Revolver Brass.

[Fernando]

Couldn't figure were to ask this so move if wrong.
For wheel guns how do you run your brass.
Say you have 1000 cases.
Do you run say 200 and swap in as they split, ding, lost etc...
or do you cycle them so they all age at the same rate?
Is one way better than the other and if so why?

[Olevern]

I am not as particular with my handgun brass as I am with my rifle brass. My expectations for accuracy are not the same. With the rifle brass, I keep lots segregated; with handgun brass I only sort by head-stamp. Usually, unless working up loads, all the same cal. brass goes into a container and is processed, inspected and loaded in a large batch (500 or 1,000) with a standard load that multiple guns shoot well. After loading, the loaded brass is boxed up according to head-stamp.

Contender brass is treated same as rifle, as all my contenders are scoped and accuracy expectations higher than other handguns.

[cylinderman]

I usually sort by headstamp and just cycle through all of them. I have found in most pistol brass failure is not consistant with number of loadings, just pick out bad ones and move on

[44man]

I tried to keep them all shot the same when I shot IHMSA but it was a lost cause, never could.
Never made a difference.
New brass is the worst for accuracy and the only split brass I ever had was the first firing of new brass. I am still shooting .44 brass fired over 40X that I bought about 1980.
Some of my .475 and .500 JRH brass has been shot 5X and others in the box 30X and they shoot the same on the target.
I was anal for a while and put a tiny scratch on the case head for each time I shot it but it falls into the weighing each boolit category.

[DaveCampbell]

FWIW, normally I load everything I have on hand for a given caliber. Exceptions are when I am trying a new load or load development. Depending on the load, cases may last from three loadings to nearly indefinite. I loaded up some .38 Special wadcutters last year in brass that I have had for nearly 40 years. Some were old military cases with a WCC 58 (1958) headstamp!

[bobthenailer]

I usually load all that i have in that caliber and load in lots ! I first seperate by MFG and then use 1 particular brand of brass for each load that i have for that caliber ! for instance in 44 mag . WW , 6.0gr TG , FED 7.0gr TG , Norma 13.0 gr HS6 all with 200 gr tc bullet & Midway for 19.5gr 820 250 gr bullet and Starline for my SS pistol and R&P for bowling pin loads & PMC for full loads with J bullets.
I do this for every caliber i load for . On revolvers i first size & then trim brass to min recomended trim length if nessary every few years.

If im super serious about accuracy i only use the same lot# brass for that load .

[Fernando]

Good - use a lot of time in the BR games.
I like working brass but that gets old at times.
I think I'm getting a grasp on this stuff - at least enough
to look like I'm not a complete newbie.
I have most of my stuff ready to start the learning curve.
Alot more to it than first thought but that is always the case.
I was a little picky with my 38's and all I was doin was burning
time to ward off scope bugged eyes.
Should've started this years ago when the eyes were still young.
Thanks - I'm sure I'm not out of questions that should be obvious.

[**oneshot**]

a few split case mouths just get tossed but not the batch. If I see a bunch then the batch gets tossed and I start over again.

[dragon813gt]

I will process a lot and load/shoot them over time. When I'm getting close to running out I will clean up the shot brass, check for failures and measure them. If they need trimming I will take care of that but they very rarely need it. Then start the process all over.

[shooting on a shoestring]

Guess I'm the odd-ball...again. I keep my brass in lots. I use slip-top cartridge cases that start with 50, or however many I have in that "lot". As they split, they get tossed, then I have only a partial lot. Continues until about 1/2 are gone, then combine with another 1/2 box and retrim, and proceed for another decade or so.

[LUCKYDAWG13]

i have yet to trim pistol brass at over 20 reloading s

[bob208]

i do most of my loading during the winter. load all the cases i have keep them in ammo cans then shoot them empty in the spring and summer. then back to the casting and loading when the weather truns cold and wet.

[BCRider]

My .38Spl brass is all range pickup and from a big batch of reloading supplies I bought one time. All mixed. I used to keep the nickel plated stuff separate from the plain brass. Now I don't even do that anymore. I do more or less cycle thru from one end to the other because I've got two big pails of it. One is clean and the other dirty. When the clean gets low and I'm looking at a fresh reloading I'll transfer what is left of the clean to a small box for a while and start cleaning the big pail of dirty brass and as it is done I'll dump it into the "clean" pail. When I start reloading I'll work from the box first then move on to the freshly cleaned brass.

I do the same with my 9mm and .45ACP as well other than checking and separating out the small primer .45 stuff to be reloaded separately.

Rifle brass is a different story other than for .30-30 which is more of a plinking round for myself. .30-30 is treated much like the pistol stuff.

[km101]

I will generally load 1 or 2 thousand cases at a time with the same load. I try to cycle all my brass, but I dont really worry about it. I load what I need, shoot it up and reload it until it wears out. With .45acp I have found that you will lose it long before you wear it out, so I dont even try to keep track of it. Shooting is more fun than sorting or labeling brass so I just dont bother.

Unless I am working up a load! Then I use new or once fired brass so that I can get consistent results.

[Casper29]

I sort by head stamps, I do trim clean, debur, chamfer and clean and ream the primer pockets, I do this because this is a hobby for me and I try for the best uniformity and consistency possible, I have also loaded a bunch with out all the prep work, and there is a difference in the accuracy and the way that they feed in my semi autos. As far as keeping brass separate, I have several thousand rounds for each of my hand guns, I have them sorted and bagged into 100 round bags, I keep 50 to 1000 rounds loaded and when I shoot those, they come home go into a box until all the brass has been cycled.

[Al_sway]

I normally try to cycle them all through. Generally, I load them in lots of 500, and probably load up a 1000 or more to start. Then every time I finish with 500, I load them again. This way I always have a few hundred loaded at any one time. And it keeps my loading sessions down to 500 at a time.

[Viper225]

I did a little sorting a while back to see how many different head stamps I had. I almost filled a 100 round box.
I sort the Nickel from the Brass. That is it.
When I find a split case I toss it in the Brass Bucket. I crunch one now and again in the seater die. I also toss it.
I load lots of 38 Special at one time. I buy primers by the Case, not Box or Brick. I load for my brother and I. We shoot Defensive Pistol, and Steel Challenge Matches.
I do not have time to sort brass.
An exception to this is my Remington Brass. I have a stash of sorted out Remington I have set back for my 442 Pro Moon Clip, and I also have a 686 Power Custom Combat with a Clark Moon Clip Conversion. Remington cases work best with 38 Special Moon Clips.

If I were shooting Bulls Eye I might sort my cases. Shooting Steel and Defensive Pistol I do not plan to sort anything past Nickel from Brass cases.

Bob

Bob

[Love Life]

Depends on the brass. I load 38 special in lots of 1,000. I'll keep loading that lot and just discard the brass as it splits. I'm still working on the first 1,000....

9mm I keep an eye on, but so far I have 9 loadings on my current batch.

454 I keep an eye on, but so far I have 7 loadings on my current batch and it is nickle plated Starline because it looks pretty.

What I'm saying is I load it until mit tells me it doesn;t want to be reloaded anymore.

[Harter66]

I used to not sweat it. Then I loaded a batch of 9s and hammered some of the primers flat w/belly buttons. Now it gets sorted by headstamp for the autos. The revolvers get lotted brass, the 38s aren't so bad but my 357 is more picky. The Colt only has 3 headstamps 1 for hunting,1 for shooting and 1 for SD as it came from a factory.

[rromeo]

For .38 Special, I load, I shoot, I dump the brass into buckets, sorted by headstamp, and clean and inspect later. I repeat the process.

For the .44 Magnum, I use a little more care in tracking, but the process is pretty much the same.