25% per match". In my discipline the only time I ever "lose" a piece of brass it's because I culled a piece out for what ever reason or it dropped and hit the concrete.

 

[Danattherock]

Great thread Scott. Really glad you asked, as I've given this thought myself. I notice my Lapua 223 brass varies from one end to the other by 2 grains. I sorted 300 to within a grain, but my buddy has 5,000 pieces of once fired Lake City and he is currently sorting by 1/10 gr. I don't have that much time (or brass). Also, I read something from Hornady, as I recall, that suggested volume was closer in some cases than weight would suggest. Variance in the web area was at the meat of the claim. For me personally, I have far more pressing matters to contend with regarding brass prep.

With regards to brass allocation and such, I'm changing my routine after what I read above. I have been tinkering with 25-35 at a time. I will start using 80-100 at a time, processing them all at same time, shooting them in order, etc. will be much easier to keep up with how many times I have fired them if nothing else. Read something here in an old thread about keeping brass in a mtm box for its life, marking with a sharpie a line on top for each firing. A few 100 round boxes would simplify my life along with the insights shared here.



Dan

 

[P1ZombieKiller]

Boxes of 50 for their life time , 150 in rotation .
cull as I go . Will not replace a cull or damaged ever .
MarK times fired on the box . Fire every round in box , and move on .

Hog has it right. I mark the times "LOADED" on my case. Those cases stay with that ammo box. If I have 200 pieces in rotation, I use FIVE 50 rd ammo boxes. Reason why is if I shoot 183 one weekend. I have 17 fired X times, but 183 fired X+1 times. I just add a ticky mark to the ammo box as I load them. So 183 fit in 4 boxes (3 full and 1 3/4 full) and the 17 fit in the 5th box. As I fire them, the empty cases go back in the SAME EXACT box till they come home. then they get cleaned, sized, loaded, and them moved to the next box.

 

[MOShooter]

Wes

I have read that in PRS style matches to expect to lose 25% for my cases on the course. They are often in taller grass or rocky terrain and some just get ejected to far to look. So if I plan to shoot 4-5 matches per year at 100-200 per match that is a noticeable amount of lost brass. If I need 500 pieces to get 300 within a 1gr range I could need a 1000 peices per year. I just wonder how deep I will need to get into my brass prep in order to shot 1moa out to a 1000y.

 

[P1ZombieKiller]

AHHH.... you mean lose as in "cant find"... gotcha...

If you shoot upwards of 200 per match, and lose 50 any given weekend, you will go through a lot of brass.
I won't loose 10 pieces of brass over the 4,000 round lifetime of my barrel... Only thing I can say is, hunker down and buy a HUGE LOT of brass.....

Like I said... I personally do not weight sort. I don't think it is worth it. Case volume (IMHO) may be worth a look at, but I personally don't take the time to do that.

 

[BountyHunter]

buy a metal detector!