Winchester brass weight difference

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cbh560

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Hey all,

After dealing with what seems like "soft" Federal brass, I have gone out and bought 200 new Winchester brass for my .223 to try out, as I have heard and read in many places that it will reload more times (given its done properly and loads not too hot). When it comes to reloading, I am fairly picky. I try to get everything as uniform as possible. I weigh every powder charge, I run fairly tight quality control on all measurements. When I get new brass I neck size, debur flash holes, uniform primer pockets, trim to spec, and chamfer necks. However, before having done this I have found that weighing the new brass out of the bag gives me a variation of approximately 2 grs. I haven't been so picky as to weigh and sort all my brass (yet), but with this much variation, should I be sorting brass by weight?? I will obviously rework the load I was using with the Federal brass, but with each "weight category" for the new Win. brass do I need to adjust my load?

Before you ask, I load 69gr sierras with H335 as well as 55gr V-max with H335. The rifle is used for gophers/coyotes/ up to 500yd target shooting. Target shooting is its main use.

On a note, after all the trimming and case prep and uniforming, I am going to weigh all the brass again to see if the variation in weight is less...maybe some necks are too long, brass too thick etc.

Advice?
 
If you are shooting for a big silver cup, then yeah, you probably should sort by weight.

If you are, on the other hand, just putting holes in paper, I personally wouldn't bother.

Just my call.
 
If you were to measure the length of all your brass you will find that some of your brass is under trim-to length and some is over trim length.

This will likely be some of your weight difference.

Most of the REALLY anal loaders will measure the volume of the case with water and pick the ones that the closest together. (Water weight by grains)

What I usually do is fire all of the cases in the rifle they are to be loaded for, neck size, trim to the same length, de-burr, prep everything you are going to before seating primers. Then I'll weigh them. Pick 20 or so that are exactly the same (or more if they are the same weight) or that are with-in some arbitrary spec you have conjured up (usually I try to stay with-in .5%)

Then load up the cases and see how they shoot......

The rest of the cases you can use for plinking or sell as 1xf cases. You could also make up different lots that are more uniform with each other.......

It's all about the OCD, and exactly how much prep you are willing to do......

YMMV
 
I use Wichester cases in my .223. For long range shooting (1000 yards) I resize, trim etc and weight sort to within .5 gr for the cases and .02 gr for the powder weight.
 
For 223 win brass case prep is key. The last two batches I just prepped and fired used it all season for f class. Keeping your powder charge precise is crucial +-0.02. If your powder charge is good and the cases are prepped consistently, the when you're testing at a distance you'll be able to tell right away if something is "off" with the brass. I usually would mark the case and test the case again to see if there is a poi difference.
 
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