Sorting 9mm brass by case length

[LCTitan]

When reloading 9mm parabellum do you sort the brass by case length or only by headstamp. I have been sorting by headstamp and case length and I am trying to figure out if its really worth it to go through this for USPSA, IDPA, and Steel matches. It may be worth it for Bullseye shooting but my thinking is it may be a waste of my time to do this for other types of shooting. When I reload 45 ACP I only sort by headstamp. Your thoughts?

 

[Halo]

I have to admit I've never heard of anyone going to quite that length for 9mm. I admire your tenacity! I sort mine by headstamp only, and a lot of people think even that is unnecessary. Lots of people load mixed brass in high volume calibers like 9mm.

 

[herohog]

For casual shooting, who cares. For SERIOUS bullseye shooting, go nuts. Sort by Headstamp AND length and only practice and shoot with ONE. Sound a bit overboard? It is. I doubt that anyone is good enough in their abilities that it would make huge difference in their scores. It sure won't HURT though.

 

[rbernie]

I do not sort my 9mm brass; I only use it for casual practice inside of 25 yards.

 

[rodregier]

I'll sort by mfgr headstamp, but I've never bothered to sort by length (or trim) 9mmx19 brass. I would be very surprised if you could demonstrate accuracy differences by case length sorting within same mfgr headstamp brass in 9mmx19. My observation has been that most fired and resized 9mmx19 brass is significantly short of SAAMI spec maximum length.

 

[Navy joe]

USPSA and Steel I don't sort at all. 9mm is a small case and matching head stamps and thus hopefully case volume can yield great results. I made one batch up with matched WCC cases and it was superb. The difference was it was a 2" at 25 yards as opposed to 3-4 of some normal reloads.

 

[evan price]

The only reason I compare case length on 9mm Luger cases is because where I collect brass, there tends to be some Yayhoo who takes 9x19 cases and cuts them down for their Makarov. Then I get 9mm Luger headstamped 9x18 brass. Luckily once you see 'em a few times you notice them when you sort 'em out.
If not, when you pick them out of the finished tray on the press you see a lot more driving band of the bullet over the case mouth. Then it's get out the kinetic mistake eraser...

I imagine that the headspace issue in an autopistol wouldn't be that bad, it's just I don't want to take a chance.

 

[evan price]

dbl tap

 

[herohog]

Range brass should ALWAYS be guaged with a caliper or a go/no-go guage at the very least! Lord only knows what you can pick up!

 

[subierex]

Ditto what Halo said. The range I go to has 9mm brass by the bucketload for the taking. 75% of it is WIN brass (white box). I simply segregate the WIN from the rest and load it. Have many 3# coffee cans full of the stuff, ready to go.