Lesson learned: separate your brass before tumbling

[California-Quigley]

I could knock the primer out of the 44Rem Mag and using a really thin tap and push out the 40S&W case but I think it'll only mess up the 44Rem Mag. I'll just tape that messed up case on my tumbler to remind myself to separate by brass. I know Dillon sells this really cool brass separator. Has anyone tried it?

they work great!!!!

[JamesY]

I have the dillon separators and they work great. Saves me a lot of time.

[God Bless The Mauser]

I tuble mixed brass all the time and I've never had a problem.

[Voo]

Oh, and don't get me started on .380 brass.

you used a mad* smiley.. i'd use the angriest, steam out the ears, head on fire smiley icon if they had it.. and even then that wouldnt discribe my absolute hate for .380 auto brass.. I dont care about stuck brass inside other brass.. I just throw them away or put them back into the "mixed" bucket.. teh 380 is evil though..it gets into your case feeder.. it loads bullets and can fit into your 9mm guns as if it really were 9x19.. i HATE the stuff..

I literally had a buddy load a .380 into his Glock 34 and try to fire it.. He's pretty meticulous but for some reason it slipped through, got reloaded and into his competition ammo. Apparently it didnt seat 100% and all he ended up doign was giving it a light primer strike..nothing happened other than losing time on a stage, but man was he pissed... Ive done the exact same thing.. Im much better about proofing the brass before and checking the finished product when reloading..

I figure you have to sort your brass anyways- might as well tumble ONLY the ones you're going to use vs the whole lot.. Im lazy that way..

[ar15barrels]

you used a mad* smiley.. i'd use the angriest, steam out the ears, head on fire smiley icon if they had it.. and even then that wouldnt discribe my absolute hate for .380 auto brass.. I dont care about stuck brass inside other brass.. I just throw them away or put them back into the "mixed" bucket.. teh 380 is evil though..it gets into your case feeder.. it loads bullets and can fit into your 9mm guns as if it really were 9x19.. i HATE the stuff..

If you are really dilligent and have one of the handheld $7 midway brass separators, you can put about 200 pieces of 9mm brass at a time into the separator and shake it.
Listen to the sound.
It's kinda like how you know the sound of your wife's keys or you know how the sound of your keys changes when you add or subtract a key from the ring.
If there is a split case, a 40, a 38super or a 380 in the batch of 9mm, the tone changes.
If something sounds wrong, sort THAT separator batch until you find it.