Sorting brass for 5.56 AR?

[AnthonyB]

About to embark on a loading spree for play/zombie apocalypse 5.56 ammo. I have always sorted even my military brass by head stamp, but doubt it is worth the effort in this case. Do you sort your non-serious use AR brass?
Tony

[TNsailorman]

I sort all my brass by manufacturer because there are slight differences between the wall thickness of the many brands. I am not all that sure it makes a ton of difference until you start to approach maximum loads. It is just one of the variables that needs to be taken into account when you reload. my experience anyway, james

[armoredman]

The only sorting I do with 5.56mm brass is NATO/Non NATO. NATO brass with that "scope reticle" headstamp always needs the primer pocket reamed out, and that is one of my least favorite things to do. Other than that - I don't care what maker, year, nada, it all loads well enough for me.

[5Shot]

As long as you aren't loading max loads, I wouldn't sort. If you are working up a load for maximum performance, then yes.

[Ithaca Gunner]

I would sort military from commercial and call it good unless it's to be match quality ammo.

[AnthonyB]

Thanks for the replies. Nothing match quality and a proven middle of the book Load. Military will be swaged but looks like no other sorting.
Tony

[fal_762x51]

I don't sort my plinking brass. The match loads never gets mixed with the plinking brass.

[samari46]

Have about 5k of 5.56x45mm brass. All sorted out as to headstamp. Saved the nice cardboard boxes my bipap supplies come in and label them with one of the permanent magic markers. The oddball ones gets it own box. Frank

[bimus]

Shooting 223 in three semi auto guns all my brass is range pickup and not sorted shooting 223 in a bolt gun I like to sort and it gets a different load

[poppy42]

For minute of zombie Accuracy and general planking with my AR I don’t sort any of my 223/5.56 brass. If I were trying to Consistently hit varmints( woodchucks, prairie dogs, and such) at 300+ yards with a bolt action like the Remington 700 BDL heavy barrel varmint rifle that I used to own Then I was a little bit more concerned about sorting brass.

[pacomdiver]

for less than 200 yards, no sorting other than mil crimped primer/ commercial headstamp brass. for my 700 bolt gun, i use only rem brass with 55 or 60g vmax bullets, shoots moa or slightly less out to 600 yards

[Dieselhorses]

Unless you are weighing primers, turning necks, using a Hornady Hornady Microjust Seating Stem, filling cases with water to measure volume, sort the yellow with the yellow and nickel with nickel! Seriously, as mentioned, keep commercial separate from military at least (I only do this for bolt action reasons).

[30calflash]

Odd man out here, I sort my practice fun gun brass.

I've found significant differences in capacity of the same brand of commercial brass in the past. US made, not foreign. Add to that the mix of mil spec and you have a lot of variation that can be had.

Plinking brass is the same as good brass, it's been relegated to that status after a number of firings and trim cycles. If you run a mix you won't know when it is done and get neck splits or case head separations from dissimilar # of loadings, trimmings, etc.

For a manually operated rifle I might run with a mix, if they've been inspected and weight sorted for capacity. In a gas gun I'm not interested.

[G W Wade]

I would sort military from commercial and call it good unless it's to be match quality ammo.

Seems like the best solution to me GW

[Ford SD]

Sorting Brass

I do not think I have found any RP Brass with crimped primers = Toss in bin A

win brass / federal brass might or might not have crimped primers now do you sort to BIN B, C, D, E

or do you sort to bin B & C and run them all through a swage die

do you aneal brass before sizing???

then there is all the other headstamps

Sometimes its easer to sort brass till you have 3-4-500 or more pcs then process the brass and use as one lot

[Dieselhorses]

One other suggestion, I’ll sit there with a full box of brass and 2 empty boxes. One says “crimp” and other says “no crimp”. I test each piece of brass by inserting the an RCBS primer pocket swager into every pocket. Any resistance then it goes in box marked “crimp”.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk