Henry Rifle Forums

When cleaning and sorting 38, 9 and 45 for plinking how important is separating by headstamp?

I separate by times shot and weight. If I run a hundred through I like to keep projectiles and brass within a tenth of a grain in order to keep the final weight as close as possible. When done I measure, head space die and weigh every single round as a final safety check.

I don't bother separating them. You go through a lot more steps than I do. I'm picky on powder weight and OAL but other than that just go shoot'em.
Jake

To each there own but those pistols that shoot that ammo are not bench guns. Being cautious with powder charges is fine but Im the same as Jake go shoot

I just clean, load, and shoot em - no sorting.

Thanks for the feedback, I was thinking it was ok and maybe I'm a little overboard.

Luv the lever wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 06, 2023 4:46 pm

When cleaning and sorting 38, 9 and 45 for plinking how important is separating by headstamp?
...

The only head stamp I sort is between .223 and 5.56 once fired brass. The once fired 5.56 primer pocket needs to be swagged before a new primer can be inserted.

Mags wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 06, 2023 10:27 pm

Luv the lever wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 06, 2023 4:46 pm

When cleaning and sorting 38, 9 and 45 for plinking how important is separating by headstamp?
...

The only head stamp I sort is between .223 and 5.56 once fired brass. The once fired 5.56 primer pocket needs to be swagged before a new primer can be inserted.

I would sort 9 mm NATO from the non-NATO because the walls are a different thickness. Same with 7.62 and 308.

Just me but I always seperate. With different brass you get differing case capacities and that can change pressures, that can change velocities and on and on. Some cases are a little thicker/thinner which effects seating force required and thus depth and more importantly tension on the bullet.

If Im just loading blaster stuff Ill mix headstamps no problem but most of my loading is done with accuracy and precision in mind so really, anymore I mostly seperate.

I only reload 38s and 357s using factory brass which I maintain in the original 50 round lots that I purchased before I started reloading.

I have a couple of thousand pieces that have been reloaded many times over the last ten years (my reloads are on the low side of mid-range powder weights). I do not mix brass, not even between different boxes of the same headstamp.

My reasoning is that factory loaded ammo likely requires consistently uniform components in the manufacturers' high volume production lines. That to me suggests that fifty rounds of brass from the same lot will be just as consistent on my own loading bench. Of course, I could be wrong about that, but so far, it seems right.

Whenever I reload a box of brass, I set the bullet depth and crimping die once and the last round is always consistent with the first.

Thicker/thinner brass? I haven't noticed a performance difference in POI.