Separating brass

[Sunwolf]

Only keep track of

Norma and Lapua,everything else is just mixed.

[Moonclip]

And a .22lr inside the 9mm. I've seen that too.

What amazes me is the amount of unfired ammo I find. So far, out of 1000 rounds of 9mm I have come up with about a box of 20 JSPs. Only 9000 more to sort through.

Me too! I found about 30 loaded .40S&W loads in a big bag of mixed .38/.357 brass for some reason.

[westcoastr]

i do keep track of times fired but it is fairly easy as i decided to just simplify my loads. each of the four guns i reload for have an accuracy/hunting load and a plinking load. i have bit more junk to shoot thru but then all the brass will be of the same headstamp and year and i reload only after i have shot all up if i can help it. the condor non-lead issue was kinda of a pain since now i shoot barnes non-leaded in all my hunting (i.e. accuracy) loads even if i'm not in a condor zone - plus fewer loads to check zero...etc.

while mixed brass shouldn't hurt my shooting for plinking loads, i find it a pain when doing high volume reloading. sometimes they don't size, trim..etc the same. for example, i've a ton of LC 308 brass with about 5% PMJ mixed it. the pmj rims are softer and get bent in my FAL so they size and seat differently, then the primer pockets are slightly wider...

i'm sure most range pick up brass is ok if you do a good inspection - best to ask guys shooting if you can pick theirs up and if its once fired..etc.

i met one guy dropping some wildcat cartridges that he had made, of course the headstamp didn't tell you that. i can only imagine the poor guy that tried to reload those...

[dexter9659]

I separate all my brass by the number of scratches on each case, right after I turn the lights off and on four times in a row.

I mix and match my 45 and 40. 10mm isn't a problem as no one else shoots it, and all 7.62 x 51 is fairly uncommon these days so picking someone else's up is rare. 5.56 I pretty much mix and match as I shoot a 14.5" barrel at close range.

[Alanski56]

I must be totally OCD. I keep track of how many times I fire each lot of .223 and .308 without fail. It's not that difficult to do. Like one of the previous posters noted, I just keep them separated in freezer bags labeled "once fired", "twice fired" etc. I also will only pick up either Lake City, Winchester or Remington brass at the range. Also, Sellier & Bellot, Black Hills, Hornady, etc. but those are more rare of a find. I wont pick up any brass that I cannot identify who the manufacturer is.

[ar15barrels]

For match and long range ammunition, I track all of my brass by the number of reloads. I buy a bag of 100 cases and keep that group of brass together for the life of the cases. They get loaded in lots of 100 rounds at a time.

All my cases are divided into bags labeled "once-fired", twice-fired" and " Old plinking loads".

I don't do it for my casual shooting guns. (I'm not that OCD)

Ditto for my match loads.
My regular 3gun type blasting ammo does not get separated by brand or times fired, but my precision rifle match brass does.

[rayra]

All depends how OCD you are, and if you or your weapon of choice are even capable of a level of accuracy where such behaviour is beneficial.
For milsurp rifles, pistol work, anything short of long-range precision / benchrest work, it's grossly unnecessary IMAO.

I'll pick up everything that looks useful at the range, do a rough sort at home to prevent the nesting/jamming of cases in the tumbler and run them all thru to clean them.
Then in the course of sorting out the goods I'll do a cursory inspection of headstamps with an eye out for signs of excessive pressure, military crimps or other oddities. And an ear out for damaged cases, you can hear the distinctly higher-pitched ring of a ruptured or split casing as you sift / sort.

And I stock and use case gauges for my bottle-necked rifle rounds and occasionally check for overall length / potential headspace-related issues. Particularly after a range session where I've picked up a lot of new-to-me brass.

But I don't spend any time trying to put multiple bullets in the same hole. I'm more focused on minute-of-bad-guy

[NotSoFast]

And a .22lr inside the 9mm. I've seen that too.

What amazes me is the amount of unfired ammo I find. So far, out of 1000 rounds of 9mm I have come up with about a box of 20 JSPs. Only 9000 more to sort through.

[Beelzy]

I track everything, even down to the lowly 18 rds of old brass I use for
load testing.

I seperate brass by maker, never mix brass, and never pick up any brass
on the firing line that isn't mine. I hate making ammo and having "flyers".

The extra attention pays off everytime I "call" a shot and I hit my target.

[slicksuper90]

Rifle rounds I keep track of pretty good. I have my good stuff, then I have stuff I pick up on ranges that I use for whatever isn't critical (never had any problems but theres always a thing called playing the odds)

handgun rounds I just pick em up, if nothing clinks, I throw it in the bag with everything else. haven't had accuracy issues. had a couple blown .45 acp cases from an unsupported barrel (but who hasn't?) and I watch the .38 supers a little closer, but pretty much just for pushed primers and splits/

[What Just Happened?]

Yeah, I've had the babushka thing happen (9mm in a 40 in a 45).

I'm just a plinker and do some local USPSA matches. That said, I just inspect my 9mm pistol cases for damage, toss those and keep the rest for reloading. I'm not shooting a rifle going for 1MOA at +400 yards, so that level of accuracy isn't necessary for what I'm attempting.

[bohoki]

I
I do inspect it before I tumble now though. I had too many 9mm cases caught in .40 cases with media jamming them together to go through separating them again.

oh i only clean one type of brass at a time in my tumbler
i'm not a savage


its funny sorting range finds sometimes its like a russian doll with a 40 in a 45 with a 9mm in the 40

[Timberwolf]

Sorry if I am beating a dead horse here but I didnt see a clear answer on my search.

I have been told to inspect every single piece of brass before reloading it.
Since I am doing that, is it necessary to seperate brass by the number of times it has been fired?

You don't say rifle or pistol - with rifle absolutely

[Ugly Dwarf]

I have been told to inspect every single piece of brass before reloading it.
Since I am doing that, is it necessary to seperate brass by the number of times it has been fired?

Lately I've been reading through the Lyman Reloading Book (47th Edition) as a refresher on reloading. A bunch of stuff I knew, a few things that are a bit dated and all around a good refresher. It's also good for helping me get to sleep at night.

The author(s) talk about this practice there, yet I don't think I'll be picking that habit up.

As noted above, if I were loading ammo for bench rest shooting or long range matches, perhaps I would take the extra step.

For pistol ammo or for "range pickup" brass, not a chance. The most I'll do is sort my brass by headstamp and group by cartridge weight, if I'm trying for extra accuracy in a given loading session.

Otherwise, I give them a brief inspection as I sort them for cleaning, when I trim and when I load.

Dwarf

[NotSoFast]

I have been told to inspect every single piece of brass before reloading it.
Since I am doing that, is it necessary to seperate brass by the number of times it has been fired?

I would think that for match, as someone else has pointed out, separating them would be a good thing to do for the best accuracy. But as far as target practice or plinking, I don't try. With 9mm I have several thousand cases that are once fired and I don't plan on keeping track of that much brass and what's been fired how many times.

I do inspect it before I tumble now though. I had too many 9mm cases caught in .40 cases with media jamming them together to go through separating them again.