Sort by head stamp

[dearslayer]

Just curious. I have more than a few thousand cleaned 9mm cases and I got to wondering if it's worth the effort to sort them all by headstamp/manufacturer. I've had my share of small issues with crimping and such and thought that maybe if all things were as consistent as possible it would perhaps lessen and complications. Just curious.

[ddeck22]

If they are fired from different guns and are just range pickup, then I think you would see even variations within the same headstamp. I've never noticed any consistent variation besides case weight and I've sorted a lot of 9 mm

Maybe be 200 or so by headstamp and see if it helps.

[243winxb]

I do check trim length of 9mm range brass after sizing. Some are to long & need trimmed. Less problems this way.

A match grade gun will benefit from brass all of the same lot. Can you shoot the difference?

Range brass i load with my RCBS dies & cast bullets have yet to have any issues. My Taurus G3C is not built to be accurate. Its spray & pray.

Do your own testing to know. More reasons to go shooting.:smile:

[Kraschenbirn]

Like 243winxb, I check for length after resizing and discard anything that doesn't fit my case gauge. (Our club has a quite active 'bang & clang gang' - steel shooters - who don't reload so I've accumulated once-fired brass than I'll ever need.) I don't carry reloads in my EDC, no longer shoot competition, and really don't see any reason to sort for practice/plinking ammo.

Bill

[TD1886]

There are such a tremendoug variation it 9mm case dimensions I would say it's worth while to do so. Don't forget the stuff is made all around the world.

[Winger Ed.]

I'm way more particular for rifle brass.
However:
For handgun brass, I do the cleaning, polishing, then run it through the progressive.

Ones that don't look or feel right, they'll get the attention they need for pulling and/or discarding-- whatever.
In a lot of a thousand range brass and my old ones, there's never more than a handful.

[pworley1]

If you enjoy doing that sort of thing and you shoot in competitions then I say go ahead and do it. If you just shoot for the fun of shooting then I wouldn't do it. My carry loads are all from the same lot of new brass and are kept separate from my other brass.

[joebaja]

I think I do more "top-down" than "bottom up" inspection. I have run into some with a stepped case that get tossed into the "if I really have to" bucket. Most of my boolits are 140gr and up, and many are seated deep. Kicking out the stepped saves a lot of bulged cases.

[45_Colt]

With it being 9mm and mixed, I think that sorting by headstamp (HS) may be a good idea. Two main reasons, one is the primer flash hole location. A lot of brass has it off center which causes no end to decapping issues.

Then again being 9mm, case wall thickness and taper varies. It is likely easier to load the same HS brass then to mix it up.

I recently did the same with 45 ACP brass. And was surprised with the flash holes on certain manufacturers being off center. A decap nightmare... Yea, that brass went into the recycle bucket.

45_Colt

[The Dar]

Just curious. I have more than a few thousand cleaned 9mm cases and I got to wondering if it's worth the effort to sort them all by headstamp/manufacturer. I've had my share of small issues with crimping and such and thought that maybe if all things were as consistent as possible it would perhaps lessen and complications. Just curious.

Sorting is an excellent idea.
If it's range brass I'd hit it with a magnet before doing any sorting. There are brass washed steel cases out there. I found over a hundred of them a couple weeks ago from the range.

[AnthonyB]

My process varies according to the ammunition's purpose, but all gets de-primed and cleaned before sorting. Sorted "lots" of brass accumulate until there is enough for a run of zombie apocalypse ammo. The small numbers that don't appear as if they will ever make enough to bother with get combined and loaded on the progressive with cheap plated bullets for plinking. I can definitely feel a difference in how the press operates with mixed brass, and that difference shows in the reliability of my various 9mm pistols. This is just range/plinking/training ammo, so any malfunctions are more training.
The sorted brass gets loaded with real boolits and more care. This is the "don't want a malfunction" public training and ZA ammo. All of these get checked in a case gauge, and any that fail to COMPLETELY fall into the gauge are kept separate for more plinking. Almost all of these still work fine in most pistols, but may have problems in tight chambers.
I live rurally and carry a pistol everywhere, so my reloads and cast boolits are most likely what I will be carrying if ever a need arises. They are typically not carried for a a "real" trip to town; that sees me switching to JHPs. But, I don't worry about a quick trip to get whatever is needed to fix what I just broke.
Tony

[Jal5]

I probably have more 9mm brass than I can ever use. I sort after depriming and cleaning. Any that I cull are dinged badly or the primer pocket is worn out. I prefer to load specific HS and there are a bunch I save for really bad times.


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[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Yep, I headstamp sort every caliber I load for...for multiple reasons.
When loading on a turret, I can feel any defects when I've removed the variable of brass brand differences.
I load by batch, I like to have same HS for a entire batch.
Is it more accurate? IDK?

[michael.birdsley]

in 9mm the only time i do it is when i am developing a new load. i figure the less variable the better in load development. once the load is developed however, i don’t. it’s just load it and blast away. i don’t have precision 9mm though 2 Rugers a SR9c and a 9E.


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[BJung]

I sort by headstamp. Then for handgun brass, I sort by once fired and other brass. It's easy to tell because the inside of the case is clean and the outside is shinny. I then assemble loads by different bullets and charge by headstamp. For example, I load 45-200LSWC with Rem brass and 45-230 LRN with Win brass and 45-LHP with Fed brass. I'll weigh separate my headstamp separated brass too.

[Harter66]

I tested some years ago .
I had The Load for my gun on Win 9mm . So I loaded it in RP , FC , Blazer and S&B 50 each . 10 to Chrono . 10 in blind selection mags , loaded one group in loose mags just grab a mag no peek and fire it . 10 in known loaded mags , and the remainder loaded randomly from a mixed bag into 15 round mags .

The Blazer and FC as expected at the time were indifferent but about 50 fps slower . They probably came off the same lines at that time .

The RP failed to eject , ranging from failure to clear the chamber at all to full body stove pipes and only 3 of the 50 managed to pick up the next round but caught the rim in the port .

S&B was 50+ fps faster and had primer flow and belly buttons on every case .

The load was 3.9 scaled Unique from a 1968 lot , CCI spp , and Lee 358-124 tltc . Fired from a FEG HP9 High Power clone .
All of the magazines were proven reliable before the test and the pistol had been polished and tuned to some degree before my purchase. It would feed empty cases and 148 gr nose out WC as well as the Lee 358-158 RNFP .

4.2 Unique "fixed" the RP issues
4.0 matched the FC and Blazer to the Win .
3.6 cured the belly buttons but allowed failures if not held rigid .

I don't think with The Load in the Win brass the was any real danger of over max at least to the arm as a CIP production arm but the ftf and belly buttons didn't make me happy.

[sukivel]

I'm way more particular for rifle brass.
However:
For handgun brass, I do the cleaning, polishing, then run it through the progressive.

Ones that don't look or feel right, they'll get the attention they need for pulling and/or discarding-- whatever.
In a lot of a thousand range brass and my old ones, there's never more than a handful.

This is how I do it! I can’t shoot the difference and I don’t shoot matches.


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[ascast]

always check for Berdan primed crap. It's out there. It will mess up a reloading session and cost you money if you "find" them while decapping in your progressive. Otherwise, I cant shoot the difference with a pistol.

[Ed_Shot]

All my 9MM brass is range p/u. I don't trim it but I measure every case after resizing and cull those longer than .752" and shorter than .748" so I can get consistent neck expansion for boolit seating. Case lengths of .758" and .740" are not uncommon. WIN brass length in particular is all over the place. I do sort by head stamp, again just for consistency.

[Big Boomer]

Always stainless steel pin/water/citric acid/Dawn dish detergent clean all my brass and separate by head stamp including 9mm brass. However, I've never trimmed or measured for length any 9mm brass but do for all other handgun calibers. For a test I once sized, belled & trimmed to proper length a batch of .45 ACP brass & shot them in a Ruger P90 off sand bags & compared the group with non-trimmed brass with same load otherwise (cast boolits) and the results were telling. The trimmed group was significantly smaller than the non-trimmed group (again, shot off sandbags). I've done the same thing with new Midway and Starline brass in .357 & .45 Colt and found the same to the true. The more uniform the brass, the better the results. However, with 9mm I consider the caliber to be a short range proposition and do not trouble myself with anything more than headstamp segregation. Big Boomer

[mdi]

Nah! I have a thousand or so mixed mfg. 9mm cases In different stages of reloading from no processing to inspection, cleaning, sizing/depriming to primed and ready for powder and bullet. When I put together a good load I double check plunk testing. I do not trim or sort by headstamp, except when working up a load. None of my 9mm pistols are "competition grade" but a couple are pretty accurate for a 9mm. I have very few problems with my handloads, close to none, and if I do, most are fixed before a "production run". At one time or other I have processed brass from sizing, measuring, trimming, deburring/swaging primer pockets, deburring/sizing flash holes, and anything else I can think of doing to my like head stamped brass, but getting old I have relaxed my requirements considerably and streamlined my methods with no decline in my handload quality...

Mixed brass, cleaned, not polished, reloaded with my Lee and Hornady dies, thoroughly plunk tested, still perform 100% with very good consistency and accuracy...

[RCL]

I use a lot of range brass.
Most of it used for plinking, so I clean and check length with case gauge, then load.

[higgins]

Check any Norma cases for undersize flash holes. I've seen them with and without, and with a couple of headstamp fonts. I've seen at least two manufacturing locations for Norma 9mm - neither of which was in Scandanavia - and I suspect that one of them makes the ones with the undersize flash holes.

[wv109323]

My experiences and summation: As plentiful as 9mm brass is throw the cheap brand stuff away.
I came to the conclusion that as far as accuracy is concerned it is a wash. Head stamp may make some difference in accuracy but unless you are involved in stiff competition you are chasing your tail. I ransom rested same head stamp rounds versus various headstamp. Two out of three times the same headstamp shot a smaller group, but one time the smaller group was by misc. headstamp. This was with a CZ 75B pistol in a ransom rest at 25 yards. The groups did not vary much in size like 2 1/2" versus 3". One group of various headstamp had a flyer that opened the group up by an inch. Discounting that flyer the misc. headstamp would have beat the same headstamp 2 out of 3 times. For plinking ammo no significant difference with misc. headstamps.
I just loaded 250 rounds intended for USPSA competition. I loaded on a Dillon 550 press with dillon dies except for a Redding seating die. Brass was range pickup with unknown history. After loading I put all the ammo in a Ben Stoeger case gauge. Of the 250 rounds 19 were questionable in the case gauge. Of the 19, 13 plunked tested OK in the barrel chamber. This time the pistol was a Canik Rival. The 19 rounds broke down by headstamp: One WIN. , Four CBC, Two S&B, Two Federal, One ALS, One R-P, One Speer, One WMA Military, One MXT, One Troy, One Aguila, Two RMT NPA and One Blazer. I don't know who makes several of these headstamps. Of the six that would NOT plunk test( And probably caused a malfunction) were Four CBC(Magtech), One ALS and One R-P. I have also noticed problems with CBC .38 Special brass. The problem seems to be the brass is distorted during bullet seating.
So my thoughts are cull the unpopular brands and load the rest. It seems the cheaper ammo is also the most undesirable brass.

[dale2242]

I sort mine by headstamp.
I am probably just being anal.
I`m sure that it`s not necessary but that`s just me.

[georgerkahn]

With the exception of "military" vs. "commercial" sorting, I go no further. HOWEVER -- I dutifully check the SAAMI's data re minimum case length. I set up one of my L E Wilson case trimmers to that minimum, plus a couple of thousandth -- and then run ALL brass through it. If the cutter does not contact the case, said case goes into my "reject box". When all are done -- the same length -- I use a VLB Hornady tool to debur -- and the brass is then (almost) ready to load. I wrote "almost" as I do find :( brass with flash holes so enlarged that the primer just about drops in; these get rejected, too.
Bottom line? All brass that is the same length, if crimped, gets the same crimp. If not crimped, or I use a Lee Factory Crimp die -- then I'm hoping the pressure to release and propel the bullet will be very constant -- all of which I believe contributes to accuracy.
I may be quite wrong, and if so -- I live the myth :) :) :).
geo

[dearslayer]

A case trimmer is something that I don't have and been meaning to purchase. What would be a decent trimmer that won't break the bank. I'm not sure what the price would be on the LE Wilson but by the look of the quality I'm sure it isn't cheap.

[dale2242]

With the availability of 9MM cases I can`t even imagine trimming them.
The only length that I worry about is overall loaded length.

[243winxb]

Case trim length is not as important when using a taper crimp. The *roll crimp, if to much on a long case, may bulge the case. (*Revolvers)

9mm chambers can be short or long, but in spec. May help to* measure the chambers length. Chamber .754" to .776"

Brass maximum is .754"

[trapper9260]

I do not sort by head stamps , I clean then size and deprime and then check for length. What is over size I trim and what is too short ,I trim more for use in my 9mm revolver with moon clip with my own load I made up. I only junk the ones that is split or the primer pocket is too loose or damage too much. I use them as much as I can because it is easy to loose the brass on a semi auto if you do not have a catcher on your gun .

[dearslayer]

I was hoping to be loading for my 30-30 and maybe my 270 in the near future is another reason for a trimmer. I have yet to load for rifle but would like to once I get past the pistol reloading.

[243winxb]

How to measure chamber length. https://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2016/11/measure-your-chamber-length-with-home-made-modified-case/

Yes, a trimmer is needed, soon or later. More so for your 30-30 & 270.

[dearslayer]

How to measure chamber length. https://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2016/11/measure-your-chamber-length-with-home-made-modified-case/

Yes, a trimmer is needed, soon or later. More so for your 30-30 & 270.
Interesting...thanks so much for the link.

[georgerkahn]

A case trimmer is something that I don't have and been meaning to purchase. What would be a decent trimmer that won't break the bank. I'm not sure what the price would be on the LE Wilson but by the look of the quality I'm sure it isn't cheap.

It is against this forum rules to post links to eBay, but I am hoping it's OK for me to say I just noted a super-super-super bargain of a Wilson with the micrometer adjuster is being offered at $125.00 USD plus $15.00 shipping. If I did not own two, I'd surely bid on it... I have (collecting dust... I should sell them) a Lyman and a Redding trimmer; however, after getting the L E Wilsons, again, the other two have become dust collectors! The Wilson is super easy, super quick, and -- it's (to me!) major advantage -- incredibly repeatably accurate.
Just a (hopeful) positive suggestion.
I have attached a photo of my trimmer, in its storage cubicle with case holders for it. 316083 This is the only "down-size" (perhaps) to this marvelous tool, in that one must purchase/acquire a dedicated case holder for each case size one wishes to trim. (I have a few: .45-70 GOVT. (NEW),.45-70 GOVT. (FIRED),M1 CARBINE,.30-‘06,.375 WIN,30-40 KRAG,NEW .30WCF,.25-35,.444 MARLIN,.44 SPL./44 MAG,.221 REM FIREBALL,.45 COLT (REG),.45 COLT (“Q”),.32 SPCL / .32 AUTO,.348 WIN,.30WCF / 32SPL / 30 REM,.35 REM,.45ACP,.3O-3OREM/32SPL/.25-35/.3O-3OREM/32SPL/.25-35,.3O-3OREM/32SPL/.25-35,.35REM,38-40/44-40,.375WIN,.22-250,.30WCF, and, .25-20WIN)

geo

[charlie b]

I sort by headstamp for two reasons. Berdan primers and military crimps. For .45acp I also look for small vs large primers.

Since I am looking at each in decent detail anyway I just put them in separate bins.