Sorting brass?

It depends on your intent of the brass. If it is for precision loads I’d do it. Anything g else it wouldn’t matter except in rare cases. Pistol would only benefit if you have a very accurate match type pistol and you are shooting for the utmost accuracy. I only sort rifle brass for my bolt gun as I’m only interested in accuracy from it.

Yes, they at a minimum seat bullets differently and sorted give you way more consistant oal.

I sort everything . It makes it easier to keep track of different lots. I try to keep each lot separate for as long as it lasts.

Any brass that I pick up goes into brass buckets, Sorted by caliber. Whenever I need a new lot, I try to sort out at least 50 of the same headstamp.

I do it rifle rounds intended to hit targets beyond 600m.

I've also sorted brass for hot 357 SIG & 10mm loads.

I don't do it for much else.

For the most part, I don't think it matters. I do separate all my brass, but mostly just habit. But also because some brass I don't care for.

For the average Joe it doesn't matter.

ctgrizzly2hunt2 said:

Newbie questions:
Should I be sorting and loading brass by brands?
Does it make a difference with pistol or rifle?
Your thoughts.

Click to expand...

i haven't even gotten any equipment yet, but i save my brass, and sort the large primer .45 ACP, from the small primer .45 ACP, and each get put into bags of 500 pcs.

after that, all the 9 MM goes into bags of 500 pcs as well.

i'll only want my reloads for plinking, not much of anything else.

I copied these pictures on a gun forum.
Look at the grouping from this trash brass.

I buy & flip range brass and have a couple hundred trash cases that I resized and will reload to shoot. I will be useing a crony and same powder & bullets until the cases fail compared to regular good cased.

Empty trash cases.


Reloaded trash cases.


Grouping at 100 yards.



Resized and annealed.


For the average guy shooting less then 200 yards headstamps will not matter much to me after seeing the preformance of this trash brass.

Highland Lofts said:

I copied these pictures on a gun forum.
Look at the grouping from this trash brass.

I buy & flip range brass and have a couple hundred trash cases that I resized and will reload to shoot. I will be useing a crony and same powder & bullets until the cases fail compared to regular good cased.

Empty trash cases.
View attachment 977687

Reloaded trash cases.
View attachment 977688

Grouping at 100 yards.

View attachment 977689

Resized and annealed.
View attachment 977690

For the average guy shooting less then 200 yards headstamps will not matter much to me after seeing the preformance of this trash brass.

Click to expand...

so pretty!

I sort handgun brass for consistency when loading on a AP.

For rifle brass, I keep lots and mfg separate.

I sort as I have the time to. Once initially sorted I just shoot same headstamp on home range so easy. I pick up brass from public once in awhile and clean and sort when I feel like it.

My sorting days may end soon though, eyes just aren't good enough anymore.

Sorting does make me feel better about consistent reloads though esp for rifle.

Sorting by headstamp provides me with a relatively easy way to control one process aspect that may improve the consistency of my reloads.

Many years ago I tried to convince myself that I did not have to sort the brass that I planned to use for "plinking" ammo ... but my OCD gene flared up and that was the end of that.

Actually, I have found that I cannot bring myself to load anything that I would consider "plinking" ammo because then I would not know if bad performance was the result of inconsistently-loaded ammo or poor marksmanship, y'know?

Should you sort? That is an individual choice.

I sort all of mine. I may turn around and load a batch of the odd stuff. Especially if I plan to shoot it in a place where loss is possible. But it starts out being sorted.

As a new relaoder, I didn't, and wouldn't necessarily recommend it. Depends on how much brass you're processing, and how much you're loading. I started sorting my brass by headstamp originally because the range I went to didn't allow reloads...so I packaged my Winchester cased reloads in Winchester boxes, my Federal reloads in Federal boxes and so on. Now, that's not so much a concern, but I still like to sort my brass as I find i have more consistency within the batch when the headstamps are the same

I do sort both rifle and pistol. Rifle because it is for a bolt gun and am loading for accuracy for pistol it's because I load that on a progressive press and having consistent headstamp brass makes for a more consistent feel while operating the press. In other words, if something feels "Off" or "Different" than the rest I stop and investigate. A stiff difficult resize, a primer that seats way to easily compared to the others, stuff like that. For most pistol I don't think the headstamp makes much of a performance change.

I do sort for both rifle and pistol

I sort all of them to, so I mostly know what expect from them as an entire lot.
Like kmw1954, if I feel something different on my progressive presses, I start looking to see why.

Highland Lofts said:

I copied these pictures on a gun forum.
Look at the grouping from this trash brass.

I buy & flip range brass and have a couple hundred trash cases that I resized and will reload to shoot. I will be useing a crony and same powder & bullets until the cases fail compared to regular good cased.

Empty trash cases.
View attachment 977687

Reloaded trash cases.
View attachment 977688

Grouping at 100 yards.

View attachment 977689

Resized and annealed.
View attachment 977690

For the average guy shooting less then 200 yards headstamps will not matter much to me after seeing the preformance of this trash brass.

Click to expand...

Well that definitely speaks volumes.

When I sell brass it is all mixed head stamped cases. I had a guy call and wanted 2,000 pieces all the same head stamp, can't remember what head stamp. So I told him he is welcome to come over and sort through the cases and take what ever he needed. He came down on a Saturday afternoon with his wife in the car with him.after about fifteen minutes he decided to just weigh out his brass and go home.

He said he sorts his brass and weighs each case and then fills them up with water and weighs the water so each case has the same exact volume.

Way to much for me, I resize & reload mixed headstamps.
Even my rifle hunting rounds are mixed head stamped cases.
At 100 yards they are accurate enough for me. My Remington 788 in 243 Winchester loves 100 grain Hornady SST's with 40 grains of IMR 4831.
For sighting in I shoot from a table with a chair and I use a rifle cradle so it takes a lot of the human error out of the equasion.
Here is my target. Four targets on one piece of cardboard useing four different types of 100 grain bullets (mixed head stamped range brass)



I deer hunt back in Upstate Hew York and most of my shots are around eighty yards or less. Occasionally I might get a two hundred yard shot.

Highland Lofts said:

When I sell brass it is all mixed head stamped cases. I had a guy call and wanted 2,000 pieces all the same head stamp, can't remember what head stamp. So I told him he is welcome to come over and sort through the cases and take what ever he needed. He came down on a Saturday afternoon with his wife in the car with him.after about fifteen minutes he decided to just weigh out his brass and go home.

He said he sorts his brass and weighs each case and then fills them up with water and weighs the water so each case has the same exact volume.

Way to much for me, I resize & reload mixed headstamps.
Even my rifle hunting rounds are mixed head stamped cases.
At 100 yards they are accurate enough for me. My Remington 788 in 243 Winchester loves 100 grain Hornady SST's with 40 grains of IMR 4831.
For sighting in I shoot from a table with a chair and I use a rifle cradle so it takes a lot of the human error out of the equasion.
Here is my target. Four targets on one piece of cardboard useing four different types of 100 grain bullets (mixed head stamped range brass)
View attachment 977781


I deer hunt back in Upstate Hew York and most of my shots are around eighty yards or less. Occasionally I might get a two hundred yard shot.

Click to expand...

Nice groups!
I usually sort both pistol and rifle if developing a new load. Once I get my “Go To” load for that recipe, I stop in pistol.

A word of caution about brass and sorting, if you are loading at the vary upper end of the spectrum (as in vary hot loads) in rifle calibers some brands have different case volumes witch could lead to a dangerous outcome.
I actually Take new brass (Lapua if I can get it) and sort it for weight and run out, start with a hundred end up with 30 but that's just killing paper.