I have a bunch of new Winchester brass for what has turned out to be two rifles of the same caliber. I want to keep both rifles and reload for both. I have been pondering on how best to mark some of the brass to identify it being associated with one of the rifles....regular brass being for the other. The only thing I can come up with is perhaps filing a mark on the bottom of the case. Anyone have a better way to mark brass for similar identification? Suggestions appreciated.

I load for seven 308s and I keep the brass straight by marking the cartridge boxes.

for real? try filing notches in Morse code on each case head to id each rifle. ok ok mark the ammo boxes and don't tumble them together works well also.

Use brass colored primers for one and silver primers for the other. I bought some Remington brass colored primers for the same situation you have.

Red and blue sharpie markers.

A little notch filed with a triangular file over the first letter of the brand leaves you with the option of changing primers, tumbling or otherwise mixing without affecting your reloading options and your records for numbers of reloads.

Find a happy medium for both and dont worry about keeping them seperate

Use different color sharpies and color in the primer like a dot.

Sharpie Markers on the primers. De-prime only one lot of the brass and leave the primers in on the other. Tumble together that way. Also do that for different number of firings on the cases to keep them separate.

2 rifles using the same cartridge. Is that the question? How much different are the chambers?

I'm surprised at your response. You don't think it's important to weigh a charge to the nearest tenth but you will segregate your fn brass. WTF....Time to start recalculating things mathman....

I also use the Sharpie markers on the bases

I use fine point sharpies to write the abbreviated load on the case like 69MK 23.5BM and it stays for several firings, I mark through it after firing and eventually tumble the brass. I started doing this after I tipped over a box of ammo and all my loads were scrambled.

I am in the same situation now with a Stevens 223 and an AR, bought bulk Winchester brass for the AR and 50 Lapua for the Stevens.

Since you are using all the same headstamp, the fastest and easiest to ID would be a heavy sharpie stripe down the side of the case.

I would not file on the case head, it is hard enough to see the tiny engraving of the headstamp much less a file mark!

With fired primers in the case, dip one rifle's brand of brass in Insta Blue. Dipped section will be black.

My results prove the merit of my methods. Last time out with my 5R I was below half MOA to 300 with thrown charges of Varget. And I haven't started fine tuning the load yet.

The extremes of my 308 collection differ by about eight thousandths in headspace. Not only that, but the ones in the middle of the range differ in the taper of the body/shoulder part of their chambers. I collet neck size a lot, so mixing the brass would be a clusterphuck. And even when I body or FL size I sure as $hit wouldn't want to size them all enough to fit the smallest chamber.

Calculate that.

Merry Christmas too!

M

One simple solution is to use two brands of cases. Cheap, foolproof, and easy.

I'd need seven brands of cases, all as good as Lapua or neck sorted WW.

Nickled brass for one rifle works for me.

An ink pad , one hand operation , way less tedious than a Sharpie . Stamp your load labels with the case head for that rifle (color) !

+1 they actually make a product called "brass black" that will accomplish same thing. Have done this before when I had "special" cases I wanted to keep track of.

Alternatively, I have purchased nickel plated when I wanted to work up a specific load and keep track of the both the loaded rounds and the fired brass. Did this for a .243 recipe that worked well across 5 or 6 rifles in the family. Told everyone to make sure the "nickel" brass always came back to me.

And, I use this method to keep track of my mild .38 special loads versus full power .357 mag loads. Only stock/shoot/keep nickel in .38 spcl. Only stock/shoot/keep normal brass in .357 mag. No confusion.

If the chambers are different enough to require different die settings, then I use different brands of brass and have separate FL dies, one per rifle.

Mostly I try to avoid having more than one rifle in a given caliber at a time.

Tom

I too mark the ammo boxes. There is never a need to sort them there after.

You could get two different colors of plastic ammo boxes from Midway. They sell smoke, blue and red colored 50 rd boxes.
Otherwise I use Federal cases for one rifle W/W for the other and Remington for the third. Lake City for the AR-15.
I have four .223 rifles and this is how I do it.
I use small base dies for the AR-15 and full length everything else. I shoot 40 gr V Max in my Winchester Model 70, and the kid likes 50 gr Speer TNT. The AR-15 likes 52 gr Sierra Match Kings.
I flip flop back and forth with the other rifle. It looks like a twister went through my loading area some days. I don't care for ice fishing anymore and our winters are long so I have the time for messing around.
whelennut

Orion2000 had it right... In order to keep my brass separate I found a chemical for blackening brass at my hobby store and I soak the brass for one rifle in this for a few seconds and tumble it. There is no doubt which rifle that brass belongs to.

You can use any of the cold bluing chemicals to blacken brass, but they are fairly expensive. If you Google �blacken it�, you will come up with a chemical used to blacken items for hobbyists. It is also used to antique brass for old house remodelers. There is a similar chemical used to blacken the copper used in stained glass. I find that after a good degreasing of your brass, a quick dip in this stuff and then a rinse in cold water is all that it needs. Then, 15 minutes in the tumbler gives you a darkened, but clean brass that is very easy to separate from another rifle�s bright brass.

7 - .308s??? Wow!
How do you decide which to take?
I am sure they all shoot well if you handload.
Do you use days of the week? Monday=#1, Tuesday=#2, etc?
I am truly impresses!

I mark the rim with a small cut from a Dremal

I use those plastic flip top ammo boxes that hold 50 rounds. When one is empty, just put the next full one in its place while you reload the 50 cases from the one you just used up. I prefer loading 50 at a time versus 10 or 20 at a time here and there.

Sweet Jesus folks continue to [bleep] baffle me on how complicated they make things. A dremal tool, TFF.

Federal cases for my 30-06, and WW for the wife's 30-06. Works fine.

In the past, I have used nickel brass for one rifle and standard for the other. When I used the same type brass, I took a colored sharpie, say red, for example, and went around the primer in the cartridge to mark those loaded for rifle "A". Left the others without the red ring for rifle "B". It requires a visual check, but it was effective.

One Brass, One Nickel, or One Win, One Rem. I have several rifles of the same caliber and both work fine.

Shipster