The quality of handgun casings

[kcofohio]

Piping hot brass reminds me of a WW2 story my Dad told. He was a merchant marine sailor on Liberty ships.

In Naples they came under air attack. Each ship had a couple of AA guns manned by US Navy gunners.

As brass casings ejected out of guns the Navy guys told a young merchant sailor to toss them overboard. They didn’t warn him the cases would be super hot and would burn his hands badly.

While their fellow sailor was still screaming in pain, the merchant seaman threw the Navy gunners overboard.

Dang, the thought of the pain.

 

[kcofohio]

I like sorting even 9mm for two reasons. One is that it looks neater in the box. The other is it makes it easier to track and separate loads and separate my brass from random floor brass. I tend to use Winchester and blazer and they all work the same. I toss the R-P brass into the reserve. Not because I don’t think they work fine, but I have a bucket of them and figure they make a good reserve.

A quick swipe of a sharpie on the headstamp identifies my brass in case I'm shooting next to a fellow reloader. And different colored sharpies for different loads.

 

[CQB45ACP]

I like sorting even 9mm for two reasons. One is that it looks neater in the box. The other is it makes it easier to track and separate loads and separate my brass from random floor brass. I tend to use Winchester and blazer and they all work the same. I toss the R-P brass into the reserve. Not because I don’t think they work fine, but I have a bucket of them and figure they make a good reserve.

Looks neater in the box…Billy Crystal mimicking Ricardo Montalban…darling it’s better to look good than it is to feel good and you look marvelous!

I separate not because I think it’s necessary but because so many of you all do it, I decided “why not”.

 

[CQB45ACP]

A quick swipe of a sharpie on the headstamp identifies my brass in case I'm shooting next to a fellow reloader. And different colored sharpies for different loads.

Good idea! Now I’ll separate and mark. What’s next?

 

[tmd16556]

I do the sharpie thing for load work ups. You can go from green or blue for starting loads and red for max charge. That way I can sort them all after firing to check brass and primer appearance.

solid, bright red is reserved for things that aren’t what the head stamp says anymore, like trimmed 9x19 cases used for 9x18.