Sorting Range Brass ?

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So far all my reloading has been done from once fired purchased ammo so each box of reloads were the same brass.
I now have a collection of range brass I have deprimed and tumbled.
Is there any reason to sort the brass by manufacture or can I use a mixture?
 
For recreational pistol shooting, I just inspect, tumble and load. I don't sort pistol cases by make, etc.
 
keep in mind that depending on the caliber you are shooting, you may need to pay a little more attention to sorting.

For examples:
45 acp - small and large primers.
9mm v. 380 (the 380 sometimes sneaks in and blends with the 9mm).
 
tiriaq said:
For recreational pistol shooting, I just inspect, tumble and load. I don't sort pistol cases by make, etc.
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This ^^^^^ is what I do, doing anything else for pistol would get pretty old real fast.

For rifle it depends......

For semis the process is pretty similar to pistol (low effort / no sorting)

For bolt practice I sort to same brand (generally IVI).

For bolt competition I use same brand and keep same batch / same amount of firings on each batch.
 
It depends what you want it for. If I'm loading plinking ammo, I don't sort by headstamp/brand. I only sort rifle brass that I'll use for hunting or load development. I load bulk fmj in 5.56 and .308 with a mixture of headstamps. Brass thickness will vary between brands, so if you want precision you need to sort them.
 
If I'm using rifle range brass, I'll sort by weight . That way the capacities are similar even if the headstamps aren't. Surprising who they buy from. There are some calibers, like 303, I will avoid range brass and once fired.
 
I have brass from too many places to mention but I try to sort the brass by brand because they may have different case capacities/volumes that affect your pressure., eg Federal brass vs Winchester brass.
 
Pistol - never made a difference for me, except in things like 455 Webley or 44-40 where balloon case heads can be a thing.
Rifle - by head stamp only as long as you have individual lots of each. Weight sorting is an additional step I wouldn’t go to for hunting from 3-500m in.
 
For short cases, like the 308 family I don't sort by headstamp. The short stuff is pretty forgiving. For the 30-06 family yes I sort by headstamp, things can peak pretty quick if you're not careful. 56 grains of H4350 in a winchester case is aces, that same charge in a federal case can be a little spicy depending on the bullet you use.
 
Be aware of some brass with either crimped primers or undersized pockets like Federal NT, just toss them unless you swage primer pockets.
 
For plinking, particularly for pistol, I don't bother sorting for anything but calibre to avoid them "nesting" while tumbling. Depending on which rifle calibre I am reloading for depends on how picky I am. Loading for my Tikka for 500+ yard shooting, I do lots of sorting. Loading 303b for 100 yard steel shooting out of a 100 year old rifle, I'm quite certain the brand of brass isn't the shortfall as much as it's my eyes and the irons and my shaky stance :p
 
CeeZer said:
Be aware of some brass with either crimped primers or undersized pockets like Federal NT, just toss them unless you swage primer pockets.
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This
S&b has notoriously tight primer pockets as well. Some progressive priming systems choke on it sometimes. Flipped or crushed primers usually. Crimped has to be cleaned up for sure usually.
 
fiddler said:
I have brass from too many places to mention but I try to sort the brass by brand because they may have different case capacities/volumes that affect your pressure., eg Federal brass vs Winchester brass.
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I sort both rifle and pistol brass by manufacturers head stamp and caliber. I feel that it gives me better consistency on both mine and my wife's match ammo. Plus I'm retired, I have the time.
 
Depends on what it's for. I don't typically sort brass for open sighted rifles. For example 30-30, the difference does show up over the chrono but not on the target.
 
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