"Don't use Federal primers with Lee......"

[Pathfinder45]

It may not matter as much for pistol ammo. I guess your expectations are pretty low with a pistol anyway. I started my reloading a bit over 40 years ago with 270 Winchester. If you want something like that to shoot consistently well at 300 or more yards you end up with a specific recipe where, yes, it does matter which brand of brass you use, as well as the rest of the components. A lot of the fellows that do really well at long range, "waste", a lot more time with their brass, even weighing every case, and then some. Some of these kind of folks aren't very good shots at all. They are phenomenal shots. The guys that win matches at 600 to 1,000 yards with reloads are meticulous with their components. Every round is like a polished arrow in Robinhood's quiver. But if you're just blasting away with a 9mm pistol where sheer volume of rounds sent downrange matters most, then sorting brass is likely wasting your time. Trying to get smaller groups at 50 or more yards with a 44 magnum in hope of taking a deer with it? I strongly suggest sorting your brass.

[Sevens]

I do it also, 100% of the time. It is most definitely not wasted time. Typically sort brass in front of the TV, makes my ammo look better and gives me more confidence in my ammo and I get to see the results every time I shoot. Works for him, works for me, definitely not wasted time. 15-20k a year.

[Deja vu]

I sort my head stamps. When being really OCD I also weigh the empty brass and only take ones that weigh with in .1 grains of the most common weight.

Honestly I doubt it helps butit makes me feel more accurate lol

[the led farmer]

My question is are you working up a load for each specific head stamp?

[Sevens]

I don't alter my load by headstamp, but all 50 rounds in every box of ammo has the same head stamp. Pick up an adjacent box of ammo and you may find a different head stamp.

[skizzums]

I have 4 powder kegs full of 9mm cases, i'll be d&mned if I am going to hand separate 20 thousand cases. I do it for .223 sometimes if working highpower loads and always for 54R and 300blk. I have multiple dozens of different headstamps on 9mm, how many containers do you have for sorting out every different head stamp, and what are on earth do you do differently for a WIN stamp that you do a Speer stamp? I am just curious, not being rude

[green_MTman]

i have been using federal 210M primers with a Lee primer seating die in .308 win and 6.5-55 se for ten years.I have never ever had a problem at all

[Sevens]

Skizzums, if I had 20,000 pieces of mixed brass it would look, seem and -BE- a nightmare to consider sorting it, I would easily agree. But that isn't my situation at all. I have been bringing brass home with each range trip -- usually all or mosy of my brass and on some days, brass that was left there by other shooters and I have been doing that for 25+ years.


So I come home with a few hundred pieces of 9/.40/.45 at the most. And my .38 is in a bag, .327 Fed in a different bag, .357 in a bag, .44 Mag in a bag...

As to what I do differently by head stamp?
Already explained: I do nothing different, but each box of my ammo has the same stamp. All the ammo in the same box is as similar as I can make it, which makes for consistency, as much as I can make it. Consistency is what I am after, and for -ME- it provides a mental "chip" that my ammo is going to be the same shot-to-shot as it can be, so I can trust the ammo to do it's part while I focus on my shooting and not on my ammo.

I am not telling others they must do it. But this is my proces, it is IRRATIONALLY well tested and I am quite certain that the way I do it works extremely well for me.

Do I trim handgun brass? No way.
Do I clean primer pockets? Never!
Wet or sonic tumble with steel pins? Nope.
Buy new brass?! Never gonna be my first choice.

We all have our way. I know by demonstrated fact that my way works. I didn't just come up with my methods last week, I've got a lot of bench and trigger time backing up my process.

[Real Gun]

I absolutely sort 9mm head stamps. There is no melodrama needed about quantity in ones collection, because you sort as needed. The "S&B" go right in the scrap brass jug. Life is too short to rework the primer pockets. Otherwise, you will crush a primer or at least have an interruption on a progressive press with this caliber and random used brass.

[Sevens]

Should have mentioned one other part of my process...

While I use a progressive to prep all my brass, I meter all my powder and I seat all my bullets single stage. And experience has shown me that there is definitely DIFFERENT feedback in the press lever when changing some headstamps.

I like that when I do a box of 50, press lever feels nice and consistent as I'm seating them all with same headstamp, but I can feel a difference when I change headstamps.

Consistency is what I am after.

[MadDawg]

Have not been reloading that much. However, so far, it's been mostly Federal rifle primers going into a Lee single stage . Damaged like two of them, more of my own fault than anything else; but no incidents otherwise. I took the Federal primers are dangerous as what I think it is; BS.. Still think it's BS..

Then yesterday, I decided to try some .357 magnums.. Cases prepped, decided to use Winchester small pistol primers. In the house. 2nd primer goes BOOM. Can't really even tell the difference between the two; no indentations. Wife was, to say the least, unhappy.

So, now, have to stand back for a while; wait for her to leave before going at it some more; still not sure why the primer went off in the first place.
But so far, haven't had an issue with Federal primers. Now, Winchester primers, well, they aren't really off to a good start.

[ssn vet]

O.K. is it just me? or does the OPs brass look crimped?

Trying to seat a Federal primer in a crimped or otherwise tight primer pocket will definitely buckle the primer.

I don't think he has anything on his primer post.

I have a BHP with a reduced power main spring and after getting a few light strikes with Winchester primers, I use Federal primers on both my classic turret and Load master to get 100% reliable ignition.

Winchester primers do not have, ime, soft cups.

[schmellba99]

I guess your expectations are pretty low with a pistol anyway.

These types of comments just don't make sense to me.

I don't sort headstamps in my pistol brass unless I'm loading something very specific and I want to differentiate them for whatever reason.

Why? Because for the majority of my shooting, it simply doesn't make a difference if the headstamps are the same or different. I still manage to put ragged 1 hole groups with mixed headstamps out of my 1911's....and that is plenty good for me when I'm out for some range time.

Not everybody must become absolutely OCD to be a good reloader - and the idea that you must is imply assinine. There are 100 ways to skin a cat, and some folks value their time differently than you do, so the consdescending remarks about somebody that has different priorities or different procedures when reloading is really counter productive to a good discussion about something we all evidently enjoy doing.

[sawdustdad]

O.K. is it just me? or does the OPs brass look crimped?...Trying to seat a Federal primer in a crimped or otherwise tight primer pocket will definitely buckle the primer.

You'd possibly have a good point if it weren't for the fact that there are multiple headstamps including Win and Blazer, and I don't think they crimp their primers.

Cases prepped, decided to use Winchester small pistol primers. In the house. 2nd primer goes BOOM. Can't really even tell the difference between the two; no indentations. Wife was, to say the least, unhappy.

Up to this point, I'd never heard of primers detonating during reloading, and in the 10's of thousands of rounds of ammo I've loaded, I've never had it happen, despite a few upside down, sideways and crushed. Good reason to ALWAYS wear safety glasses.

[Pathfinder45]

Perhaps if I had said, "relatively low", instead of, "pretty low", would that have been more palatable? Compared to a rifle, I have much lower expectations from a pistol. My apologies, I did not intend to offend anyone or provoke such an unfriendly reaction.