weight sorting brass

bingo1010

bingo1010

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at what point do you guys weigh your brass? right out of the box, after trimming to length and deburring the necks, after doing the flash holes, after turning the necks, or is it fully prepped before you weigh? i know about the controversy over wether there is any benefit to this or not but what the hell can it hurt right.
 
Brand spankin, out of the box. However, more than weight, you should measure capacity. Use a ball powder and fill (then dump) each case with an identical charge. The cases where there are extremes in capacity (Cases where there is more room left at the top, or the case overflows becuase of less capacity)are the ones that should be culled. The variations in capacity result in very different pressures.
 
redman
Basically there two types of reloading powder. Spherical or ball and stick or extruded. The ball is just that, powder in the form of small varying sized spheres and the stick powder is in various thickness and lengths of 'sticks' or extrusions. Kinda like 'meatballs' and 'spaghetti' . Cheers
 
I use Lapua brass only in my .308 target rifles, so flash hole deburring in not required. Neck turning is not required unless you are shooting a tight necked custom chambered benchrest rifle,IMHO.
Once the brass is sized, trimmed and chamfered is when I sort it by weight. I will admitt that this is more or a feel good exercise than anything else. Web thickness, extractor groove diameter, rim thickness and wall thickness could all be .001" different and will weigh different. But in my mind I believe or have convinced myself that all these dimensions are the same with exception of the web thickness which in turn comes down to volume by the method of my madness.:confused:
Obtunded's method is the correct way it should be done and that is by case volume. However I am working with a batch of 1800 Lapua cases and I just spend too much time on CGN to sort that many by volume.:cool:
 
Weighing the cases is a benchrest technique. That'd be the guys who strive for very, wee, tiny, groups. It's not so important for regular target shooting and definitely not for hunting loads.
"...there two types of reloading powder..." Three counting flake powders used in handgun loads.
 
Like Maynard, I use Lapua cases. When I actually take the time to sort new brass, there are few if any cases I would consider a problem.


And I agree with Sunray that those who shoot BR and f-class are generally obsessive compulsives that swear with absolute conviction that keeping your tongue on the left side of your mouth when loading ammo makes it cut group sizes in half :)
 
redman, unless you are clawing your way to the top in competition the most important thing you can do is shoot. When you need to worry about weighing brass etc it will become apparent. Relax, shoot and get good!
 
I have never weighed brass to sort it in my life except for one time to see what difference it made. Unable to discern any difference with the chronograph or on the target, I sat back and rested easy knowing I had just saved myself a whole lot of time in the future. Regards, Bill
 
Obtunded said:
Brand spankin, out of the box. However, more than weight, you should measure capacity. Use a ball powder and fill (then dump) each case with an identical charge. The cases where there are extremes in capacity (Cases where there is more room left at the top, or the case overflows becuase of less capacity)are the ones that should be culled. The variations in capacity result in very different pressures.
Click to expand...

Is the flash hole just small enough to keep said ball powder from dripping out? I've never thought abouout H380 grain size vs. flash hole diameter...
 
Max Owner said:
Regardless of case weight or amount of volume, is it not more important of having the same size powder charge in each case?

For consistancy?
Click to expand...

All of these are important if you are talking about match level consistency. A similar powder charge in two cases with slight differences in wall thickness or case volume will generate a different pressure curve. This difference may only be noticible under benchrest conditions, but may be the difference between all in the same hole, or one slightly out of the same hole.
 
MPW, I actually prime the cases first.

M.O. et al. The differences show up at the ultra long distances too, where a mere 1/4 MOA variation in pressures results in nearly 3" of error at 1000M - on top of the many other factors for which you are trying to compensate. I'd be lying if I told you I was that anal with all cases, but I have about 150 cases of each cartridge I shoot that I call my "match brass" that are capacity sorted, neck cleaned-up, annealed and otherwise coiffed. I have literally thousands of 6BR cases, and that damned lapua is indestructible. I've never tossed a case because it came out of the gun split or failed.
 
redman said:
Far from it :redface: - just started shooting about a year ago! If I can make ammo as good as Federal Gold Medal, I'd be very happy because I've been getting excellent results with it.

Is brass sorted for factory match?
Click to expand...

I was told by someone who has been involved in the Fed GM program that there is no special anything when they make that ammo.

Massed produced but with better bullets. No special brass prep whatsoever. Was really surprised to hear this.

I too firmly believe that weighing brass is a huge waste of time and could make your brass WORSE.

Consistent case capacity is the goal with the ASSUMPTION that weight indicates that. It most certainly does not. There is enough variation in the extractor groove machining to make a case heavy or light.

I don't think you will see much change in your group size because of that.

However, you can have identical case weight WITH variations in the case capacity due to this variation in extractor groove machining. That can pose problems.

If you want to measure case capacity, measure case capacity. I use Win 680 which is a super fine ball powder. I only compare fireformed cases that haven't been sized so the dead primer is still in the case. Pistol/SG powder would work well too as it compacts very nicely.

Annealing and consistent neck ductility is absolutely critical for maintaining good LR accuracy and minimizing vertical dispersion. that is where the work is and some really neat tools are available to help us lazy souls.

Then there is the powder charge. I have found that the closer I make the charges identical the better. I do not recommend any powder drop for precision LR reloading. There is simply way too much variations in the drops.

The best in the business hold extruded powder to +/- 0.2gr. That is a 0.4gr spread from highest to lowest. In a 6BR, you will be way off tune.

In my 6.5 Mystic which holds 47.5grs of powder, I hold to the same tenth. In my 223, I hold to 0.05gr or roughly 2 kernels of Varget.

The further you go, the more this matters.

Jerry
 
maynard said:
I use Lapua brass only in my .308 target rifles, so flash hole deburring in not required. Neck turning is not required unless you are shooting a tight necked custom chambered benchrest rifle,IMHO.
Once the brass is sized, trimmed and chamfered is when I sort it by weight. I will admitt that this is more or a feel good exercise than anything else. Web thickness, extractor groove diameter, rim thickness and wall thickness could all be .001" different and will weigh different. But in my mind I believe or have convinced myself that all these dimensions are the same with exception of the web thickness which in turn comes down to volume by the method of my madness.:confused:
Obtunded's method is the correct way it should be done and that is by case volume. However I am working with a batch of 1800 Lapua cases and I just spend too much time on CGN to sort that many by volume.:cool:
Click to expand...
X2!
I don't do 1800 at a time though!
Cat
 
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