Sorting brass

[CT_Shooter]

Good points. I don't have any military brass, but S&B primer pockets are absolutely tighter than others I use. The few boxes of it that I have have all accepted standard primers, but were noticeably harder to seat with my hand primer than any other brand.

WIth regard to sorting brass on a side note IF you load any calibers that are also used by the military you might want to 'cull' out the military brass due to the crimped primer pockets.
This can be a headache when priming when you encounter a crimp that is a little tight.
For brass like .223, 9mm or .45 it might be a good idea to dump all your military brass and stick with civilian mfg. or you might have to consider swaging or reaming the primer pockets on the military brass.

Also another well known primer pocket issue is with Sellior & Bellot cases. These have normally tighter primer pockets than any other brass and some pieces will not accept standard primers. Most all of it primes very tightly as it is and I have encountered some that will not allow a primer to seat fully.

The up side is with multiple loadings the primer pockets 'stretch' a bit and start priming more or less normally. I would judge your use of and availability of brass as your guide.

[Mags]

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I shoot some Federal military grade 5.56 in my Long Ranger
https://www.federalpremium.com/rifle/am ... XM193.html

A few months back I was at my shooting buddies place. He was trying to get me interested in reloading. I reloaded several rounds of these military grade cases. I had no difficulties seating primers in these. Even though they say military grade on the retail ammo box are they really military grade brass?

[BigAl52]

I get tired of picking up center fire brass to reload. I dont think Im that energetic to pick up the 22. But more power to ya Bandit for doing that.

[Mistered]

Even though they say military grade on the retail ammo box are they really military grade brass?

I suspect the term 'Military Grade' on the box is a misnomer - kind of like how 'Mil Spec' is hung on stuff not even used in the Military.
Kinda like how 'Green' is hung on some of the most non- 'Green' products?

It could in fact be military ammo as well simply boxed for civilian sale.

'Real' Military cases will have a headstamp designating the manufacturer (typically abbreviated), year and sometimes other markings.
For example I am looking a a piece of .38 Special Military Brass right now that is headstamped 'W C C 72' so Winchester Cartridge Corp. 1972 however it does not appear to have a primer crimp.

Also real Military brass typically does NOT have the caliber on the headstamp.

The crimp will be more pronounced on some military brass than others. Most 5.56 Military brass has pretty noticeable crimp. I am looking at a piece of it as well marked 'L C 09' (Lake City 2009) and it has a very pronounced primer crimp.

Sometimes primers sneak past the crimp with no problems then you sometimes run into a 'streak' of them the primers do not want to seat in.

Swaging or reaming military brass primer pockets was more common back in 'the day' when there was more of it than civilian brass but that's no longer the case.

[clovishound]

I never worry about how often my brass has been loaded. Of course, I don't load that much rifle ammo, mostly just pistol calibers.

Also, I inspect my brass after completely loading. I have had brass split in the seating/crimping phase. Also, it makes sense to me to have a final inspection in case there is a seating issue, buckled case, or bullet defect. By waiting til the end, I don't have to inspect twice.

I do, however, set my cases ready to be deprimed up in batches of ten, and quickly look at them from the top to make sure there is nothing hiding inside them, like tumbling media or a .22 cartridge. It also has the benefit of alerting me when I need to weigh my tenth powder load, without having to count.

[RanchRoper]

Doing each round 1 by 1 in my turret press I can inspect at various stages. Brass gets a look over going into depriming/resizing stage. Primer seat gets a look as I check the powder dropped. Final gets a good look over, and every dozen or so get measured. So far so good. I have caught a couple of split cases, and they get tossed.

[Mags]

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Pictures below.
The head stamp on these LC 18, no caliber stamp. Which is somewhat perplexing. Marketed by Federal, manufactured by Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems (but originally by Remington). Some of these look like they aren't seated as deep as they should be.

Worst OAL 2.267 and best 2.247.

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'Real' Military cases will have a headstamp designating the manufacturer (typically abbreviated), year and sometimes other markings.
...
Also real Military brass typically does NOT have the caliber on the headstamp.
...
The crimp will be more pronounced on some military brass than others. Most 5.56 Military brass has pretty noticeable crimp. I am looking at a piece of it as well marked 'L C 09' (Lake City 2009) and it has a very pronounced primer crimp.
...

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[Mistered]

LC 18

Lake City Arsenal, 2018

Are the rounds in the stripper clips 'new' out of the box?
If so this is probably surplus military ammo just repackaged. I can tell by the color of the cases at the taper & mouth.

[Mags]

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Yes new out of the box.

LC 18

Lake City Arsenal, 2018

Are the rounds in the stripper clips 'new' out of the box?
If so this is probably surplus military ammo just repackaged. I can tell by the color of the cases at the taper & mouth.

[Mistered]

no caliber stamp. Which is somewhat perplexing

I don't know about the 'perplexing' part and Like I said this is typical for military brass.

Worst OAL 2.267 and best 2.247.

Again not untypical for military ammo.
It ain't match grade stuff.