Rookie Reloader Question

[Dumpstick]

I sort all my brass by headstamp. Rifle, handgun, range pickup, whatever.

It all gets Decapped, cleaned, then sorted by headstamp.
I keep the headstamps I want ( those that I have a bunch of) and give away, trade, or scrap the rest.

I think that I get more consistent handloads by loading batches of the same headstamp. I know that I get more consistent crimps, be they roll or taper crimps, by running the same headstamp batches.

Some do it differently.

 

[retrieverman]

I only sort mine because I’m anal. I use all Lapua for my 308, but I use Remington for my 270 Win. I found out by accident though that reloads in Federal and Winchester don’t shoot any different than the Remington out of my gun.

 

[Jcann]

So if I got some range brass that I don't know how many times its been shot the only thing to do is make it isn't damaged?

Range brass is like scraping gum off from underneath a restaurant table and chewing it. You never know where it’s been or what ills are in it.

 

[rockchalk06]

Range brass is like scraping gum off from underneath a restaurant table and chewing it. You never know where it’s been or what ills are in it.

This is very true with some caveats.

If you're lucky enough to find some lake city 7.62 or 5.56 and it's not too tarnished, you have diamond in the ruff. If the primer pockets are still crimped, you know it's more than likely once fired. I scrounge everytime I hit the range. Keeps me busy when it's called cold.

9mm and 45 are harder for me to tell. Go over everything with a fine toothed comb. Anything that looks not perfect, I scrap. I decap and go over it again.

I've been finding a good amount of 270 and 7mm mag recently that is obviously once fired and probably fired within a few days. I

 

[turkeyrun]

I seperate the nickel from brass. I seperate the Starline in my .260.
Hunting ammo is Starline.

Most others don't make a difference. I note the case head whe I get a flier. If I get 2-3 fliers, I seperate those head stamps.

I have no problem picking up range brass.

I watched a guy sighting in. He shot 50 rounds of factory Win .30-06.
Picked up every case, put it back in the factory box and DROPPED IT THE GARBAGE CAN.

I retrieved it and took it home. 75% of what I shoot is range pick up.

 

[PanhandleGlocker]

This is very true with some caveats.

If you're lucky enough to find some lake city 7.62 or 5.56 and it's not too tarnished, you have diamond in the ruff. If the primer pockets are still crimped, you know it's more than likely once fired. I scrounge everytime I hit the range. Keeps me busy when it's called cold.

9mm and 45 are harder for me to tell. Go over everything with a fine toothed comb. Anything that looks not perfect, I scrap. I decap and go over it again.

I've been finding a good amount of 270 and 7mm mag recently that is obviously once fired and probably fired within a few days. I

I have almost a fat fifty can full of primer crimped 5.56 lake city brass I’ve picked up at my range. Got it cleaned and deprimed. Ready to load one of these days… maybe I should get an AR again.

 

[PanhandleGlocker]

I seperate the nickel from brass. I seperate the Starline in my .260.
Hunting ammo is Starline.

Most others don't make a difference. I note the case head whe I get a flier. If I get 2-3 fliers, I seperate those head stamps.

I have no problem picking up range brass.

I watched a guy sighting in. He shot 50 rounds of factory Win .30-06.
Picked up every case, put it back in the factory box and DROPPED IT THE GARBAGE CAN.

I retrieved it and took it home. 75% of what I shoot is range pick up.

I shake the trash cans at my range.. if I hear brass I dump it out. That’s where I find a lot of my 38special brass and a lot of .45acp. Unsure why.

 

[rockchalk06]

I have almost a fat fifty can full of primer crimped 5.56 lake city brass I’ve picked up at my range. Got it cleaned and deprimed. Ready to load one of these days… maybe I should get an AR again.

Lake City brass is my favorite next to Lapua when I'm loading for precision bolt or gas. I found 500 virgin Starline 223 during the pandemic and have been pretty impressed with it.

 

[crapsguy]

I dont sort any of my brass except for different calibers and dont keep track of the number of firings will shot and reload it til i find a crack neck and can usually find it when im processing it, but mine is just plinking ammo.

same here - I know some of my rifle shots won't be a pure as they could be and pistol hits/misses are way more about how far I miss due to me shaking than small differences in brass - so I don't sort and quit tracking number of cycles as I just look for split/damaged cases as I clean/reload

 

[SPOONBILL]

The only range brass I pick up is 5.56/223. I sort headstamp by tossing ppu (hate that stuff) and thats it.