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Posted: 7/7/2013 1:15:00 PM EDT
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When you sort your brass for loading (if you sort), what extent do you go to?
For plinking ammo, I dont sort the brass at all. For anything thats closer to max loads or for precision stuff, I grudgingly sort it. That got me thinking. I have a bag of WCC from Brassman Brass. Its all WCC, but lots of different headstamps. For example.... 
How would you sort this. Would you make five different bags here? Two? Three? Now, if Im going to do some load development or shoot for the tightest groups, Id use only headstamps of the same date and style. What Im really wondering is if Im being prudent by setting my Dillon 600 for one of these and running the whole batch through it? 
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Personally, I would make 5 different piles. Given the different years and slightly different Headstamps, those all could have years of slightly different makes of brass and setup.
Example; WCC 10 was made from a brass lot from Jan. '10, setup by "Joe" ( who really takes pride in his craftsmanship ) , while WCC 12 was made from a brass lot from Dec.'12, by Barack that could not care less and hates his job. ( Yes, I am referring to our President. ) And W C C 10 and W C C 12 was made on / or at an entirely different production line. After separating the brass, I would use the 2 biggest piles for my most used loads, and the others for specific loads... like some Nosler 64 grain Bonded loads, Gold Dot loads. |
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I sort according to quantity first. I have to enough of one thing to make it worth sorting then I will.
In general I sort commercial by brand. For GI brass I don't usually get enough of one head stamp with the exception of LC to warrant separating it. I do keep it separate form the commercial though. If I'm looking for some extra accuracy I will separate the LC by year. I also separate the commercial first by brand then for more precision ammo like my varmint ammo, I'll separate by case weight. Target weight +/- 1/2gr. |
| I just sorted mine. Commercial got each it's own bin. LC, which I had the most, got it's own bin. I had some misc brass in military that I'm probably going to deal with later down the road for plinking My hunting loads will all have the same stamp and will all be powder measured by hand on the RCBS chargemaster. My LC brass all had the same date. I probably would just put all dates together but I don't care much about that. Just me. |
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Quoted:
I don't sort by headstamp for loading purposes, all the cases get the same charge. I do weed out cases by headstamp though: FCC for example. After the rounds are loaded, I sort them by headstamp so all 10 rds on a stripper clip all have the same headstamp +1. Except I use my federal stuff on ranges I can't pick my brass up. Aka competions goes with steel stuff too. |
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I ordered 500 once fired .223 and it was mostly F C and LC. With small bits of PMC,WWC, etc thrown in. I started with F C stuff first and haven't had any trouble with their second loadings let. I haven't loaded any twice fired brass yet though. Never knew there might be a problem with FC until I came across a few posts here and there. I might just pay extra and get once fired Remington commercial next. Atleast then I don't have to ream the pockets and I can recap/resize then prime all at once since I use a single stage Lee press with the little safety primer thing.
Edit : I take that back, I've squished quite a few primers with the FC crimped brass. Wasn't sure if it was me improperly reaming it or using Remington 6 1/2 SRP's which I also recently found were not good ( luckily I only bought 2k of them). I know have the Lyman screwdriver looking thing to de-crimp. I took the bit out and put it in a drill and actually decrimped about 50 cases today but haven't tried priming them yet. |
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Quoted:
I ordered 500 once fired .223 and it was mostly F C and LC. With small bits of PMC,WWC, etc thrown in. I started with F C stuff first and haven't had any trouble with their second loadings let. I haven't loaded any twice fired brass yet though. Never knew there might be a problem with FC until I came across a few posts here and there. I might just pay extra and get once fired Remington commercial next. Atleast then I don't have to ream the pockets and I can recap/resize then prime all at once since I use a single stage Lee press with the little safety primer thing. Edit : I take that back, I've squished quite a few primers with the FC crimped brass. Wasn't sure if it was me improperly reaming it or using Remington 6 1/2 SRP's which I also recently found were not good ( luckily I only bought 2k of them). I know have the Lyman screwdriver looking thing to de-crimp. I took the bit out and put it in a drill and actually decrimped about 50 cases today but haven't tried priming them yet. I'm not sure what you mean by "Lyman screwdriver looking thing to de-crimp" The only thing I have made by Lyman that fits that description is a primer pocket cleaner and it won't de-crimp primer pockets. Also beware there is commercial Remington .223 brass that HAS crimped primer pockets. Commercial Federal brass with crimped primer pockets is pretty common. |
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I sort headstamps with all of my brass. With something like your WCC cases I would consider them all the same. But I wouldn't expect them to give the utmost accuracy unless you had a lot of a certain year and sort those out and load them. Exactamundo, IMO |
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I ordered 500 once fired .223 and it was mostly F C and LC. With small bits of PMC,WWC, etc thrown in. I started with F C stuff first and haven't had any trouble with their second loadings let. I haven't loaded any twice fired brass yet though. Never knew there might be a problem with FC until I came across a few posts here and there. I might just pay extra and get once fired Remington commercial next. Atleast then I don't have to ream the pockets and I can recap/resize then prime all at once since I use a single stage Lee press with the little safety primer thing. Edit : I take that back, I've squished quite a few primers with the FC crimped brass. Wasn't sure if it was me improperly reaming it or using Remington 6 1/2 SRP's which I also recently found were not good ( luckily I only bought 2k of them). I know have the Lyman screwdriver looking thing to de-crimp. I took the bit out and put it in a drill and actually decrimped about 50 cases today but haven't tried priming them yet. I'm not sure what you mean by "Lyman screwdriver looking thing to de-crimp" The only thing I have made by Lyman that fits that description is a primer pocket cleaner and it won't de-crimp primer pockets. Also beware there is commercial Remington .223 brass that HAS crimped primer pockets. Commercial Federal brass with crimped primer pockets is pretty common. It's this I have about $50 worth of Cabela's giftcards coming from work, so I will probably order the RCBS swedge when I get those. Its $89.99 on Cabela's site I think |
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It's this
I have about $50 worth of Cabela's giftcards coming from work, so I will probably order the RCBS swage when I get those. Its $89.99 on Cabela's site I think [/quote] OK I see. I use the RCBS swage tool. I fallow it with a light cut using a RCBS inside de burring tool. This breaks the sharp edge at the top of the pocket and the chamfer gives the primer a good even start into the pocket. |
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"For GI brass I don't usually get enough of one head stamp with the exception of LC to warrant separating it. I do keep it separate form the commercial though."
In your situation, I concur withs statement quoted above from Motor1. Make sure all are processed the same, but not sure you have enough distinction in headstamp to separate them out. And for plinking and practice, that is probably good enough. |
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Quoted: "For GI brass I don't usually get enough of one head stamp with the exception of LC to warrant separating it. I do keep it separate form the commercial though." In your situation, I concur withs statement quoted above from Motor1. Make sure all are processed the same, but not sure you have enough distinction in headstamp to separate them out. And for plinking and practice, that is probably good enough. With my mixed lots of Mil cases, I load them with 55 gr FMJBT's and use them for plinking and mag testing. I don't load them to my normal "worked up load", but a grain less powder.  Doesn't mean these loads won't shoot fine. Right target is a 30 round mag dump at 100 yds off the bench. Fired shots as soon as scope settled back on the bull eye.
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NATO brass all goes into one pile, for whatever loads, and my commercial brass gets sorted for accuracy loads. This, except if I have some oddball commercial, it too goes into the plinking pile. Its a lot easier for me now, as all my commercial brass ends up as 223AI, and the GI stuff gets dropped into a bucket for the AR. |
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Ok, well that makes sense to me.
Have any of you ever noticed any discrepancies between different headstamps of the same manufacturer? For instance, in the picture I posted at the top of the thread, do you think that a Dillon 600 would swage all of them exactly the same? |
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I've never realized a gain by sorting brass.... WITH the exception of PMP and small font PMC (not the bronze).
Both of those have significantly reduced case capacity, and you can see it on the press when you hit the powder station. 
We've literally tried shooting groups with match ammo sorted by headstamp... never had improved results. 
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He's my "princess" approach to 5.56 reloading
I took all of my range pickups, commercial etc brass and sold it. If I find some I throw it in a bucket to be sold, even LC. I bought several k of LC brass which I processed all at the same time. I throw the now twice fired cases in a different bucket and don't plan on processing it again until I'm out. I don't shoot much so it will last me indefinitely. This method may cost you 10-20% more for the brass, but I think its worth it. |
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Quoted:
I've never realized a gain by sorting brass.... WITH the exception of PMP and small font PMC (not the bronze). Both of those have significantly reduced case capacity, and you can see it on the press when you hit the powder station.
We've literally tried shooting groups with match ammo sorted by headstamp... never had improved results. As stated above. I sort my Varmint brass by brand and case weight. But like you, I can't really prove that it has done anything to improve the accuracy. I do know however, It don't hurt. 
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