Sorting brass question

[Metal god]

I have some Fed brass that has been FL sized 3 times and I also have some Fed brass thats only been fired once never sized , about 75 of each . I was just weighing them and they all are with in 5gr of each other ( both lots combined )

Now that I size my brass .002 shorter then my fire formed brass . can I just throw all the brass together or should I keep it separate ? Once fired in one lot and all the other brass that's been FL sized multiple times in another lot ?

[LE-28]

You could, but I would keep the once fired brass separate from the rest.
After the other brass has been fired too many times and needs culled out you will have good once fired brass to fall back on and you will actually know that it is "good once fired brass" instead of wondering how many time this brass has been fired or when you will have another failure.

I have my "old tired brass" that I keep a close eye on and a good reserve of new or once fired brass that will take the place of my old tired brass when the time comes.

[4runnerman]

Yes- Keep it separated from the rest. I get about 12 reloads out of my 308 brass before I sell it to the scrap man. Since you have 75 of each,for your really good loads try find 25 cases that are with in 2 or 3 grains of each other and use those for your test loads. I keep all my brass in 50 lot containers. Each container has a sticky on cover. Every time I load ( In Batches of 50 ) I put one more hash mark on sticky. Once I get to 12 , I trash the brass and get a new sticky. I have never cut a case open after 12 loads to see what they look like inside,but I figure after 12 loads I have got my moneys worth out of them.


How's that thing shooting for you now by the way?.

[F. Guffey]

Metal God, you are ahead, you weighed the cases first. A shooter at a local range was testing a new purchases, it was a new Ruger rifle chambered to 30/06, 5 of the first 20 rounds failed to fire, the primers were dented but failed to fire. The 5 rounds that failed to fire were chambered in two other 30/06 chambered rifles, same thing. There were 4+ attempts to fire the 5 rounds. Another shooter at the range called and ask me what was going wrong with Remington ammo, I suggested they call Remington, the phone number was listed on the box.

In a couple of hours the 5 rounds that failed to fire and the 15 cases that did fire were brought to me, no box, no lot number, no phone number for the shooter and proud owner of the new Ruger, just 5 failed to fire and 15 that did. I had to make some changes, the very disciplined reloader that brought the questionable ammo did/does not trust electronic scales, so I replaced the scale I had set up with a RCBS 10-10 scale. We pulled the bullets, we weighted the powder, bullets and cases. We removed the primers. A most impressive comparison between weights, there just was no spread. The largest spread between the 5 cases that failed to fire was the distance from the shoulder of the case to the head of the case, the spread was .005”. Remember , the cases had been hammered with the firing pin 4+ times.

We tested the cases with home made gages, Wilson case length gages and datums, and chamber gages, not the chamber gages that are made by the smith that cut the chamber with the same reamer etc., etc.. These were actual chamber gages, not chamber gages that are copies of the L.E. Wilson case gage (only tighter), these were my chamber gages, impressed again, the fired cases chambered in my chamber gage with light thump pressure.

We found nothing wrong with the failed to fire rounds, we installed the 5 time hit primers back into the same case they were removed from, I selected one of my M1917 rifles, I chambered the failed to fire cases with the same primers that failed to fire primers in the M1917 and pulled the trigger, all of the primers were crushed, all 5 fired, when the cases were ejected the primers were not protruding. I did not measure the case length from the shoulder to the head of the case after firing the primers??

Matching cases to lots and matching cases to weight, I make an effort to keep cases together, keeping 20 cases together in a 20 round box allows for sorting after tumbling if the reloader has enough different head stamps.

F. Guffey

[Metal god]

Thanks guys , not what I wanted to here but is what I knew .

4runner : I have not shot the rifle since confirming the loads . I've been having a problem with my scale . It sticks a little before the beam lets go and rockets past the weight your zeroed for . I'm sending it back to Redding but before that I just finished loading up 500 rounds to get me through till I get it back . I'll be shooting soon , not sure when though . Pretty busy with work and T-giving .

[wncchester]

Metal, IF the user knows how to properly FL size in order to reduce web stretching cases will usually fail with neck splits, which will throw shots wide but are safe.

The only concern about mixing cases fired random times is the increasing neck hardness which slightly changes bullet grip and that affects fine accuracy. But it's not a tremendous thing and few factory rifles and fewer shooters are likely to notice much difference on target.

If you don't know what relivance Guffy's rambling primer story has, no one else knows either.

[Metal god]

I'm using 4 different head stamps . having 2 to 5 FL sizings . With each head stamp having the same number of FL sizing in the lot . My WCC brass is on 5 and I think I'll anneal them before the next round .

As for Guffey , He rambles but does pull a rabbit out of his hat from time to time . Best thing I have got from him so far is placing a feeler gage in between the case and the shell holder to size my brass perfect . I love that idea and it works every time . I can set the die to size 80% of the brass perfect but the rest tend to be a bit long . Just pop a .0015 or .002 feeler gage in there , size again and there perfect . Thanks guffey

[4runnerman]

wncchester- I have never had a 308 neck split on me. I anneal every 4th shot. My main reason to keep them separated is I never want to have case separation happen. I used my 308 for FTR Class,but after I admitted to myself that this old man can not shoot for squat off a bi pod I hung it up. I did separate my cases by weight always though.