Sorting brass question...

[RemingtonAI]

Hey guys, I have a question about keeping your brass in batches of number of times fired. I am reloading .308Win and i do not sort my brass into weight groups when i first get it. I do however try to keep them in batches of how many times they have been fired for hardening/ spring back reasons (as it relates to bumping and neck tension). I do not anneal.
So, when i am doing load development and conducting different tests, i often do not need the entire batch of say 50 cases that have been fired x times. Different tests require a different number of rounds and I may have a batch of say 50 cases that have all been fired the same number of times but i may only need 35 of them. You don't want to load the other 15 just to keep your batch "together"...do you? Now that i am typing this i realize it may be advantageous for me to just do it that way.
What do you guys do? just load the 35 out of the 50 in the batch, and get stuck with 15 left over which you then put in their own pile and wait for other batches to catch up to their number of times fired in order to combine them? Sounds like what i did when i started reloading but stopped doing because it was so excessive to have a ton of different brass batches all with a varying number of times fired. Not to mention the space it takes up just keeping them separated.
Last weekend i combined a few batches with different amounts of firings, and when there was variances in bump from spring back i just left them as is (.003 ES) to see if i could get decent accuracy. Of course this was real life and not a dream so it didn't work out so well...as expected.
Thanks for your input, experience, and methodology in advance. Jesse

 

[Mozella]

Next thing you know, you'll have seven hundred baggies of different vintages of brass. Why not built a "Skip Design" DIY case annealing machine? I anneal every time and I forget about keeping track of number of times my brass is fired. When the primer pockets eventually wear out, I toss them. Until then, I just shoot them.

There are plenty of things to keep track of as it is, especially if you have more than one brand of brass. If you believe consistency is the key to precision, then you'll drive your self nuts trying to keep three-times-fired brass separated from once-fired, twice-fired, four-times-fired, and so on.

All my brass is always freshly annealed.

 

[ireload2]

You really have no choice except the following:
1. Use a large lot of brass (say 100 to 200) and go through them in sequence. You might have a second lot of 50 to 100 for a bridge when you have to resize all of the first lot.

2. Use all small lots and load each one of them and manage to keep track of all of that.
In 7X57 Mauser I have lots that are anywhere from 100 to 300 but there are about a dozen lots because of so many different head stamps.
R-P, WW, PPU, Norma, FC, Frontier, Cavim come to mind. It is nice to have so much brass but it is more than I can manage by memory so I have to keep an inventory using a spread sheet. I do not like keeping track of all this brass. These are not small lots but this is one case where many lots are a headache.


I prefer to have a large lot and go through it in sequence. I like to have at least 2 lots of 100 and a lot of 50 plus a few spares if I have infant mortality in a case.

 

[LHSmith]

In an MTM 50 capacity box, I mark the ones not shot in that rotation with a stripe on the case head, then mark the # of times fired on the rear inside edge of the box....for example the markings on the left bank of cases would be IIII (4 hash marks) the right bank would be marked III. If cases are annealled, I note the x fired at time of anneal.

 

[joshb]

I gave up. With about 4000 to try to keep track of, I said nuts. I get a bunch for each "precision" gun (2-300) sorted and anneal every loading. For the fun/training 223 and 308s, I load them all up and make bags of 100. When I shoot them, the empties stay in the bag with a note saying " once fired" or "twice fired" and go in a drawer. At the third firing, they all get annealed. Usually winter work.

 

[Twoboxer]

My precision brass is kept in batches (of ~100 cases), and case prep operations are tracked. If A batch has 15 cases left and I need 50, I make the 15 and put them in one box then make 35 from another batch and put them in another box. Or I use two different color sharpie stripes across the bases to identify one batch from the other, and put them in the same box.

Works with any batch sizes of the same cases and seems simple enough to me.

 

[XTR]

I gave up. I just anneal everything and toss the ones with loose primers.

 

[Lapua40X]

You'll drive yourself nuts trying to keep small batches of brass separated by number of times fired. I tried it. Loaded 80 rounds of twice fired brass for a match; fired fifty. Now I don't have enough for the next match. So I have to take some unfired brass or some from my three times fired batch to make up the difference but I can't allow them to become commingled during the match or I'll lose track of which is which.
Takes a lot of fun out of the shooting sport.
IMO, Mozella has the right answer.

 

[RemingtonAI]

Currently i use a barrage of sharpies, charts and notes. I have limited space at home but just got approved for a house with a good size garage. Also have an extra room inside for reloading now. So looks like I'll be building an annealer to go next to my lathe in the garage!

 

[Zero333]

I have batches of 300 to 500 cases for each of my cartridges. Once all 300-500 are used up I, size & clean the whole batch, then reload and shoot as much as I need at the time till the whole batch is used up again, then back to sizing and cleaning the whole batch again.

I Anneal Lapua brass ever 3 reloads. Winchester brass every 4 or 5, and F.C. every 4.

 

[amlevin]

I gave up. I just anneal everything and toss the ones with loose primers.

Same here. A lot easier and rather than waste primers on loose pockets I check all pockets after cleaning with a Ballistic Tools G0/NO-GO gauge. By annealing after every firing, seating pressures are a lot more even as well.

 

[XTR]

Same here. A lot easier and rather than waste primers on loose pockets I check all pockets after cleaning with a Ballistic Tools G0/NO-GO gauge. By annealing after every firing, seating pressures are a lot more even as well.

I have thrown away a lot of perfectly good primers over the yrs. I may have to get one of those.

 

[dcali]

I don't worry about it. I typically take 80 rounds to a match, and leave 20 cases (out of an initial lot of 100) unloaded. When I get back to loading, I try to make sure those twenty get loaded for the next round. Sometimes I forget and they get mixed up. I don't think it matters. As the lot gets older, I may have some cases that have been fired 12 times mixed with others that have been fired 9 times. No biggy. I don't usually anneal.

If I was going to anneal every couple firings, I'd care even less. But for the shooting I do (mostly 600 yard F T/R) there's really no need for all that fuss, as I haven't noticed inconsistency increase with brass age.

 

[jcampbellsmith]

I struggled with this question for a while. My current approach is to keep the brass in 50 round cases. If I use 36 on load development, I'll use the remaining 14 for practice. Obviously over time I lose cases, so some now have 46 cases. I find ~50 260 Rem cases tumble nicely in a small steel pins tumbler too. I'm annealing every time too nowadays.

Regards

JCS

 

[amlevin]

I have thrown away a lot of perfectly good primers over the yrs. I may have to get one of those.

It's actually more than just throwing away good primers. By "gauging" the primer pockets prior to loading, and discarding the oversized ones, you also are lowering the chances of "etching" the bolt face when a loose pocketed primer leaks.

 

[RemingtonAI]

Thanks for your input guys! I see that there is no rocket science to it or "golden method". Going to try a mix of the above methods and continue my search for the most efficient way to do it. Jesse

 

[XTR]

... lowering the chances of "etching" the bolt face when a loose pocketed primer leaks.

Too late for that one. My bolt faces are definitely not un-touched.

 

[IdahoSharpshooter]

For my 308 W, I went thru the process of sorting 500 Hornady Match cases, and then stuck them in boxes of 50 matched as best I could. My 6 Dasher brass will be LAPUA, which makes most of the standard sorting process unnecessary.

 

[danny]

For my 308 W, I went thru the process of sorting 500 Hornady Match cases, and then stuck them in boxes of 50 matched as best I could. My 6 Dasher brass will be LAPUA, which makes most of the standard sorting process unnecessary.

I have not had a real problem with keeping a lot segregated by number of times fired. I keep the lot in differing containers, or a bag, depending upon the amount of brass, according to the number of times fired. Sometimes you have to load up a batch that spans two differing numbers of times fired. In that case, I blacken one set of cases with the same amount of firings, then make a mental note of it. When I get home from a match, I segregate the brass into their differing batches according to the number of times fired. I guess that you can make this as simple or as complex as you wish, but what I have done seems to be simple to me. You could make it as simple as one of my friends does. All brass that he picks up at a match, brass that he can't tell is his or not, because he needs reading glasses to read the headstamps, and doesn't wear them at matches is "his". Anything that got picked up goes right to being reloaded with max. loads for 1000 yards with no further attention to what the brass is. Needles to say, he has loaded max. loads in cases of a smaller capacity that were not his, from what he developed his loads with. I do not recommend being that loose with reloading procedures, though.

Danny

 

[USMCDOC]

Same here. A lot easier and rather than waste primers on loose pockets I check all pockets after cleaning with a Ballistic Tools G0/NO-GO gauge. By annealing after every firing, seating pressures are a lot more even as well.

Thanks for mentioning this.. i was unaware of this lil tool!