Brass
Loadatum tracks brass as individual lots, each with its own times-fired count. When you recover cases after a range session, the fired count increments automatically. The app warns you on the dashboard when a lot reaches its retirement threshold so you know when to pull it from rotation.
Brass types and lots
Brass is organized at two levels. A brass type is the catalog entry: caliber plus an optional manufacturer and headstamp (for example, "Starline / 308 Win"). A lot is a quantity of that brass with its own tracking data: how many pieces, how many times they have been fired, and optionally a retirement threshold, source note, and cost per piece.
To add brass, go to Inventory and open the Brass page. Add a lot by selecting a brass type from the list or creating a new one inline. The required fields are brass type and quantity. Times fired, max firings, source, cost, and notes are all optional.
Times fired
Each lot stores a times fired count representing how many times those cases have been through a chamber. You set this manually when you create a lot, so newly purchased brass starts at 0 and once-fired commercial brass can start at 1.
After that, the count updates automatically. When you mark a batch as shot at the range and log your recovered brass, the app creates a new lot for those cases at times fired plus one. The original lot is not changed. If a lot at the new count already exists for the same brass type, the recovered quantity is added to it rather than creating a duplicate.
If you leave times fired blank when creating a lot, the app cannot track firings for those cases and the dashboard will flag the lot as "unknown."
Retirement thresholds
A retirement threshold is the times-fired count at which the app considers brass due for retirement. When a lot reaches or exceeds its threshold, the dashboard Inventory Warnings card shows it with a danger badge indicating the current firing count.
The threshold is resolved in this order:
- Per-lot max firings: set on the individual lot when you add or edit it. Takes priority over everything else.
- Per-caliber threshold: set in Settings under Calibers and Brass Tracking. Applies to all lots of that caliber that do not have a per-lot override.
- Global default: 5 firings. Applies when neither of the above is set.
The warning appears at threshold, not before it. A lot at exactly 5 firings with a default threshold of 5 will show in the warnings list.
Retiring brass through a batch
When logging a batch you can specify a retire quantity alongside the brass you are loading. That quantity is deducted from the lot's inventory count at the same time as the loaded rounds, representing cases you are pulling from service rather than reloading. They do not come back when you recover brass after the range session.
Lot and pool tracking modes
Each caliber in your settings uses either lot mode or pool mode for brass tracking. Lot mode is what this article describes: individual lots with per-case history. Pool mode treats all brass of a caliber as a single running quantity, without per-lot times-fired tracking. You set the mode per caliber in Settings. See Your first five minutes for where to find that setting.
On the Brass inventory page, pool-mode calibers appear in a "Pooled Brass" section above the lot table. Each row shows the caliber name and the current round count. The section is hidden when you have no pool-mode calibers with a count above zero. To update the count, tap the edit action on a row. A modal titled "Edit Pool Quantity" opens with the current total pre-filled. Enter the new total and save. To zero out a caliber's pool count without changing its tracking mode, use the delete action ("Clear Pool"). This sets the quantity to zero and hides the row. The caliber stays in pool mode in Settings.
If you switch a caliber from pool mode back to lot mode and the pool quantity is higher than the total across your lot rows, the app will pause before completing the switch and ask what to do with the extra cases. You can add them to one or more existing lots, create a new lot to hold them, or discard them. The switch does not complete until you make an explicit choice.