Does accuracy suffer when mixing brass?

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Moe

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I reload a lot of 38 special and 38 S&W for my K frame Smiths and my Colt Peacemaker. These revolvers are very accurate. I was wondering if I am letting my OCD get away on me with a new habit I have. Lately I have been separating my brass by brand in the belief this will make a difference. These are not PPC guns but just stock S&W 19, a Victory and the Colt. I shoot single and double action (obviously single action with the Colt) usually at 5 to 10m.

So am I wasting my time or is there some merit to this foolishness?

Thanks
Moe
 
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In the bench rest world, I know that great lengths like weighing out brass and projectiles to get the most consistency to acheive the greatest mechanical accuracy possible in a 20 lb purpose built rifle. Out of a revolver held in your hand? Fat chance you'd ever notice.
 
Accuracy? Not really. The only time I can think of is with revolvers cut for moon clips, some manufacturer's brass will not fit certain moon clips, so sorting is a must in that case.

Auggie D.
 
No need to sort them except for brass with brass and nickel with nickel.
But one thing that is often overlooked is to make sure they are all the same length.
This is for crimp consistency. This has an effect on accuracy.
 
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I sort my 9mm, not for accuracy in shooting but just for ease of reloading, I find same headstamp brass go through the press in a more consistent way especially when crimping, I haven’t gone as far as measuring the different brands though. I don’t bother sorting out the nickel coated ones. Also gives me a chance to inspect each casing.
 
I find it has merit if you are doing load development to have same brand/lot to ensure case consistency. Outside of that, I don't brand sort my pistol or revolver brass for reloading.
 
I sort all my handgun brass by headstamp, part of this is being OCD, part of it is to remove brass that may have primer crimps, part of it is so I instantly know which loads are which, i.e. IPSC loads are all Blazer, PPC loads are all Winchester, etc. Does it make the ammo more accurate? Probably not. But it’s not an entirely worthless process.
 
For pistol brass, I started trimming, weighing and sorting brass. I now don't trim or sort straight walled pistol cased. I've shot with ppc guys who score in the high 470's with random mixed untrimmed pistol brass. I now understand that it is the Indian not the arrow.

For rifle, I buy new Remington ammo shoot them once in the designated rifle then sort by number of times fired to keep case wear consistent. With ladder developed loads, I get less than 1 moa from a cold barrel.
 
Moe said:
I reload a lot of 38 special and 38 S&W for my K frame Smiths and my Colt Peacemaker. These revolvers are very accurate. I was wondering if I am letting my OCD get away on me with a new habit I have. Lately I have been separating my brass by brand in the belief this will make a difference. These are not PPC guns but just stock S&W 19, a Victory and the Colt. I shoot single and double action (obviously single action with the Colt) usually at 5 to 10m.

So am I wasting my time or is there some merit to this foolishness?

Thanks
Moe
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For crimping it does make a difference. Will you notice it? I do. Measure case length and you decide if it makes a difference to you.
 
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