Poll: How organized are you with brass?

[OldSchool]

Tried piggy-backing on another thread but was unsuccessful, and didn't quite find the answers in a search, so here's a different try. Hope my first poll effort is acceptable!

Opinions desired.
Should this be by type of round, e.g., rifle vs. revolver vs. pistol?
Sorting by headstamp includes separating different styles of headstamps for a given manufacturer.

ETA: "...keeping track of the reloadings for a case" means discarding the case after a specific number of reloads (how many?), as compared to discarding only when there is visible damage.

An explanation:

We need the guidance, as we have just recently been convinced to start reloading for our starving rifles (it's hard to listen to them whimper for food).
Yes, there is ammo that's harder to find than .380!
We're making up our wish list (and scratching things off for later -- danged budget!).

While reading the Lyman manual early this week, I ran across the recommendations to not use range pickup brass, and to mark and organize all brass by brand (makes a lot of sense) and lot # (makes sense, but it seems like a lot of unnecessary work). That all made me concerned, as we have a fair amount of scavenged brass already, and it'll be hard enough to keep track of our own!

The typical range rat reloader would seem to be in mortal danger....

I gather from answers elsewhere that the (soft? ) 45 ACP is very forgiving of multiple reloadings. While we use 45 ACP more than anything else at the moment, our other handguns (.357 mag) and rifles (30-30, 32sp, 30-06) provide just a bit more pressure.
For those kinds of loads, how far do folks go in following those Lyman recommendations? Is it really just a matter of watching for "bright rings" and cracks, rather than numbering and tracking each case (just kidding)?
(And I agree with no Al or Fe -- Cu + Zn is juuuust right.)

[longtooth]

Handgun brass sorted by once fired or reloaded.
Reload it til the case fails.

Rifle is different.
Sort by headstamp.
Trim to same length.
Keep # of times loaded all in same batch.
Check Zero when changing brass, powder, or bullet.

[NcongruNt]

I'm sort of a mix of your options, so I selected a few.

If I have enough of any one headstamp within manufacturer, I'll separate them out. This is true for Winchester, Remington, and PRVI Partizan (which includes Monarch). Most of their brass is the same, but I separate out NATO, +P, and nickel-plated cases.

In the case of Speer/CCI/Blazer, I don't have enough of any one headstamp to justify separate jars right now, so they're all mingled at the moment. This will change as I collect more, and they will get separated out eventually, and I have no plans to shoot them in any other lot. Again, +P and Nickel-plated cases get separated out.

I don't keep by lot numbers or any of that. Part of what I have is range pickups, part of it is mine, part of it I get from other people - presumably once-fired. I try to collect my brass after shooting reloads, keeping them separate from anything else I've fired and picked up during the session. This gives me a chance to closer inspect them when I get back home, just to make sure they don't show any problems (both with the load and with the gun). I'm just starting out, so this is more of a precaution until I'm more familiar with reloading in general, though I think it's a good habit to do this when working up any load and is something I plan on continuing indefinitely for new loads. Currently, I'm only reloading Winchester standard brass, and it's easy to keep track of. Winchester uses brass-colored primers in all of (as far as I have seen) their standard ammo, so I can easily distinguish my reloads because they're WIN-stamped with silver primers. Any such cases I pick up are easy to distinguish with fairly high confidence as stuff I've just fired.

I will note that I don't think a lot of this stuff matters all that much. I just like to control as many variables as possible, especially when building skills for something new. It's also in my nature to organize things this way, so there's that.

I do think that different manufacturers, while still building cases to spec, vary slightly in some small dimensions such as rim depth. Even within Winchester brass, I've found a small bit of variation here that can cause OAL to differ from case to case. When measuring rounds after seating, I've had variance of .009" between different rounds seated in the same seating without a change of dies. Just to check this, I'll measure the next round, which will seat to the depth I'd calibrated do, tap the shorter bullet out significantly with a puller, then reseat it again to find that it still ends up with the shorter OAL. While this small amount of variation shouldn't be a safety issue in general, I'd like my loads to be consistent as possible - particularly with a high-pressure load like 9mm. Since cases would likely vary even more than this between different manufactures, I keep headstamps separate just as a quality control procedure so that I can keep the loads as consistent as possible.

While I haven't yet started loading rifle brass, my planned procedure is similar to longtooth's. The only difference is that if it's used for bolt-action, it gets separated by gun as well. This will keep me from having to do full-length resizes, saving stress on the case and giving them more length of life. In the case that there's a variance on bore (for example, between my Mosin Nagant M44 and 91/30), I can load different diameter bullets tailored to a specific gun, again without having to do a full-length resize.

[MoJo]

Handgun brass? I just clean it and load it until I either lose it or it cracks. Rifle brass? I sort it by manufacturer (most of the time) and load it until it gets lost or cracks. If I were shooting for ultimate accuracy all my brass would be the same brand and lot sorted by weight. I'm not that anal about accuracy any more - - - minute of washtub is good enough.

[javieljb]

I'm a newb at reloading (2000ish) and am only loading .223s for now. I only group by headstamp and try to keep the same group together by number of times reloaded. But I guess I first group by number of times reloaded, then by headstamp. I've reloaded only a couple of headstamps so far (Lake City and Federal) and my oldest group is on it's 7th reload. I've yet to have any brass crack, so I'll be looking harder as I load this group again. I've only mushroomed the neck by seating the bullet to hard/fast (i think). I always clean, full length size, and trim (if needed). I don't push the upper limits of the powder range, yet I thought I came close this last time by filling the case with varget (within specs). I had expected to see some cracks, but found none. The guys near asked if I was shooting something other than .223.

I know some guys who will even weigh and group by specific case weight. I'm afraid I'm not that good enough to tell the difference between a grain of powder, so that's a bit much for now.

I have been picking up my .40 and .380 expecting to start on them soon, but I'm finding more ammo so I may not be able to justify it anymore.

[NcongruNt]

I have been picking up my .40 and .380 expecting to start on them soon, but I'm finding more ammo so I may not be able to justify it anymore.

I have a good home for that .380 brass if you decide you don't end up needing it.

[longtooth]

Handgun brass? I just clean it and load it until I either lose it or it cracks. Rifle brass? I sort it by manufacturer (most of the time) and load it until it gets lost or cracks. If I were shooting for ultimate accuracy all my brass would be the same brand and lot sorted by weight. I'm not that anal about accuracy any more - - - minute of washtub is good enough.

Come on MoJo, get it down to at least minute of syrup bucket.

Thanks & I will remember that one for future use.
LT

[OldSchool]

I'm not that anal about accuracy any more - - - minute of washtub is good enough.

Love it, love it, looooove it!

This is getting interesting, thanks, everyone! I wonder what Lyman would say?

[T.O.M.]

mil brass is thicker and will create higher pressures, less vol.= more pressure same powder and primer, on rifles sort and load differant

[OldSchool]

Is everyone in? Quite interesting and unexpected results so far!

[NcongruNt]

After cleaning my brass i usually inspect and sort by headstamp. I am still new at reloading so i have not loaded any case more than twice but was wondering how do you old salts keep track of the number of times each case is reloaded?
Thanks,
Mike C.

Well, I've only got one set of cases that this applies to so far. All of my cases are separated by headstamp in jars. For example, regular 9mm Winchester brass goes in jars labeled "9mm WIN". After I load it up and take it to the range, it comes back and goes into a jar labeled "9mm WIN +1". Extrapolate that process out to however many firings the case has been put through.

[CDH]

It depends...

For rifles, I load for accuracy and sort by lot and # of times fired.

For revolvers, if it isn't cracked I load and shoot it again (but still sort by # times fired)

For pistols, I sort by # times loaded and occasionally by lot (milsurp vs. range brass vs. my own once fired) and toss after 5 firings. 9mm and 40S&W (for example) are high pressure and traditionally hard on brass, especially with factory loose chambers.

[Griz44]

After about 200K, I sort by caliber - and load 'em up.

I only load my premium hunting rounds in new brass. I generally load 40-50 of them for each caliber, use half to re-set scopes and such, just to make sure the rifle/pistol is tuned to the ammo. What's left goes to hunt with me. After the season, they get shot at the range and next season a fresh batch gets created.

Range stuff, clean, load, shoot,clean, load, shoot,clean, load, shoot, etc........
I use them until they fail inspection or split from the bullet seating.