Sorting 380 from 9mm

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Julian537

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Does anyone have an easy way to sort 9mm ammo from .380? I really hate having to sit down and go through my 9mm individually to pick out the 380 brass. Any ideas or suggestions will be appreciated.

thank you,

J
 
I normally stand them up on a table top and pick out the shorter ones. Easiest way I have found yet.
 
I use the tried & true "shoot 9MM one day, and .380 another day" method.

Other then that, I use the old "stand them at attention on the table and pick out the short ones" method.

Or, I just resize the whole mess in a 9MM die.
The .380's are pretty evident when they don't touch the sizing die.
Those get dropped in a .380 bucket next to the press.

rc
 
Send them to me I'll remove all the .380 then you can have them shipped back.
 
I have the 3 shell sorter pans with the .380 insert. Works slick, but you can only shake a handful at a time as the 9mm lays in the slots that the .380 falls through.
 
jcwit:
I can just look and see the difference between the two, even with the brass on the ground. Should not be much of a problem.

I can too, IF there is a 9mm near the 380. When I'm picking up 9mm with both hands, I often get .380 by "mistake". I pick up a bag full-500+ at the practice range I use.

I get a second chance after I rinse them off when I get home. After a wash-job, I dump them on a patio table table to dry on an old blanket cut-to-fit. I visually find some more .380 AND 40 cal AND those .22 cases that hide inside the others.

Finally I do as RC does. The dies don't hit .380.

I got $136.xx at the scrap yard last month for 3 years worth of "mistakes" or damaged brass I culled.
 
I catch most of them sorting by headstamp. After awhile they just feel different.

Those I miss generally get caught at decapping/sizing. Feels like a split case.
 
After awhile they just feel different.
Exactly. Very, very, few (one per 3 or 4 K) get all the way to the "ready to load" box. If they make it there, they do not make it past the hand priming.
 
I built a brass sorter that is quite fast at the job, 380 is smaller in diameter than 9mm. It sorts a lot more than just 9 from 380 though. Another machine I built to cull inverted bullets, works well too just slower and works off of length.

sorter.jpg

Here is a video of it on the first run

th_sorterhopper.jpg

And a video of the other contraption

th_9mm380.jpg
 
I reload both 9x18 and .380, so I feel your pain. I've had to be very careful about labeling cast bullets so as not to confuse them, too.
 
I reload both 9x18 and .380, so I feel your pain.

I got some Mak brass mixed in with my range pick ups. It sure feel different when it goes through the 9mm resizing die! After the second one, I new something was not right. First time I have seen MAK brass made by WIN too.
 
Yep I use both so I clean them together and size/decap the 9MM. If they don't contact the die and just push the primer out it's a 380 and goes into a separate bin to be sized later. If I get some 9X18 they look different when I do the final inspection as I box them. Only found a dozen MAK brass in the last 3 years so I am happy about that.
 
I hand inspect all my 9mm brass to cull out the junk...

-crimped primer military brass
-berdan primed foreign brass
-brass-washed steel S&B 9x19 with red primer sealer (Looks just like real brass S&B)
-A-MERC brass
-Makarov & 380 brass
-split or damaged brass
-nickel brass

It takes time, but I usually set up a bright lamp on a flexible arm over the coffee table and a set of butter tubs on the table, a bucket of brass on my knees, and hand sort that way. My wife likes to watch TV shows I don't want to watch, and this way I spend time with her. I can devote just enough attention to the TV to be able to make small talk while still doing something to keep my mind from being too involved in whatever the Kardashians or Gene Simmons or the Lifetime movie are doing.
 
I have gotten to where I can mostly tell just by looking at them, but I'll go through and individually look at most of the headstamps most of the time.

I have had one or two .380's slip through before though, and it'll feel different going into the resize die. Just kind floats in with no resistance whatsoever. All that have made it through sorting I've caught during that resize step. The stroke just feels off and triggers that "something was different about that one" alarm that virtually all reloaders seem to have.
 
I hand sort.

Some of the ideas here sound like they will help, but I think I'm still going to be mostly checking each case by hand at least once.

I was shooting my CZ75 (9x19) a few months ago, and had a round not go off, pulled it out of the gun, and lo and behold, it was loaded in a 9x18 case. The .380s are easier to tell, but that 9x18 sure got me good!
 
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