Sorting brass?

[Buster Hemlock]

If you are strictly going to go off weight then I would fully prep them all, load and shoot and then after being once fired and gone through your process to get them ready to be reloaded again the second time weight sort them. A lot can change between virgin and once fired prepped brass. Sorting by volume would be ideal but the same is true as far as it changing between virgin and once fired prepped brass from my experience. If your not deburring flashholes and primer pockets as well as uniforming trim lengths then weight sorting is a bit of a fools errand in my opinion. Just my take.

 

[Mikecr]

I measure thickness variance at necks and cull offenders.
After 3rd fire forming, and no sizing, I measure H20 capacities, and cull offenders.
At 10, 50, 100 reload cycles, I measure H20 capacities, and cull offenders.

Weight does not matter, volume does.
Volume is not just a matter of thickness. It's also matters of how brass takes to chamber form & springing back with every sizing. The initial chambered volume expands on firing, absorbing some energy, affecting tune.

 

[TheLongRanger83702]

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

If you only have 112 cases I wouldnt bother. Just load and shoot them.

 

[223Rem]

Considering how hard it is to find virgin 7mm WSM brass and its price, I have been buying factory ammo for 7mm and have not looked back.

Buy Federal Premium 140gr on sale at Midway for $31.49 plus a $10 rebate. (2) boxes for under $50 shipped. Brass alone cost you $40 plus shipping for 50 casing, not including the bullet and powder, you are way over the $50 mark.

This stuff get me well under MOA.

 

[Opa-lopa]

Internal volume is closely related to case weight for cases from the same lot. The major difference in weight is head thickness since the diameters of punches & dies are tightly controlled. That said, the difference in volume is going to be small, and if you're trickling powder, the effect on MV variation won't matter much until you're past 700 yards or so..

 

[javman]

I would probably use the ones in red for final zero, drop verification and hunting. Then use the green ones to work up loads and plink.
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

This!

 

[javman]

Save the rest to mess around with.

 

[Plowboy85]

Several folks have mentioned the doubtfulness of sorting by weight but I'll give you my opinion on it. If cases have not been trimmed to uniform, primer and flash holes (minimal I know but still relevant) then that is not a far comparison. Measuring by volume prior to fireforming isn't a fair comparison as well. Me personally I will find the shortest as long as it isn't an extreme and uniform to this, typically I will FL size them first not needed for every case but I'll do it first then neck trim to the shortest. I will do my sorting after fire forming because everything matches the chamber and "should" be fairly uniform, this is when I will true al of my brass. Typically I use the non-fireformed brass for foulers, first shots for the day to get comfortable, kids and so on. It seems like a lot but I have some serious OCD when it comes to guns and bows and can't see how it's consistent to do any brass sorting and final prep until after you have them uniform and what better to use than the chamber.

 

[six pack]

If it were me, I would find alternative use for the outliers, organize the rest into groups of maybe 1.0-1.5g difference after they have been fire formed, sized and trimmed, and load 'em up. Pay close attention to velocity produced by the group you develop your load with and adjust the load for other groups of brass to that velocity if necessary. That should adjust for any internal volume differences. However, after all that work, you may find it doesn't make two cents worth of difference. You just won't know until you try it. Good hunting.

 

[bedrok]

I don't want to poop in anyone's punch bowl here but from my experience w win. 7MMWSM brass I can about guarantee that no amount of sorting or prepping will get you a good group. My 7MMWSM is a kimber and it was the guy at the kimber factory who warned me win brass was junk. After having good luck with it since the 70s I had to try. I did everything I could (sorted for weight,turned the necks, resized to .001 under, then tried neck only, etc.) to get the stuff to shoot and it was horrible. Federal is miles better but the clear winner was Norma .300 necked down and fire formed. With the Kimber factory barrel, it was 5/8" to 3/4" with Norma, 3" to 4" with Winchester. With a new Pacnor barrel the Norma shoots under 1/2", over 50% under 3/8". I tried the Winchester again with the pacnor and can't remember exact group size but it was still horrible.

 

[Asco6]

I am using the exact same brass, I have found that the weights came a lot closer together after trimming deburring and neck turning. Flash holes would probably help too. Out of a bag of 50 are usually put away 8-10 heavies and 2-3 light ones, leaving about 40 pieces.

It really isn't the best brass, but it's what I have. I anneal it every three firings. 1/2 MOA is plenty good for me as I hunt with my rifle and don't long range target shoot.

I was tempted to buy some federal ammo for the brass, but I don't know how accurate your brass sorting would be on once fired brass as the inside is all fouled with Powder in an irregular way.

The necks on the Winchester 7wsm are super thick and NEED to be turned.

 

[tooth doc]

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

Midway just got a bunch in. I bought 1000 pieces last week. Arrived yesterday. I have always just loaded and shot. My gun holds about .25 min

 

[jimirwin]

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

Weight variation of raw brass is good to know, but may have more value if the brass is fully prepped (sized and trimmed to length) before weighing. Weight of brass then remaining tells about internal volume, then. I think that does make a difference, so would sort to tight spread small groups for individual charge weight trials. Take care with all other variables and see if weight makes any particular difference.

 

[Native Hunter]

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

Brass weight is irrelevant, the volume is what you should figure out. However it will have little performance influence; seating depth, primers, powder, projectile design, weight and nodes should be your main focus.