Sorting brass?

[Indian7953]

I had a 7 rum with Remington brass which weighed all over the place. When I was trying to get maximum load charges I had one that showed pressure signs and two that didn't show pressure signs of the same charge, when I weighed the cases one weighed six grains more than the others. That can give you dangerous pressures if you're pretty close to the edge already. I use the heavy ones and the light ones for reduced charge fouler shots.

 

[littlewhaler]

I finally found some Winchester brass for my 7mmWSM. Barreled action is at PAC-Nor getting a new tube and brake put on. I weighed the first hundred pieces and found quite a wide assortment of weights per piece. I'm not sure what to do now, these are hard to come by. I'm trying to start out finding a load for my new barrel, cutting out culls in brass is my starting point. Where do I start culling? Here are the results of sorting. I should mention, it's a hunting rifle. Obviously long range shots are going to be taken.
221.0-221.9 = 1
222.0-222.9 = 14
223.0-223.9 = 33
224.0-224.9 = 21
225.0-225.9 = 12
226.0-226.9 = 17
227.0-227.9 = 2

I like checking/ reaming flash holes and primer pockets on new brass. Usually have a lot of shavings just from that which changes weight of some cases. Then I weight sort and look for any visible flaws before I fireform cases in intended rifle. After fire forming new brass i start load development process and work on case/neck sizing and weight groupings. Hunt rounds are with my 2x and 3x brass that is fire formed and sized and shoulder bumped for the intended rifle. I pay a lot of attention to the brass prep steps recommended by the pros on this forum and their helpful references to articles, books, and best tools for reloading. Much improved now vs 30 yrs ago when I started..

 

[Ward Thurman]

This is just me...and my experience is probably not a vast as some others in reloading specifically but I have been reloading for awhile...
However, sorting brass by weight to me anyways is a waste of time... if you want to sort I would sort by volume of the case. Outside of that, don't worry about it. Prep and load as normal and shoot.

Sorting by volume is very time consuming. The weight is directly proportional to the volume 90% of the time.

 

[Ward Thurman]

I like checking/ reaming flash holes and primer pockets on new brass. Usually have a lot of shavings just from that which changes weight of some cases. Then I weight sort and look for any visible flaws before I fireform cases in intended rifle. After fire forming new brass i start load development process and work on case/neck sizing and weight groupings. Hunt rounds are with my 2x and 3x brass that is fire formed and sized and shoulder bumped for the intended rifle. I pay a lot of attention to the brass prep steps recommended by the pros on this forum and their helpful references to articles, books, and best tools for reloading. Much improved now vs 30 yrs ago when I started..

Amen. No shortcuts for good procedures.

 

[Mikecr]

Sorting by volume is very time consuming. The weight is directly proportional to the volume 90% of the time.

Indirect correlations are an abstract. Someone saw a difference with weight, someone else did not. It would vary with brass alloy, cartridge size & form, sizing plan, annealing plan. A 6BR will hold consistent capacity far better than a 30-06, because the 6BR is smaller, improved, growing less on firing & requiring less sizing.
You know, every time you trim you're changing weight and capacity. With every shoulder bump you're changing capacity -without changing weight. When you anneal necks & shoulders you're changing relative capacity(to higher), because the case expands at lower pressures. No weight change there either.

If you well perform capacity checks and find a 90% correlation with weights, the ONLY reason you know it is because you measured it.
Otherwise, you didn't and wouldn't know it.

 

[MNbogboy]

Indirect correlations are an abstract. Someone saw a difference with weight, someone else did not. It would vary with brass alloy, cartridge size & form, sizing plan, annealing plan. A 6BR will hold consistent capacity far better than a 30-06, because the 6BR is smaller, improved, growing less on firing & requiring less sizing.
You know, every time you trim you're changing weight and capacity. With every shoulder bump you're changing capacity -without changing weight. When you anneal necks & shoulders you're changing relative capacity(to higher), because the case expands at lower pressures. No weight change there either.

If you well perform capacity checks and find a 90% correlation with weights, the ONLY reason you know it is because you measured it.
Otherwise, you didn't and wouldn't know it.

On the other hand 80-90% with weight sorting is better than no sorting at all especially if you can keep SDs down in the single digits.
Removing repeat outliers during actual shooting probably brings that 80-90% volume to weight closer to 99. And the "shoot" sorting is definitely more fun!
Good points though.

 

[Arkansasdad]

I finally found some Winchester brass for my 7mmWSM. Barreled action is at PAC-Nor getting a new tube and brake put on. I weighed the first hundred pieces and found quite a wide assortment of weights per piece. I'm not sure what to do now, these are hard to come by. I'm trying to start out finding a load for my new barrel, cutting out culls in brass is my starting point. Where do I start culling? Here are the results of sorting. I should mention, it's a hunting rifle. Obviously long range shots are going to be taken.
221.0-221.9 = 1
222.0-222.9 = 14
223.0-223.9 = 33
224.0-224.9 = 21
225.0-225.9 = 12
226.0-226.9 = 17
227.0-227.9 = 2

In my experience 3 grains in case weight has not been a problem. Years ago I was told this by an ex- Perry shooter and have used his wisdom since with no extreme velocity spread for loads. You will have to clean, enlarge primer holes, size and trim your cases before you weigh cases. I have shot against guys that just reload dirty cases and really cannot see any difference except a lot of work that you have to put in the cases. I have found that more important is the bullet weight and 1 grain can create velocity spreads more than I can accept so I group my bullets into lots according to weight. I would try to work up a pet load and then start fine tuning the best load and see if it makes any difference to you. My 2¢.

 

[Mikecr]

You'll never get me to agree that doing something wrong is better than doing nothing.
Be sure to 'shoot-sort' those you intend to cull purely by weight.

There is another common shortcut which is analogous: sorting bullets Base to Ogive.
Folks do this, then ask all around what the hell it means.
It means nothing in itself..
It doesn't collect as separate the information needed to act on. That being base diameter, boat tail length, bullet diameter, bearing length, ogive radius, ogive length, meplat diameter, and weight. With this you could calculate BC differences, which is all that matters in it.
But that is too difficult for most, including competitors, so they rationalize that picking one or two easy parts of it are better than nothing.

I say don't act on things until you actually have needed information, to know that what you're doing is correct. And you shouldn't be doing things like this without the understanding needed to anticipate right from wrong. Stop tail chasing

 

[MNbogboy]

Opinions on the "right" & "wrong" way to approach real life problems are often just that, opinions. The OP can decide what works and doesn't work for him. But he can only do that if he trys. Discouraging a person from trying to find out for themself is certainly not conducive to learning.
Yes if you do it wrong is better than doing nothing because that's how we learn.
Start mowing your lawn from the outside working to the inside but don't try snowblowing your parking lot that way.

 

[Lenny Foffa]

Hi , I think for any Bench Rest/ Target /and Varmint shooting I strongly suggest sorting by 1/10 of a grain. For my deer rifles I separate by 2/10 of a grain. I would suggest you purchase more cases, so you may have two or three "Blue Plastic Boxes " with 20 to 30 rounds of a specific weight range. Label those boxes , and never mix them up. Example 229.0 to 229.2 ,or 229.3 . I assume you are weighing the cases after all trimming, deburring , chamfering and primer cleaning Internal neck cleaning ,and Case polishing as been completed . Speaking for myself, this one time process removes variables, and offers me piece of mind. Just my 2 cents . have fun Buddy, Lenny

 

[Doginab]

I finally found some Winchester brass for my 7mmWSM. Barreled action is at PAC-Nor getting a new tube and brake put on. I weighed the first hundred pieces and found quite a wide assortment of weights per piece. I'm not sure what to do now, these are hard to come by. I'm trying to start out finding a load for my new barrel, cutting out culls in brass is my starting point. Where do I start culling? Here are the results of sorting. I should mention, it's a hunting rifle. Obviously long range shots are going to be taken.
221.0-221.9 = 1
222.0-222.9 = 14
223.0-223.9 = 33
224.0-224.9 = 21
225.0-225.9 = 12
226.0-226.9 = 17
227.0-227.9 = 2

I have some 7mm once fired brass I'll ship to you just to get them out of the garage. I do think you're being to picky about brass specs as it pertains to a hunting rifle. I was on that train for a long time and found no difference in groups after keeping it simple...resize, trim, and maybe a bit of neck reaming.

 

[bedrok]

I'm not trying to hijack but this is a good place to ask: has anyone tried the Hornady 7MMWSM brass? The reviews I've read about their other calibers went from Guys saying their 6mm Creedmoor was as good or better than Norma to reports that some of their other calibers were junk.just curious.

 

[PBR driver]

Internal volume is what is more important than case weight variations.
Weighing cases was a task I used to do to the single grain, now I test for internal volume.

 

[mnoland30]

7mm WSM brass is available again! And, for as low as $30 for 50.