Brass questions

[rhodesengr]

#1. Mixed or single brand? If you are doing a run of 100 rounds, do you thinking it is important to keep case brands separate or just throw them all in together? I've been keeping my Starline brass (purchased new) from other brands of range brass I pick up. Is it worth the time to sort brands?

#2. New brass preferred brand? If you are buying new brass, which brand do you prefer and why? So far I have bought only Starline.

[Divernhunter]

Starline is excellent brass. I have used both their pistol and rifle brass.
Pistol brass for the range I do not sort by maker.
If I am shooting for small group size or testing loads I use the same brand as I found rifle brass to give better groups if the same brand.
I have used win, rem, speer(made by rem), fed, weatherby, nosler and other brands. They all will work.

[Citadelgrad87]

For what?

9MM practice or long range rifle work?

For handguns, I do not load anywhere near max and do not care who made the case as long as it's brass and looks serviceable.

For my 700, it's a simple matter to collect every case as I fire them. They are not only sorted as to MFR, but as to number of times fired.

[rhodesengr]

I am only loading for handgun: 9mm, 38spl, and 357Mag. I have newly purchased Starline brass but have bought range brass from my club (only sorted by caliber) and brass from commercial ammo. It is obviously easy to keep my revolver brass and I have a bag that goes on my 9mm to collect what I shoot. I am just reaching out to get opinions on whether it's a waste of time to keep brands separated.

[Citadelgrad87]

I am only loading for handgun: 9mm, 38spl, and 357Mag. I have newly purchased Starline brass but have bought range brass from my club (only sorted by caliber) and brass from commercial ammo. It is obviously easy to keep my revolver brass and I have a bag that goes on my 9mm to collect what I shoot. I am just reaching out to get opinions on whether it's a waste of time to keep brands separated.

For handgun in anything other than accuracy aspirations I do not have, I don't think it's worth it to separate brands.

[ar15barrels]

I don't sort handgun brass beyond separating out the berdan, steel, aluminum, stepped, large-flash-hole or wrong-primer-size cases and tossing those.
I reload all the non-stepped brass cases with medium loads and don't worry about any differences.

[captn-tin]

Then again, if you're retired.... and it's raining....it's something to do.

[bergmen]

Since I began reloading (mid 90s) I have always sorted brass by brand for all calibers. Just a habit of mine. There are variations in internal dimensions between brands and especially with military brass (9mm, .45 acp, 30-06, 7.62, etc.) since mil brass is thicker walls.

Accuracy consistency will vary with different brands of brass (my experience).

Dan

[TAS]

I am only loading for handgun: 9mm, 38spl, and 357Mag. I have newly purchased Starline brass but have bought range brass from my club (only sorted by caliber) and brass from commercial ammo. It is obviously easy to keep my revolver brass and I have a bag that goes on my 9mm to collect what I shoot. I am just reaching out to get opinions on whether it's a waste of time to keep brands separated.

[hermosabeach]

Shooting to 500 yards - it all works well enough

Shooting a PRS match or hunting - single lot of brass or a single head stamp

[tabascoz28]

Someone probably stated this already.

Bulk reloading like 9mm, and most auto handgun I just dump them all together. There is a 9mm case that has a shelf inside limiting volume so watch out for that one. Ahh the joys of getting "free" brass.

My precision rifle stuff I never mix. They are always bought, weighed, trimmed and cut to tighter specs.

[JackEllis]

I only reload for rifles. I used to think mixed headstamps didn't matter but I'd stick to a single headstamp anyway, until I loaded some .30-06 rounds with two different brands of brass but same powder and same copper projectiles. The difference in POI was significant (couple of inches), which is not a good thing in a hunting round.

FWIW I use Lake City range brass for .223 and Remington for .243 and .30-06.

If I was reloading for handguns, I wouldn't bother sorting.

[67Cuda]

How much brass do you have? I sorted mine. Didn't take long.

[ar15barrels]

How much brass do you have? I sorted mine. Didn't take long.

Around 750 to 800lbs.
That might take a little longer than yours did.

[Tripplet918]

I used to sort when I was loading a couple hundred on a single stage press. I learned real fast that was a waste of time. No quantifiable benefit for shooting handgun distances.

I would recommend redirecting the effort to checking your brass before reloading, and checking your reloads for quality before you store them.