357 mag brass query

[Bubba w/a 45/70]

I have a substantial amount of 357 brass that I am currently working through. All kinds of headstamps in the mix.

What I am wondering about is if the separation of brass by headstamp makes much difference in 357 mag, or would this be more of a "vanity" type of thing to do. By difference, I mean the way that some separate out rifle brass by headstamp due to manufacturing differences, for accuracy, case volumetric differences.....or whatever.

I am wondering if anyone has ever done any accuracy testing on the differences in 357 mag brass due to manufacturers.....and if it is even worth it to go through the work.

[00buck]

I don’t think it’s worth separating by headstamp.
But I trim them to the same length so the crimp is consistent

[Led]

For full house loads I would sort the brass. For anything else don’t bother.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Depends on how you shoot. If most of your rounds are spent killing targets under 25 yards. You probably won’t notice. We stretch everything out as far as we can so it is nice to have as much consistency as you can get when you are trying to hit steel at 300 yards.

[Winger Ed.]

At the short hand gun ranges, it isn't really worth it.
Shooting a group with a single head stamp, and its all tweeked out- sure it'll be more accurate, just like similar rifle ammo is.
To shoot a one MOA group of 1" at 100 yards is a lot easier to get to with well prepped ammo.
Brass that's all mixed around, a 4" group or 4 MOA or so should be expected.

Translate that to 25 yards of a pistol range.
That 4" MOA of what would be considered junk ammo in a rifle comes down to a 1" group- or less at 25 yards.
Which I'd consider pretty good, and more than acceptable.

So, all things considered:
I'm not going to spend as much extra time sorting and prepping hand gun cases as I do for a rifle.

Now, .357s for my Marlin,,,, that's a little different.:bigsmyl2:

[Char-Gar]

If you want the best accuracy, separate by head stamps and trim to uniform length. If you don't care, then don 't spend the time and effort.

[super6]

I cant stand a box of 48 shells with 2 shells of a different head stamp, Drives me nuts. I guess its my obsession.

[Dusty Bannister]

My experience is with a TC that has a snug chamber. I can load cast .3585" bullets in Federal nickle plated cases and apply a light crimp and they fire. Other brass is just enough thicker that they do not fully chamber and the firing pin does not hit the primer. Other firearms might not have that factor to deal with.

Revolvers not so selective in what chambers unless you go with fat bullets.

[Bubba w/a 45/70]

Well, that sounds like I just might pick one brand and separate that out for when I want the Henry to look its' best when shooting/hunting. I do have quite a few revolvers, so those really don't make any difference in what I use revolvers for. I don't do target shooting with revolvers, just plinking and self defense practice.

[SSGOldfart]

For full house loads I would sort the brass. For anything else don’t bother.

I'm in the same camp ,but if any of the brass is old you'll see a little difference in case capacity.but you'll find them when sorting the brass hint (those cases will feel a little heavier).

[megasupermagnum]

It definitely makes a difference, often more than rifle brass. At the very least you will run into inconsistent crimps. Some brands such as Hornady vary so much you would get zero crimp.

[Jeff Michel]

I trim to length, don't bother sorting except to segregate GFL head stamped cases. Have had a chronic problem with head separations with that brand of brass. Not sure why, definitely not max loads and in several different rifles/revolvers. Considering the caliber and the platforms out there, it probably won't make a huge difference accuracy wise. Hasn't for me at any rate.

[Rodfac]

I sort by head stamp and I trim to a uniform length for all of my revolver brass. I get uniform crimps that way which contributes to accuracy. If I spend the time reloading, I don't want to waste my time and expensive components on rounds that just don't measure up.

Hornady brass, in particular, varies widely in length...and lately, with a new batch of Starline .357, I found a lot of inconsistency. If you trim to a uniform length, you only do it once for that batch of brass...and you'll get better results.

As to range pick-ups, I don't ever do it. Especially with high intensity cartridges, and .357 is one, there's no telling how it was previously loaded and why it was left on the ground. YMMv...be safe...Rod

[robg]

i dont trim my 357mag brass ,or sort by headstamp my win 94 still shoots better than i can.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

Under 25 yards it does not matter, as the distances get longer, uniformity - bullet pull, straightness, all that 'OTHER STUFF' gets more and more important.

[dverna]

It is an interesting question and one I have never bothered with as tack driving accuracy is not needed for my needs. I have never shot any .38's/.357's past 50 yards so I do not I know what I do not know.

I might run a test this spring to address it for my own curiosity. 10 five shot groups at 100 yards with "match prepped" cases with a "normal" crimp, 10 five shot groups with my normal mix of cases and a "taper crimp", and another 10 five shot groups with my normal mix of cases with "normal" crimp. I can mount a scope on one of the Marlin 1894's to make it a good test. Note: I do not run .357 full power loads for plinking so a taper crimp should be adequate. I suspect that with a taper crimp die, any slight difference in COL has less effect than when using a "normal" crimp.

I probably have 4-5000 .38 Spl cases that I use for plinking ammunition, so trimming is out of the question. I will be working on a load that runs about +P. Not sure if taper crimping would suffice for full power .357's but if you only have a few hundred cases, trimming would not be too onerous.

[RogerDat]

I'm in the sort because... why not? I can do it while wife watches Wheel of Fortune or some such. It helps me know what sort of use this "batch" of brass is getting since I'll load in batches by head stamp.

I also trim at least once for a more consistent crimp. I know the batch will have had roughly the same load and stretch which should yield consistent crimps going forward. If it is all tossed in a box to be pulled out randomly some may have stretched more or some less. Not that hard to keep in containers that are all the same head stamp and history.

[MT Gianni]

I sort all my brass by headstamp. It is easy to do when you get it out of the tumbler and then you only shoot one brand of brass at the range or keep it all separate.

[brassrat]

I sort and measure everything and sort/ trim everything but 9mm and .380, these only get sorted for headstamps.I often look like the Hanging Chad Guy when sorting Fed headstamp fonts on .38s

[badguybuster]

Ive never noticed any discernible difference so long as its trimmed to the same length

[Texas by God]

I keep my .41 magnum brass separated into Starline for magnum loads, R-P and W-W for special level loads. All my other handguns get fed mixed brass, as do my .30 Carbine and .300BO carbine.

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[Rapier]

Sort by make and type of brass, trim to the same length, use one make and type of brass, using a taper crimp or profile crimp, seat on one station, crimp on last station. It will uniform your crimp pressure and length, thus giving you better accuracy.
You will get a more harmonious outcome if you do not roll crimp cast bullets.

[farmbif]

I guess we all do things different. but me I always roll crimp right into the crimp groove of cast bullets, except 38 wadcutters, on 357, 41, 44 mag and 45 colt.
taper crimp is for 380, 9mm, 40 s&w and 45acp.
you can't go wrong with sorting. but if you got bucket of brass and just want to get though it and your not pushing the envelope of max load your probably ok.
but it might be a good idea to take some samples of the different brands and do a capacity test of each to see how much difference there really is.

[1hole]

I don’t think it’s worth separating by headstamp.
But I trim them to the same length so the crimp is consistent

Wise words.

[meh]

I have a case trimmer as well as Lee Quick Trim dies. But I am apparently too lazy to trim the several thousand pieces of .357M brass I have. There's a technical problem with that as an alternative to sorting, since it would require trimming to the shortest length, which would be the PPU brass. I don't want to trim my other brass that short. That brass is probably as short as Hornady LeveREvolution brass. Instead, I do sort by headstamp. I just put in the effort when they come out of the case dryer after wet tumbling. There is still some variation with some headstamps, but I work on a single stage, and I crimp with the Lee FCD, which won't "squat" on the case like a seating die set to crimp. I just pay attention to how it feels. It's easy to adjust the FCD if there's too little crimp. An occasional round will get a little more crimp than I wanted, but I don't see a problem with that.

[corbinace]

Color me OCD, but I just enjoy sorting it out and having them all the same headstamp. If I am trying to get the last bit of performance out of a load, I have some set aside that is all the same lot. When I shot IPSC, I shot on the ragged edge of minor and would have the same headstamp to make sure I was above the floor.

[dale2242]

I sort mine by headstamp just because that's what I do.
All of my handgun shooting is just plinking so it probably doesn`t make a bit of difference.

[fecmech]

As others have said at 25yds out of a handgun it matters not. If you are shooting 50yds plus and care about accuracy IMO it matters and especially with slow powders like 296/H110 etc.

[Stephen Cohen]

As others have said, sort if you shoot full mag loads, as you can get into trouble with some small capacity cases. I would also agree it is important to trim all cases to uniform length in order to get a good even crimp if you want best accuracy at longer ranges. I have found the very important in lever guns. Regards Stephen