diy brass sorters - got any?

[beex215]

i know that someone has made a genius yet simple way to sort brass. i have some to sort and just hand picking the 223 brass alone is a handful of time. show us what you have or tell us how you sort yours.

[Bullshop Junior]

I just dump the brass on the floor, lay out some coffee cans, and start chuckin it at the right cans.

[Postalpaul]

I've wondered if you could get different size collenders/strainers and try them ???

[Shiloh]

Same Thing^^^^as post #2

Shiloh

[Bullshop Junior]

I dont know how well that would work. I doubt the brass would want to stand up to go theough the screen, and there are too many cartridges that all are the same diamiter. Like say, 223 and 204 Ruger. 270win and 280Rem. 7mm/08 and 308. I just dont think it would work.

[Kraschenbirn]

Yup...coming out of the tumbler, I dump my brass directly from the media separator onto a large towel and sort it into the appropriate bins. Also useful as a first pass to cull out any split/dinged cases.

Bill

[btroj]

I just dump the brass on the floor, lay out some coffee cans, and start chuckin it at the right cans.

Works as well as anything. Mark II eyeball and fingers just works.

[rondog]

I use a card table, chair, cigar, and ashtray in my garage. Dump my dirty, scrounged range brass in a pile on the table, light my smoke, and start pickin'. Typically grab all the large rifle brass first into one pile, then the .223's, then the .44 mags and .45 Colts, then the .38's/.357's, then the .45acp's, .40's, etc. Ain't hard, doesn't take that long.

I have a set of those slotted plastic sorting trays, too much of a PITA and not that effective. They're OK if all you have are .45/.40/9mm brass, but the cases still nest together and cause grief. Nobody ever tells you about that though.....

[beex215]

2 hours just spent sorting the rest of the brass by hand. more 223 this time around than my entire career of range brass collecting.

[DRNurse1]

I spend an hour watching O'Rielly and sorting brass. I have an old fry pan that helps stand the cases mouth up, which makes sorting by diameter and height pretty quick. It also displays the nested cartridges pretty easily. Just my $0.02.

[armedmoose]

I've been using one of these setups for the past 5+ years... called the shellsorter.
89769

Sits on top of 5 gallon bucket, I need to get a smaller 3 gallon bucket to be more range/car packing friendly.

[fastfire]

You can also get another sorter plate to seperate .380 from 9mm.
I've been using these for 2 years, shure makes short work of the sorting:)

[rondog]

I've been using one of these setups for the past 5+ years... called the shellsorter.
89769

Sits on top of 5 gallon bucket, I need to get a smaller 3 gallon bucket to be more range/car packing friendly.

Yeah, that's what I mentioned previously. I have a set of those gathering dust, don't like 'em and have no plans to use 'em again.

[blikseme300]

The gotcha is the nested brass. I use the IBM method as described by other posts here - (IBM = Is Better Manual). The Shell Sorter set I have is buried somewhere in my storage shed.

[gds]

You guys are all doing it wrong. Here is the best most efficient way to sort brass.

Here is all you need:
6 young carbon based life forms, vaguely look like either you or your spouse. Or a combination of the both of you. Several buckets, and a pile of brass.

While this method is not the most efficient, and the 2 year old carbon based life form who vaguely looks like me is more about dropping any brass in any bucket, it sure beats me doing it. and I got to feed em anyways so its not like it cost me any more. I just tell em, no Wii till it's done. Then after they sort by caliber. I come in and tell them they forgot to sort by head stamp also. For some reason this causes some grumbling and moaning.

I am building memmories:twisted:

[Bullshop Junior]

Yes yes, i became quite good at sorting brass because of said above method.

[45-70 Chevroner]

I think what most of the guys are saying is, it's just a matter of eye hand cordination there is no easy way. The problem I have is when I miss a 357 in a pile of 38s and it goes through the dillon unnoticed until I feed a boolit. Oh well.:roll:

[dbosman]

Sort before tumbling to avoid stacked brass. Most of it anyway.
The Shell sorter set is really worth the money if you have a source of inexpensive brass.
Buy once, cry once. Use for a very long time.

[rondog]

I also use a flat surface like a tabletop or old cookie sheet, and I stand all the various pistol brass upright. Using a large pair of tweezers, it's then very simple and quick to pick them out by calibers. When I'm down to just the 9mm and .380's, the .380's are shorter than the 9's and are very easy to spot. Even 9 Makarov's are easy to pick out from the 9 Lugers when they're all upright.

[rbertalotto]

I saw a system that had a series of steel rods that spread out like the tines on a lawn rake. It was at an angle with a vibrating device to shake it a little. A handfull of mixed brass was placed on the end where all the rods came together. As the brass vibrated down the rods, the different diameters would fall through the ever widening space between the rods. The different caliber brass fell into nice neat piles under the contraption. Worked great!

[rbertalotto]

Oh...And another option..............

Grandkids!

Penny a case!

[Trapperscott]

Somewhere here I saw a contraption that was home built. Kinda like a sluice box for gold mining. The pic I saw was from the side of it, so I couldn't see the working innards of it. I meant to save the pic and contact the person that made it but didn't.

I sure would like to pic their brain on how they built it, maybe even get better pics of it as I have a deal going where I buy the once fired brass out of an indoor range. I bought a 55 gallon barrel about 6 months ago and am about 3/4 thru it sorting it. I have the hand shakers to sort brass with, but using them got old with this much brass.

There has to be a better way to do it with large volumes of brass. If the anyone reads this that has made one, I'm all ears.

[DRNurse1]

You guys are all doing it wrong. Here is the best most efficient way to sort brass.

Here is all you need:
6 young carbon based life forms, vaguely look like either you or your spouse. Or a combination of the both of you. Several buckets, and a pile of brass.

While this method is not the most efficient, and the 2 year old carbon based life form who vaguely looks like me is more about dropping any brass in any bucket, it sure beats me doing it. and I got to feed em anyways so its not like it cost me any more. I just tell em, no Wii till it's done. Then after they sort by caliber. I come in and tell them they forgot to sort by head stamp also. For some reason this causes some grumbling and moaning.

I am building memories:twisted:

LOL!! I have two that really like to shoot, so picking and sorting is their contribution to our collective shooting effort. My youngest carbon-based biped discovered she can sell 22LR cases for scrap and to certain folks at our club so nary a clean case remains where she treads. Me thinks spreading a few in her room could yield positive results....

BTW, where I came from (near Endicott, NY) IBM ment "I've Been Moved"

[Dan Cash]

gds,

I am building memmories

You are also teaching them to read!

[Artful]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0C9tayo15c

uses the rolling rods that have a tapered space between...

[rbertalotto]

Now THATS! What I'm talk'n about.............Wonder what that little beauty costs?

[rbertalotto]

Actually the price is much lower than I expected.......$730 for basic model, $1050 with all the trays. A club could esily repay this in a few months with the sale of the sorted brass.

[Bonz]

One of our members builds brass sorters and sells them for a much lower cost. Just don't remember his name at the moment...

[groovy mike]

I've been using one of these setups for the past 5+ years... called the shellsorter.
89769

Sits on top of 5 gallon bucket, I need to get a smaller 3 gallon bucket to be more range/car packing friendly.

Back when people actually left brass at the range - these were great! Saved me a lot of time sorting range brass. Now - there isn't enough brass to sort.....

[Bonz]

Back when people actually left brass at the range - these were great! Saved me a lot of time sorting range brass. Now - there isn't enough brass to sort.....

Agreed; no more free brass, especially where I shoot. Almost all of the indoor ranges I shoot at make it almost impossible to recover brass. "Due to OSHA rules, we can no longer allow brooms and dustpans for use inside the range because the sweeping action kicks the lead dust back up in the air. But we do provide squeegees so that you can push all the brass out onto the range floor where our employees will pick up the brass and recycle accordingly." I normally buy my brass from a shooting training school, the great majority appears to be once fired.

[FishingFool]

I also used to use the shell sorter. Now a days everyone is hoarding brass. This is an alternative

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BpkUnUqMo8U&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DBpkUnUqMo8U

[MT Gianni]

I sort it when I shoot it. It goes into sandwich bags and is only timbled by itself or with something it cannot be easily confused for or mate with.

[Bonz]

I also used to use the shell sorter. Now a days everyone is hoarding brass. This is an alternative

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BpkUnUqMo8U&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DBpkUnUqMo8U

great idea, thanks for sharing !

[bangerjim]

Screens will NOT work. The "widening rod" system as mentioned above is an industrial approach to size sorting of "stuff. But is not really worth the effort to make it for a few shells? I think NOT.

Your fingers and eyes are the best way. Even then, you have to use a magnifier and really look at the head stamps on similar cal's.....something no machine can do.

That is why you have a wife and kids!

banger

[DrNick]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADE7uqjD1z0

Not mine...but I did have a chat withthe builder. It had a scale on it at one point htat weighed the cases for fine sorting or to identify nested cases (9 in 40, 40 in 45, etc)...slow but very cool!

[groovy mike]

You can also get another sorter plate to seperate .380 from 9mm.
I've been using these for 2 years, shure makes short work of the sorting:)

I'm just about to order the screen to seperate 380 from 9mm - unless someone here has one they don't want anymore for slightly less than retail.....?

[kayak1]

I'm just about to order the screen to seperate 380 from 9mm - unless someone here has one they don't want anymore for slightly less than retail.....?

I like mine, I cut most of the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket and riveted it inside the bucket it makes it much better.

[Artful]

One of our members builds brass sorters and sells them for a much lower cost. Just don't remember his name at the moment...

would that be jmorris?