Sorting pistol brass

[Button]

Over the past 6 or 7 years I’ve accumulated everything to reload(thank God I bought primers when I started buying). The things left is for the house to be finished, build a bench, and a couple more dies. Of course more powder/primers.

Does anyone sort pistol brass by head stamp or weight? What about rifle brass? Going through 7 full gallon bags of pistol brass doesn’t sound appealing, nor the other gallon bags of rifle. But I will sort it if need be. Sorting the rifle won’t be as bad since I’ll be using it for hunting.

Fwiw I’d be reloading .380, 9mm, 10mm, 38spl, 44mag. 5.56/.223, .308, .300 savage, 30.06, .300wm.

 

[Cameron.25]

Over the past 6 or 7 years I’ve accumulated everything to reload(thank God I bought primers when I started buying). The things left is for the house to be finished, build a bench, and a couple more dies. Of course more powder/primers.

Does anyone sort pistol brass by head stamp or weight? What about rifle brass? Going through 7 full gallon bags of pistol brass doesn’t sound appealing, nor the other gallon bags of rifle. But I will sort it if need be. Sorting the rifle won’t be as bad since I’ll be using it for hunting.

Fwiw I’d be reloading .380, 9mm, 10mm, 38spl, 44mag. 5.56/.223, .308, .300 savage, 30.06, .300wm.

I just am starting too and am wondering the same thing. I just sorted multiple bags of 9 and 45 and am seriously questioning if it matters for plinking

 

[Axlrod]

For the handgun cases they all need to be the same length for crimping. For the rifle, different brands have different capacities, so they won't shoot as consistent and if you work up a max load in one it could be over max in another. Once they are sorted it's easy to keep them that way.

 

[Cameron.25]

For the handgun cases they all need to be the same length for crimping. For the rifle, different brands have different capacities, so they won't shoot as consistent and if you work up a max load in one it could be over max in another. Once they are sorted it's easy to keep them that way.

Yes it obviously makes sense for rifle. I was just wondering if it matters for plinking for pistols personally

 

[Axlrod]

Yes it obviously makes sense for rifle. I was just wondering if it matters for plinking for pistols personally

Not the plinking part the crimping part. When you adjust the die for a case it will not correctly crimp a case that is longer or shorter than the one the die was adjusted for.

 

[packer58]

As far as the pistol stuff goes, I sort brass and nickle cases and pay no attention to headstamp. As was mentioned, trim them all the same length and go.......straight wall pistol cases stretch very slowly if at all so one trimming will last a long time.

Sort your bottleneck cases by headstamp

 

[Cameron.25]

Not the plinking part the crimping part. When you adjust the die for a case it will not correctly crimp a case that is longer or shorter than the one the die was adjusted for.

Ok thank you. Ive just read online that some brass has thicker walls and what not and that stuff like PPU is junk not worth reloading but idk

 

[snuzzo29]

I sort all rifle brass by headstamp. There can be enough difference in case capacity between brands to make a difference in pressure. My pistol brass is sorted but thats because it was basically sorted when I started reloading the way I had it stored. I have heard a lot of guys dont bother sorting pistol brass except to cull bad ones and headstamps that aren't worth reloading.

 

[Cameron.25]

I sort all rifle brass by headstamp. There can be enough difference in case capacity between brands to make a difference in pressure. My pistol brass is sorted but thats because it was basically sorted when I started reloading the way I had it stored. I have heard a lot of guys dont bother sorting pistol brass except to cull bad ones and headstamps that aren't worth reloading.

Ok this is pretty much the same exact methodology i settled on for rifle and pistol and its nice to know you do the same. Thanks!

 

[Vern400]

I sorted mine. But I had a bunch of milsoec 9x19 from mixed makers. I had a lot of rejects. Thinwall Winchester / WC had very little press fit of the bullets. Norma and SIG were thicker and 3 to 5%wouldnt gage even after factory crimp die.

THEN I loaded a single box of ALL Speer brass. 50 pieces in, 49 good cartridges out. And the one bad one was Tullamo. Oops! I felt it immediately. Made up one more speer to fill the box. OAL varied only 0.007 inch through all 50.

So if you're just banging at the range and occasional FTF failure is OK don't sort.

If you ONLY have your own reloads, and they absolutely positively have to work, you know what to do. 7 from the 50 pc box I kept that gaged bad functioned fine even though the max cartridge gage said bad. In a M9 and a Hellcat.
I loaded 20 boxed of 115 gr hollow points.

I'm anal about reloading, but I have absolute confidence in all the ones that gaged good. There's a lot of case thickness variation between manufacturers and that causes the mixed case batches to vary more for oal and how well they pass the no-go gage. When I sort I can remove most, but not all of that variation by tweaking the dies a bit. I'll load a huge pickle jar full of one caliber brass and be done for several years.

Right or wrong, that's what I do. My ammunition generally doesn't fail. I've seen quite a few factory boxes of 223 / 9mm loaded that had some that wouldn't go bang. Maybe 5 different boxes In 2021. It's pretty concerning to me. I just like cooking my own.

 

[Zappaman]

I don't sort pistol brass, at 30 yards (on paper) I know I'm just "plinking" and so not worth the time. I DO sort (and weight) my larger caliber (hunting) rifle brass. Tend to buy matching 223 cases and so no sorting needed really there- but I pick it up and reload in matched lots. I don't shoot any more 223 than other rifles, so my matched lot of 2000 cases will probably take me through several lifetimes.

 

[Cameron.25]

I sorted mine. But I had a bunch of milsoec 9x19 from mixed makers. I had a lot of rejects. Thinwall Winchester / WC had very little press fit of the bullets. Norma and SIG were thicker and 3 to 5%wouldnt gage even after factory crimp die.

THEN I loaded a single box of ALL Speer brass. 50 pieces in, 49 good cartridges out. And the one bad one was Tullamo. Oops! I felt it immediately. Made up one more speer to fill the box. OAL varied only 0.007 inch through all 50.

So if you're just banging at the range and occasional FTF failure is OK don't sort.

If you ONLY have your own reloads, and they absolutely positively have to work, you know what to do. 7 from the 50 pc box I kept that gaged bad functioned fine even though the max cartridge gage said bad. In a M9 and a Hellcat.
I loaded 20 boxed of 115 gr hollow points.

I'm anal about reloading, but I have absolute confidence in all the ones that gaged good. There's a lot of case thickness variation between manufacturers and that causes the mixed case batches to vary more for oal and how well they pass the no-go gage. When I sort I can remove most, but not all of that variation by tweaking the dies a bit. I'll load a huge pickle jar full of one caliber brass and be done for several years.

Right or wrong, that's what I do. My ammunition generally doesn't fail. I've seen quite a few factory boxes of 223 / 9mm loaded that had some that wouldn't go bang. Maybe 5 different boxes In 2021. It's pretty concerning to me. I just like cooking my own.

Do you have an opinion on blazer brass? Its what i had the most of after sorting and i have like 2k of their loaded ammo still to shoot

 

[N2TRKYS]

I only load rifle rounds right now, but find sorting brass a big waste of time. I haven’t sorted brass since I first started and learned that it didn’t matter.

 

[Flben]

Over the past 6 or 7 years I’ve accumulated everything to reload(thank God I bought primers when I started buying). The things left is for the house to be finished, build a bench, and a couple more dies. Of course more powder/primers.

Does anyone sort pistol brass by head stamp or weight? What about rifle brass? Going through 7 full gallon bags of pistol brass doesn’t sound appealing, nor the other gallon bags of rifle. But I will sort it if need be. Sorting the rifle won’t be as bad since I’ll be using it for hunting.

Fwiw I’d be reloading .380, 9mm, 10mm, 38spl, 44mag. 5.56/.223, .308, .300 savage, 30.06, .300wm.

I only sort rifle

 

[Vern400]

Do you have an opinion on blazer brass? Its what i had the most of after sorting and i have like 2k of their loaded ammo still to shoot

Sorry it's been a few days since I've been on rockslide. The Blazer brass is fine. It's a good middle of the road reloading brass and I have not had any trouble with it

 

[Cameron.25]

Sorry it's been a few days since I've been on rockslide. The Blazer brass is fine. It's a good middle of the road reloading brass and I have not had any trouble with it

Ok thanks!

 

[Hunter3721]

I prefer to sort my cases. Each manufacturer may vary in capacity. Ed

 

[sigguy3]

I definitely sort rifle brass and work up loads by headstamp. When I was shooting high-power I also grouped by weight into batches - within a given headstamp would toss the high- and low-weight outliers. I was fortunate to have squirreled away a bunch of Lake City national match brass for 30-06 and 308.

For pistol (9mm & 45acp mostly) I cull once and then don't worry about it. I have never trimmed 9mm or 45acp. I tend to load lighter target loads so case capacity isn't an issue - I'm never near pressure limits. I've also have never noticed any issues with wall thickness, headspace, or feeding issues. I use a wilson case gauge and will spot-check quite a few examples per batch for fit and headspace.

 

[Wyobohunter]

I sort rifle brass. I sort pistol brass by brand if it’s for a high pressure load but not for general purposes loads where I’m throwing somewhere close to the middle of the load range. It is going to be minor but different brands will have slightly different case volumes and it could impact pressure. Probably not enough to really matter.

 

[Centralcoastca]

I don’t sort pistol brass I just check the length size of needed and get a few loadings out of them before I toss them. I haven’t noticed much difference if any between the brands, even ppu. This is for upper end but not real hot 10mm and 38spl. I am particular about rifle brass, but I don’t load those for plinking so I’m going for a bit more consistency. If I was loading hot 44mag or whatever I’d do the same.