I am looking for the easiest and most effective way to track how many times I have fired my brass. What have you guys found to be the best method for this?

bagged & marked once ect

I keep my brass in the same lots of 50. Stored in it own plastic ammo box that holds 50 rounds. I either use the sticker that is supplied with the MTM boxes and circle the corresponding number each cycle or put a piece of masking tape inside the lid and add the correct number each cycle. I circle each cycle and put a slash through the number if I anneal.

New brass gets a new MTM case gaurd, with the real hinge. That brass always lives in that case. Buy good reloading labels and write the number of firings each time.

I load for so many rifles I use masking tape, and a Sharpie, on the outside to tell me what the brass needs or has done. Might look like this:

Two firings needs:
Clean
Anneal
Size
Trim

I'll line across each as they are done. Once each step is complete, I will write "ready to load".

I keep them in batches of 100 or so and mark with different color sharpie's for what cycle they are on.

I always bag and tag them in batches of 50 or 100. I label them as how many X's fired, needs tumble, anneal, size, etc.

Much like Smokey and Fireman do - one MTM style case per 50 rounds. Each time I load I make a new sticker with the relevant info on it. For most rounds, I'll anneal every two loading/firing series. If I load a 'partial' box, I'll put those point down vs point up and label them appropriately.

Usually only serious about one rifle at a time. I buy 100 pieces of Lapua brass and go by memory. I keep rounds loaded. I know I haven’t reloaded for my 338-06 in a couple of years. Sold the rifle, bought it back, and I still know how many rounds are on the brass.

When I cycle the bolt I do it slowly and catch every round fired and replace in the box upside down. That allows me to see the struck primer because I do have boxes fully prepped and primed but not loaded. Your mileage may vary.

I think I will get some of the mtm boxes and go that route. I only have120 brass for it so far, on my third reload on 40 of them. I notice there were a few comments about annealing brass in the comments. Is this done to just lengthen the useable service life of the brass? How many more uses would you say you get out of annealed vs non annealed brass?

Lifespan and in some cases consistency in loads.

I've been doing what was mentioned above but instead of ammo boxes I use Glad Tupperware type containers because they are free with each purchase of the kids lunch-meat and they stack better. Plastic containers, masking tape and sharpie should be all you need.

I use color sharpies on them

Green - 1st fire - new brass or factory ammo
Red - 1st reload
Blue - 2nd reload
Black - 3rd reload
Brown - 4th reload and/or scrap

I've noticed you mention the hinge before. I have a number of these boxes that I picked up from Cabela's and none of the hinges look fake. What do you mean by, "real hinge"?

He means traditional door/gate type hinge not the bending plastic that breaks under normal wear/use.

Thanks dee.

scrap brass on 4th reload? On some brass with hot loads that might be the case but I usually expect 6-20 reloads

I haven't seen a plastic ammo box with a "real" hinge. Do you have a link?

Here's a pic of the two styles mentioned. The top case will last far longer.

I guess the flex plastic hinge is the old style. I can see those giving up at some point. Post Oak, that green one that dee showed us I guess is the newer ones. I get em at Cabela's for $4. Plano makes some but they're proud of em.

I bag the given lot of brass, actually two bags for each lot; Clean and Dirty (fired). Inside the "clean" bag, I keep an index card that contains the cycle number, date, count and what was done to the brass. Lot size depends on the cartridge, as little as 25 and as large as 600.

From there, I use the inventory system in TMT Precision Records.

Got to do something as I load for 29 different cartridges with over 25K cases, cataloged, in my shop.

I tend to load hot, I just count the ejector stamps on the brass.

Brass prep is my least favorite part of handloading and I rarely get all the way through the process without interruption. Often I find myself in the middle of multiple batches or calibers.

I keep my brass in Ziplock bags with a little check-off list: times fired, necks cleaned, tumbled, sized, primed, trimmed, chamfered, inside neck brushed.

Once they are loaded and fired, a new checklist goes into the bag and the "times fired" increases by 1.

I'm old enough to remember when the flex plastic hinge was introduced. They were advertised as having been tested to last 2 million times. (I guess that was 1 million openings/closings.) I've never had one break on me.