Sorting misc headstamp brass...

[Unretarded]

I just recieved 1000 rounds primed processed brass from xtreme.....

I am now starting to grasp the mess I have.....


Sorted out the LC brass and now I am left with 10 different brands and makes of brass, misc years...223, some 556.....

I am realizing I have crazy case volumes here, unknown amount of firings etc etc etc etc.


I am now sorting between marked 223 and 556............

I am not sure what the best approach for this stuff is or if it even matters.

I am starting to realize this might have been a mistake....

[Divernhunter]

Unless you are shooting comp just sort the mil stuff from the commercial stuff and load them. If you are at max loads with the commercial stuff you should drop back a bit and work up with the mil stuff. Using Win748 I drop 1-1.5grs from commercial to mil brass. 1000 cases is not a huge number. Last year I loaded 5700 rounds of 223 at one time for a squirrel shoot. I stall have 8-10X that amount of brass that is not loaded. 5700 rounds are a lot of trimming and chamfering

[mif_slim]

^ thats when you have to drink the blue koolaid and get reloading fully automated. Forget brass sorting, I hate trimming, debur/chamfer the most out of all the steps in reloading.

[ar15barrels]

Unless you are shooting comp just sort the mil stuff from the commercial stuff and load them.

Military brass has similar case capacity to many commercial cases.

http://ar15barrels.com/data/223weights.xls

Simply sorting military from commercial really won't get you any benefit.

[JMP]

Since I no longer have a bolt rifle in .223, .223/5.56 is the only rifle cartridge that I used mixed brass and just run it through a progressive machine. If you are going for higher precision, then you don't really want to buy "once-fired" pre-processed brass anyway.

[milotrain]

You are fine, just run it as an entire mixed brass lot. I've done some testing and I don't think most people are in a position to notice a difference between sorted brass and mixed brass in .223/556. Most people neither have the rifle nor the skill to notice (me included).

[Unretarded]

After looking at case volume charts...headstamps....year of manufacture etc etc......I decided to weigh some, knowing that was more than likely as inaccurate as any method short of actually measuring the volume.

I noticed approx 3 or 4 weights in a batch of 1000......approx 94 grains.......approx 96 grains.....approx 98 grains and approx 101 grains.
There were variances of .3 .4 grains etc, but most fell into those groups.


Then I realized that some brass manufacturers make brass for many people with different headstamps and there is probably only a couple of companies that even make those machines to make rifle brass.

My guess is the ones that are close in weight, even though different headstamps, were either made by one manufacturer with different headstamps or different manufactures who bought a rifle brass machine from the same company.

Pure speculation on my part, but that is what I am sorting them by.......A good portion seem to be about 95.8, so I am doing a 100 round batch at 95.5 to 96.5 case weight.

Might not make ay difference or be the worst possible way.......my only other viable alternative other than measuring internal volume on 1000 cases was to just load em up and treat them all the same........who knows ?

[Unretarded]

You are fine, just run it as an entire mixed brass lot. I've done some testing and I don't think most people are in a position to notice a difference between sorted brass and mixed brass in .223/556. Most people neither have the rifle nor the skill to notice (me included).

In my testing the other day I agree with that in a sorts.


while my loads and 3 factory loads were very different in POI and groups at 100 yards.......the difference at 600 yards was much much harder to tell, between changing winds and tempature rise and fall thru the day.......the difference was smaller than I thought it would be at 600 yards.

Once I adjusted my holds or scope that is for each different ammo......

[ar15barrels]

I noticed approx 3 or 4 weights in a batch of 1000......approx 94 grains.......approx 96 grains.....approx 98 grains and approx 101 grains.
There were variances of .3 .4 grains etc, but most fell into those groups.

You would do better to sort them that way than by headstamp.

[Divernhunter]

All I can say is with the load of 748 I shoot I get about 1-1.5grs less into the mil cases I got in the early 1970's direct from a Marine friend than I do the commercial bras I have bought since. If I try to load the mil brass with the same as I do the commercial I have powder everywhere. As it is I am right up to the top with a lesser amount.
Maybe just the brass I got early in the life of the 5.56 cartridge compared to todays 5.56 brass. Mine was mostly shot on full auto and that made resizing a bit hard and some could not be resized.
I will agree with a different load it may not make a difference. However with my load that I have sued since the 1970's it does with the brass I have worked with.
Just my take on it.

[milotrain]

A gentleman at Coalinga walked off the 600 yard line having beaten everyone who showed up that day, he was shooting mixed brass.

[bigdawg86]

For plinking just load em all with a middle of the road load... I still ladder test mixed brass initially. Sure I get a larger SD but as long as no pressure signs and good function who cares... I'm running red dots anyways

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