Sorting Mixed Rifle & Pistol Brass Tips and Tricks

[ARog]

After every trip to the range, I would take the brass that I shot (and anything else I could find) and throw it into a 5 gallon bucket. After a year the bucket finally filled to the top so I went to sort all the brass out. I use a product called the Shell Sorter (yellow, blue and black lids that fit over 5 gallon buckets) and I was quickly (less than an hour) able to sort all the brass that was in the bucket.

But the shell sorters only work so well. You then have to sort out manually what it groups together i.e. (357 mag, 38 special and 40S&W)

Does anyone have any tips or tricks they use to quickly sort 357/38s or 9mm/380 other than looking at the headstamp?

Just curious what everyone else does when sorting mixed brass...cheers!

[cavemanlrrp]

Stand them up? Long ones, short ones.

That's what I do if I get some 380s in my 9s.

Best
caveman

[ARog]

I do that as well, but it becomes very mind numbing if you have to go through a few thousand 9/380's

I know that the shell sorter makes a 380 ACP Adapter Plate. Maybe that will do.

Just wondering if there was a faster / better way. Cheers.

[RayB]

If I didn't have the Ultimate Sorter, I would've done this:

https://youtu.be/JYLmZ7RSXc0

[boomer135]

you can buy a machined plate insert to sort out 380 from 9mm. 357 is longer than 38.

[Faded]

Stand them up? Long ones, short ones.

That's what I do if I get some 380s in my 9s.

Best
caveman

+1

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[Divernhunter]

boomer135 has the trick for the 380/9mm. I did one better and tack welded a 5" ring to mine and a friends. Now we just dump the 9mm/380 mix in there and shake to separate.

After doing enough of them I can separate the 38/357 and 44sp/44mag just by looking at them.

Before I use the shifters I dump a bunch of the brass into a deep lid for a plastic/rubber storage container. Then take a big magnet over them to get out all steel cases. They go into the trash. Then I pull out all the 223/308/30-06 and other rifle brass and put them into separate container. When the container gets full they go i9nto a Big Lots plastic shebox and on the storage rack until I want to finish processing them. For containers I use the 5 quart plastic ice cream containers

I processed seven 55 gallon drums this way last year. Goes pretty fast once you get the hang of it

[stilly]

After every trip to the range, I would take the brass that I shot (and anything else I could find) and throw it into a 5 gallon bucket. After a year the bucket finally filled to the top so I went to sort all the brass out. I use a product called the Shell Sorter (yellow, blue and black lids that fit over 5 gallon buckets) and I was quickly (less than an hour) able to sort all the brass that was in the bucket.

But the shell sorters only work so well. You then have to sort out manually what it groups together i.e. (357 mag, 38 special and 40S&W)

Does anyone have any tips or tricks they use to quickly sort 357/38s or 9mm/380 other than looking at the headstamp?

Just curious what everyone else does when sorting mixed brass...cheers!

I stage.

Three large 15+ gallon totes with a splotch of paint to represent each sorter.

1 5 gallon bucket that gets filled and then sorted. I dump all the range stuff into this.
1 5 gallon bucket that the sorters sit on as I sort and it allows the .22 and .32 and stuff to fall down below and contain them.
1 small acrobin (kinda large, about a gallon size or so) from HF that will sit and hold specials that i pull out.
As I sort I pull out the .44 and the .38 sized shells and put them into the acrobin. Along with .223 and .308 and 10mm and .380

The rest of the stuff gets sorted out and each colored sorter gets dumped into its corresponding bin.

Then I will decap the specials that I pulled out and bag them and toss them in my larger staging area that is a wooden bin that holds brass that is waiting to be cleaned and has already been decapped.

Then once I have enough brass to clean of a certain caliber or so, I clean it and then put it into a folgers coffee container. I like the taller RED plastic ones, but the regular ones I have about 20+ of so I use them as well. They hold about 1.2k 9mm or so...

Then I fill up each coffee container and then let the rest of the brass sit in the bags waiting to be cleaned when I need them.

For .308 and .223 I use 5 gallon buckets with gamma lids... Easy peasy.

[TexasJackKin]

I try to sort after each range trip, keeping the accumulation of unsorted brass manageable (doesn't always work out that way) as soon as I get enough of one caliber to make a tumbler load, I tumble it and then into storage bins.

I always feel like, if my range bag weighs more coming home from the range, than it did going, it was a good trip.

[dyson]

instead of tossing the ammo carton after it runs out at the range, use it to store the brass you just shot. go home with presorted cartons of brass, dump them into designated bins.

[glug]

Keep rifle and pistol pickup brass separate to begin with. Revolver brass should always go back in the box it came in.

[packnrat]

buy this item in the video.
its a start. a number of different cases will stay in buckets, so you still need to hand sort. (as in .38/.357 stays with .40, .223 stays with 9mm).
but over all a great way for me to sort out all the pounds of pickup i bring home.

.

[Munny$hot]

Use the ultimate sorter but I sift buy hand. .357 cases get caught in the .40 tray and hang down, so they're easy to see. Any .380 that gets mixed up with 9mm will not size in a 9mm die and you will feel the difference.

[stilly]

I try to sort after each range trip, keeping the accumulation of unsorted brass manageable (doesn't always work out that way) as soon as I get enough of one caliber to make a tumbler load, I tumble it and then into storage bins.

I always feel like, if my range bag weighs more coming home from the range, than it did going, it was a good trip.

That is ideal. If I felt like it I would sort like that, but I am too lazy. I come home, open that bag, dump the shells, and step out...