Seperating pistol cases

[Engineer1911]

OCD and Boredom

Long, long ago in a different Minnesota Universe, I ordered 400 plastic fishing worms in the January. After four days with the high temperature of -15° F, I counted my rubber worms and sorted them by kind and color.

I was shocked!!! I only had 255 worms. I called Bass Pro Shop, reported the problem, they took my name and address. Five days later I received my second order of 400 plastic worms -- only the box was larger. When I finally got done counting and sorting worms, the total in the second order was 550.

I still have some of those plastic worms in my tackle box, but I don't sort brass by headstamps (only caliber), nor do I clean primer pockets. My bullseye groups have been terrible with matching brass, and incredible with mixed brass.

I need more coffee -- won't be decaf either!

 

[Rule3]

Long, long ago in a different Minnesota Universe, I ordered 400 plastic fishing worms in the January. After four days whith the high temperature of -15° F, I counted my rubber worms and sorted them by kind and color.

I was shocke!!! I only had 255 worms. I called Bass Pro Shop, reported the problem, they took my name and address. Five days later I received my second order of 400 plastic worms -- only the box was larger. When I finally got done counting sorting worms, the total in the second order was 550.

I still have some of those plastic worms in my tackle box, but I don't sort brass by headstamps (only caliber), not do I clean primer pockets. My bullseye groups have been terrible with matching brass, and incredible with mixed brass.

I need more coffee -- won't be decaf either!

Well anybody knows that Worms ain't no good in Mn. You gotta use Leaches for Walleyes. Duh!

 

[rog8732]

I have some thousand or so, old Peters match 45 I always keep separate.
I only used it for competition matches.

 

[venomballistics]

Blasting ammo, which is loaded to a well established range. No, that's why I established a range, so I don't have to put up with the rocket science procedures.
Ammo loaded to a specification, yes, these loads are small runs for the special collection.

 

[greenmachine]

I do tend to sort my brass by head stamp but not really sure it makes all that much difference. For sure I keep double cannelured brass separate for my M52 full wadcutters and I find that some brands fit my 8-shot moon clips better than others for quick reloads.

 

[MyDads38]

When I started reloading (with no one else around to guide me), I wanted to do everything right (so I didn't blow myself and/or my gun up).

So yes, I do sort my brass by headstamp, I do clean primer pockets, I do clean my brass before reloading and when I shot PPC competition, I trimmed all my match brass (38 special).

It makes me feel better and it makes me feel like I get the most out of the time I spend reloading. After 34 years, I'm probably not going to change my ways.

 

[growr]

I separate 9mm from my .38's and my 40's from my .45's
Randy

 

[sps282]

I separated cases for a long time but could see no real difference I am not that great a shot anyway!

 

[robertrwalsh]

Unless I am both very bored and suffering an OCD attack, no. It simply isn't worth the effort.

 

[dickttx]

I load 100 rounds at a time and always start out with 100 rounds of the same headstamp. I gather my brass as I shoot and look to find all of that box. If I lose any I replace with the same headstamp from spares. I also keep stickers on my ammo boxes showing the data for each of the times reloaded. The number of reloads may range from new to 20/30 times. One reason I don't mix.
My 38 Supers all started life as new Starline but were put into production over a period of time, so a varying number of reloads.
I just acquired 4K of once fired 45 ACP small primer brass, half Speer and half Federal NT. Since they will all go into production about the same time I may not be so pickey with them--but I may. I am having to swage the primer pockets of the Federal, so the definitely load different than the Speer.
You have to keep in mind though that I have been a CPA for 50 years, and am still trying to learn how to pass my days without working.

 

[Tu_S]

For bulk reloading of target loads I don't bother.

I do have some brass that I suppose could be considered sorted, but they are all batches of the more expensive rifle cartridges, and bought at the same time for put together target loads.

For the type of shooting I do and the typical 25yrd max range for pistols, I really have no need to spend the time sorting what I pick up.

 

[mikerjf]

I sort 9mm since it's such a low volume case and I do heavier loads. 38, 45, no.

 

[Racer X]

I know a lot of folks at the gun club here that separate their brass by headstamp, personally I don't. My carry ammo is factory Hydroshock so it isn't a concern, my range ammo is various headstamps and I haven't noticed a significant difference in any of it. I can't shoot the wings off a fly at 20 yards with any of it anyway, if I hit a paper plate everytime I'm happy.

A paper plate at 20 yards is very much minute of bad guy.

 

[stansdds]

 

[gwpercle]

I buy once fired range brass from indoor range in bulk .
I seperate it out , by headstamp into boxes of 50 and reload in lots of 50 .
After a few range trips , they get mixed up , I get tired of trying to keep them seperate .
I did a test , mixed brass against sorted brass , same load - 10 targets fired on , 10 shots on each target ... targets scored ...
9mm Luger, 124 gr. cast TC bullet , at indoor range 50 feet ... no big difference ... in fact the mixed brass did slightly better ... just slightly and that could change with another test !
For now I've stopped sorting brass for 50 feet shooting with cast bullet 9mm Luger loads .

Some folks "Believe" sorted brass must be better and it gives them a good feeling to have sorted cases ... but a psychological edge is an edge and if it makes you feel better ...sort em' !
You can always do a little test ... "the proof is in the shooting" !
Gary

 

[Drm50]

Only separate Wadcutter brass.

 

[GypsmJim]

Long, long ago in a different Minnesota Universe, I ordered 400 plastic fishing worms in the January. After four days with the high temperature of -15° F, I counted my rubber worms and sorted them by kind and color.

I was shocked!!! I only had 255 worms. I called Bass Pro Shop, reported the problem, they took my name and address. Five days later I received my second order of 400 plastic worms -- only the box was larger. When I finally got done counting and sorting worms, the total in the second order was 550.

I still have some of those plastic worms in my tackle box, but I don't sort brass by headstamps (only caliber), nor do I clean primer pockets. My bullseye groups have been terrible with matching brass, and incredible with mixed brass.

I need more coffee -- won't be decaf either!

Fifty years ago I used to buy plastic boxes of .22 CCI mini-mags. I kept all the boxes.

Now, for routine target shooting I buy bulk and then transfer them out into the plastic boxes and throw out the cardboard. One year I bought 3 bricks of Remington bulk and all 3 were short 3-5 rounds. Recent Winchester bulk was indeed 500 rounds, but 2 were empty primed cases.

I have never sorted brass, but I DO clean primer pockets.

 

[Golphin]

No, I clean deprime size clean and load them.

 

[rockquarry]

I usually sort brass by headstamp. However, lately, I've been using a batch of about 500 mixed .45 ACP brass. I shoot Bullseye only but apparently not well enough to see a difference in accuracy between the mixed brass and all-Winchester batch that I usually shoot. I still think it's important to remember that mixed brass will never shoot better than brass that is all the same.

 

[STORMINORMAN]

I have been known to pick out what seemed to be shiney once-fired 9mm brass out of the hundreds of cases we typicaly find at the range prior to processing them: usually these are in close to multiples of 50. I use these to typically identify a new or test load or bullet.

I will separate these and, since I note the types of cases in my reloading records, can usually identify which bullet & powder load is which by their headstamps...

Note that a lot of my 9mm reloading when in quantity (i.e., 300+ at a time) is simply "Mixed Brass" for use at the range. These are not sorted, but they are inspected multiple times in the process.

Cheers!

P.S. Doubtful that I could ever run out of 9mm brass: doesn't appear there are a whole lot of reloaders at our range...