Marking Re-Formed Brass

J

jackstrawIII

New member
Hey, does anyone know of a permanent way to dye/mark brass that has been reformed into a new chambering (in order to differentiate itself from the parent cartridge)?

For example, I will soon be making 358 Win and 260 Rem cases from my massive hoards of 308 brass. I want to keep the cases separate (obviously) once they've been reformed into their final sizes, which will be tricky since the headstamps will all still say "308".

I read somewhere that Dykem will work on brass, but wouldn't that polish off each time the cases were cleaned/tumbled?

Any permanent solutions to this problem? Thanks!
 
I

ireload2

Moderator
Use military brass that has NO caliber nomenclature.

You could use one military head stamp for .358 and a different one for .260.

No matter what you do learn what each round looks like and look at each round before you load it. Don't depend on the head stamp. Reloading and shooting is not the place to turn off your brain.
 
J

Jimro

New member
You could use a knurling tool around the cartridge case head to make a visual difference on one of your reformed brass families, and the shallow lathe cut on the other.

It wouldn't be the same as a headstamp change, but should be effective enough.

Jimro
 
J

jackstrawIII

New member
Hodaka, "Chlorate of Potash"... I think we're onto something!!

In all seriousness, thanks for the link. I'll have to see if any of this is doable.
 
M

Mobuck

Moderator
"which will be tricky since the headstamps will all still say "308"."
OK, just look at the OTHER end.
 
C

Crankylove

New member
not as tricky as you think.

I form .358 from .308....................quites easy to tell the difference.

I dont have any other rifle to use .308 brass in, but even if i did, changing or removing the headstamp would not even cross my mind.

Some friendly advice, military 7.62x51 is not a good choice to form cases from, stick to comercial .308.
 
T

T. O'Heir

New member
Go to a dollar store, buy a bunch of plastic boxes with lids, a Sharpie and a roll of masking tape. And don't tumble 'em together. No polishing is required.
Mind you, looking at the hole the bullet goes in works too. 45 thou difference between a .358 and a .308.
 
J

JeepHammer

Moderator
Don't know if this will help or not,
When I first started with steel pin cleaning, I used about 4 times as much Lemishine as I should have (still not a lot of Lemishine or expensive),
The brass came out kind of a 'Rose' color (I say 'Pink', wife says 'Rose').
Looked like 'Red' brass instead of 'Yellow' brass.

That color stayed with the brass until next cleaning.
That would give you visual ID when separating brass where you could throw in a little extra Lemishine again...
That would be a cheap way to let you know if color coding will work for you.
 
G

Gregory Gauvin

New member
I simply color in the primer with a RED sharpie after priming / loading. I do this mainly with 9x18 brass I trimmed from 9mm Luger.

After picking up my brass, during sorting, the colored primer stands out and I can easily distinguish it from 9x19. Should I miss one and somebody else takes the casing, the colored primer should raise a brow to them that the round has been reloaded...left behind...it's RED (caution)..and should they miss it, should they go to reload it as a 9x19, well...it should be obvious to anybody paying attention.

Reformed rifle cases I don't generally mark (284 to 7.5 swiss / 270 to 7.7 jap) as it is obvious to me and bolt brass doesn't get lost.
 
I

ireload2

Moderator
If you intend to discriminate by color it may signal the intention to pick according to color without having to think. NOT THINKING is dangerous. You should always be thinking about what you are doing.
The blow ups that I have seen all happened with factory ammo that was correctly marked put into the wrong gun because the knot head did pay attention to what he was doing.

The last mix up I saw ruin a rifle was a guy put a .270 Win round into a 7mm Rem Mag BAR. The case split and the magazine was blown out the bottom. The receiver was expanded about 1/2" wider around the magazine well making the rifle a total loss.
 
R

RC20

New member
Sharpie wears off in the vibratory.

I have tried as I would like to mark batches and have them stay marked.

Most annoying, I may try the colored vs black and see if any better.

I think I would pay extra to have a 1 or 2 or something else on the rim to keep them separated.

Marks on the rim work but I haven't found a quick easy one that I could spare more than one batch.

Certainly an area needing a solution.
 
G

Gregory Gauvin

New member
Yes, sharpie does wear off in the tumbler. I have been in the habit of tumbling a batch of sorted brass, then re-marking them after re-priming the brass.

Something else to consider may be using nickel plated brass only for a particular loading AND marking it to further distinguish it.
 
N

nhyrum

New member
Fill the head stamp with solder maybe? Possibly tig braze the other set? May over heat the brass but an experienced welder would know how to avoid that
 
R

RC20

New member
Fill the head stamp with solder maybe? Possibly tig braze the other set? May over heat the brass but an experienced welder would know how to avoid that
Click to expand...

I would not do that, far to thin.

Scratching caliber in the side of brass is beyond iffy (stress crack point)
At this point you might as well ID it and save the fuss (and better not to anyway)

You might be able to make marks with an electric pen on the base, straight line (one line batch one, two lines batch 2 etc) vs any id.
 
C

Chainsaw.

New member
358 is quiteba bit bigger and 260 is quiteba bit smaller than 308. You should be able to see the difference easily via the necks.

Given those calibers Im guessing you are not shooting hoards of ammo in a sitting so justbshoot one, pick up the bass then the next etc.
 
J

jackstrawIII

New member
Non Issue

Thank you all for the ideas. With that said, now that I've actually finished making brass in both 260 and 358... previous poster is correct. It's a non issue.

The differences are enough that I'll have no issue sorting them quickly, should they get mixed together inadvertently.

Thanks again gang.
 
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