After spending a couple hours pulling 9mm outta 40 S&W outta 45 ACP I'm going to give pre-sorting a try. Separating 9x17 from 9x18 and 9x19 is getting bad enough.

Yes, Esp. if tumbling 500 Magnum brass!

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Only difference Fool/Mule-ears

Honestly I just finished picking through 308, 7.7, 38, 45Colt, 45ACP. All mixed in the tumbler. When I shoot I shoot all my firearms in the same outing. I've got hundreds of each cleaned then separated.

I use brass sifters to sort mixed brass before tumbling . ( .380, 9, 40, 45 )
Super easy .

I DEFINATELY sort sizes of brass out so the various calibers cannot get "stuck" inside a larger caliber. 9mm with 38, 380, 38 Super etc. 40 with 10mm with 41 etc. 45 Auto with 45 Colt etc. For most straight wall cases this is done before I deprime so I don't need to change the shell holder frequently. They are then wet tumbled in pellet pins. If there are mixed calibers in the batch then they are sorted after they are dry. If I don't do this there are too many cases that get stuck together with the pins and don't get completely clean inside and out.

...

Unless you just like separating nested cases and having to run it through again to complete the cleaning it is an extremely good idea to separate by caliber. Cleaning mixed caliber pistol brass in the end is more time consuming than separating it before hand.
I have containers that I separate my spent brass into after a shooting session. When the container is full it gets dumped into the tumbler for cleaning. Then separated by headstamp and put in a container with like headstamps. I also have a process for keeping batch brass from getting mixed with others (matching lot # for rifle). Nothing fancy but it is mainly just putting the empties back into the factory box they came out of and cleaning them separately by the box.

I always sort before tumbling

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"Acta non verba"

I sort my brass as I bring it home from the range and when I get enough of any particular caliber I then tumble by caliber. This saves a lot of headaches with smaller cases getting nested into larger cases and then not getting cleaned and they then have to be forcibly separated, (waste of time). Just easier to take care of it on the front end. Also forces me to give my brass and initial exam to weed out any unusable brass before wasting my time processing it.

I sort, decap, then wet tumble. Brass comes out looking new.

Edit to add: I think most of us learned the hard way about different size cases “nesting” and getting stuck together. The smarter ones stumbled across threads like this and took heed. I try to do some presorting at the range. I’ll shoot all of one caliber and sweep it up before I switch to another caliber. I always get a few strays mixed in, but it makes it easier when I get home and sort. With revolvers, it’s easy. I bring extra ziplocks with me and put the brass in them every time I eject a cylinder.

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USS Brewton FF1086
SWCA#3597

Definitely I sort before tumbling. I will tumble 9MM, 380, 38 Special and 357 Mag together. I will tumble 44 Mag and 45 Auto together and I do 40 S&W all by themselves since they will nest with both the smaller and the larger cases.

I NEVER tumble different caliber brass together. It creates a real pain in the butt because smaller brass will get trapped inside larger brass and both will not get properly cleaned. This also causes you to miss some of the small pieces that are trapped and potentially damage your brass and dies while reloading.
I keep all my brass in separate coffee cans to avoid any mixing.

I sort by case mouth size (9x19 gets tumbled with 380acp and 9x18), 40 with 10mm etc.

Only tumble same caliber after depriming. After tumbling, then sort by headstamp. Yeah I know... :-) that's just me and I'm not gonna change now!

I never sort my brass. I fire 1 caliber at a time, return the brass to a zip lock bag, then select the next gun and ammo. Life is too short for reading headstamps and sorting brass. I don't put loose 9 MM, 38 Spl, 357 Mag, 40 S&W, and 45 ACP ammo into a big box and go to the range. Why do that with fired brass?

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S&WHF 366

^^^ This ^^^

Nothing more frustrating tumbling 45acp with anything else.

Yep. I do the same thing. Zip Locks are the greatest invention since sliced bread and Velcro.Mine is "pre sorted" at the range then I run them through a shell sorter at home to get rid of odd ball 22lr and other "stuff.

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Still Running Against the Wind

Of Course ...If you don't , like you have discovered , any case that can fit inside another will wedge itself firmly in there .
Then you get the pleasure of getting them apart , sorting them and polishing the ones that were stuck inside .
Save yourself a lot of time and aggravation ...
If you are new to reloading or just a slow learner...
Sort first then Tumble .
Gary

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Certified Cajun
NRA Member

Actually you are sorting them at the range , not mixing fired brass is a form of sorting ...anything you can do to keep the brass separated is a good thing ...Keep on
Gary

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Certified Cajun
NRA Member

Losing .45 acps since a stupid-*** .40 got hopelessly stuck is no way for a man to live.

Use an inertia hammer bullet puller.....easy cheesy....

I have no problem putting .243, 308, 270, 30-06, 223, 30-30 casings in the tumbler as there is no way for them to get inside another case....pistol casings I will put 9mm, 38 spl and 357 in together....no problem.

Randy

I never let different caliber brass get mixed, so it never has to be sorted.

I normally give the brass a quick look-see before I tumble them, mostly by caliber. If some 44 Special brass finds it's way in with some 44 Magnum brass, no harm, no foul. Same with 38/357, 9mm/380, 30-06/308. But I make sure no 9mm is tumbled with any 45 ACP, etc. and 40 S&W goes in the scrap bucket, but before reloading I inspect all brass for headstamp (sometimes I sort by headstamp, but mostly I check for junk/weird makers), and condition...

I keep separate buckets for caliber of brass, either dirty or clean. When the dirty bucket gets full I tumble it and it goes in the clean bucket. When the clean bucket gets full I reload it.

With rifle brass, I sort by caliber and headstamp. You can't get the best accuracy with mixed headstamps in a rifle. With handguns it isn't much of a problem, unless you are shooting competition.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Well I suppose if you want to get technical and semantics.

I shoot 9mm. I then pick up MY brass (which is marked) If I then shoot 45auto, I pick those up. It's not rocket science.

IE" I don't shoot different calibers and then pick up all at once.

With 223/556 I have brass catcher mounted on the rule. Don't even pick those up
At home I have individual zip locks labeled dirty and clean for each caliber, Tumble each caliber separate,


CALDWELL SHOOTING SUPPLIES BRASS CATCHER PICATINNY MOUNT | Brownells

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Still Running Against the Wind

I'm pretty meticulous at sorting my brass, usually on returning from the range, especailly small and lge primers 45acp, 9mm stuck in a 45 case. These things are not good in a reloader, especially a progressive.
Jim

I sort by caliber and headstamp. For 9mm Amerc, Maxxtech, Freedom Munitions, Xtreme, and Ammoland had the stepped cases for a while. Because of these I started sorting my brass about 15 years ago. I added TulAmmo, Wolf, B-West, SK, TCW, and TPZ as headstamps that get immediately tossed in the recycle bin - they all are very soft brass. I know some people that have loaded these headstamps but the headaches it can cause it is just not worth it.

I will load Agila, CBC, and Perfecta brass once to be used at an indoor range that has a slanted floor that tends to push most brass in front of the firing line. I have had an Agila case separate at the knurling on about the 5th reload. The CBC and Perfecta primer pocket gets too loose to hold a primer after the third or fourth reloading.

For 45 I had been using the same brass since the early 90's and the rims were fairly chewed up so they hit the re-cycle bin. When the Blazer small primer came out I ended up getting 1k of the factory ammo and started using that. If I sweep up any LP I trade it out with one of a shooting buddy who hates the SP. Everything I have in 45 is now SP.