40S&W... The love... The hate...

The LOVE...
For my primary carry handgun, I have a Bersa Thunder 40 chambered in 40 S&W. It has every feature that I like as I am old school and like things like an exposed hammer, decocker, double action trigger, etc... I run my own reloads through it and it shoots great with them.

The HATE...
I am a brass scrounge. When at any range, other than rim fire, I will snag up any brass that I can find. The oddball stuff that I don't shoot is stashed into a bin and I send it to people that can use it. Sent off some beautiful 270 Win to someone a while back. So, at the end of a day at the range, I take all of the brass that I have collected and throw it in the tumbler and let it shake for a handful of hours. Those darn 40S&W empties are voracious eaters. Some will invariably gobble up 9mm or 380ACP empties and then slink away and crawl into 45ACP empties.

It is a slow Friday and I am bored. I had to come up with something.

When I first started reloading I would only separate bottleneck and straightwall cartridges before tossing them in the tumbler.

The result was just what youre dealing with. A bunch of jammed up 9/40/45 with a sneaky 380 in there somewhere. I definitely felt like an idiot picking all of them apart and seeing that some cases were still dirty because of being stuck inside of another. Then having to run those still dirty ones through the tumbler again.

Now I just do take the time to sit and sort all of the brass by cartridge/caliber before tumbling. And sometimes I still feel like an idiot when Im running the tumbler for only 40-50 pieces of brass at a time and I need to run 10-15 batches, one for each cartridge.

Meh...good? bad? I dont know. The brass all eventually comes out clean and there is a smile on my face when it gets loaded again and goes into an ammo box.

Had the same issue some months back, even after swearing I sorted the cases before wet tumbling. Had some that sounded like rattles, had pins stuck between the cases,

And you have to watch for lr22 in the cases. I separate pistol and rifle cases before tumbling, BO fit in the 40sw also. Sort when you deprime!

I have found that 40 likes to get inside a 458 SOCOM case and might never come out! I love the cartridge, but it is just the right size to cause some problems... Haven't started casting for 40 yet, but I just got a mold so......

Couple times all it took me to learn to separate brass prior to tumbling :)

Get some mesh dirty bags to tumble separate calibers at the same time.

Using mesh bags is a good ideal. I just take the time to sort everything and I save them up until I have enough to load the tumbler. I will tumble mixed calibers if they won't nest together. Things like 380, 9mm, 38/357, 38 Super will play well together. So will a lot of others. It is frustrating when you dump the tumbler and find a stray has found its way in.

I have some friends that loathe the 40, I hear their reasons (they prefer the 45), but I disagree with them.
Most of all, I like the availability of cheap and free 40 brass.
...and I get the case nesting of range brass like everyone else, but I can't let it bother me, free brass is free brass BABY !

They have a brass separator to deal with that problem but it makes things too easy.

I'm with you baker! I have had the same luck.

Brass sorter.
I use it to sort brass before tumbling.

its just part of the fun of reloading.
I use a wire mesh basket with about 1/4 holes in the mesh its about 12"x18 x 3 1/2" tall and shake out the media vigorously over a plastic tote. works pretty well to separate nested shells but there are always a few that need to be knocked apart separately and some bottle neck rifle shells need dumping out

My solution to that is to

A presort.
B Citric Acid Wash
C don't bother to tumble.

Not that I load a lot of .40sw anymore. I only have one and my son in law has it for home defense.

Good read on the 40 S&W : )

http://vintagepistols.com/40isbad.html

Good to know I'm not the only one who thinks .40 S&W is "obsolete" or a "dying caliber". Nice to say that modern 9mm commercial JHP is as good as a .40, but try buying those now! Meanwhile I can castnpwrfectly nice .402 HP.

I just picked up this, have not had a chance to try it yet, but I figure it will save me a lot of time. I was sorting it by hand at the range to try and keep some of the lead dust there, and it was much too tedious!

https://www.brownells.com/reloading/...prod71439.aspx

The only reason I tumble multiple types of pistol cartridges together is because one slipped in accidentally.

There’s nothing wrong with the .40 S&W cartridge any more than there is with the S&W .38, .41 Special or any of a number of cartridges not at the top of the popularity list. It’s the ideal cartridge for USPSA and IPSC Limited competition. I have shot tens of thousands of rounds of it so it’s also one of two of my cartridges of choice for carry. The other is another wimpy cartridge that doesn’t get disrespected as much as the .40, the .38 Special. To me, nothing is as easy to carry as a S&W Airweight.

Glad everyone had some fun with a tongue in cheek thread. It was great reading the comments.
I do love my 40 and have thousands of bullets and once fired brass sitting aside. I also love my 45ACPs and I even reload 9s regularly.
And not to forget my lowly 380ACPs too. My Taurus TCP sits in my jersey pocket every time that I get on my road bicycle to put in some miles.

Well its 380 in amidst the 9mm that causes a few whoops on the square deal b and the 9 goes into 40 which goes into 45 , best was a 9mm got into 45acp went through the decapping where it stuck on decapper was next couple of cases taking more then usual leverage to notice it , I like 40 easier loading then 9mm and bullets more to my fingers liking then the 9mm just seems to load with less issues and smoother motions of the press .

I think Lyman still sells "brass baggies", which are small plastic net baggies closed with a twist tie. Fill a with a box of 9mm and dump in a tumbler full of .45ACP.