Lee Loader

To Try to take things to the next level, I separated my cases by brand. Now what? Is there a next step?

Mine are all separated by brand, resized, trimmed, expanded, and primed. Except for small small primer versions that I have. I may complete another 50 rounds to take to the range this Sunday with my son

sonic306090 wrote:To Try to take things to the next level, I separated my cases by brand. Now what? Is there a next step?

resize/de-prime
clean cases if you wish, but at least clean primer pockets
new primer
expand case mouth if we aren't doing bottle neck rifle cases
powder charge
seat bullet
crimp case at least enough to "iron" the flair
"plunk" test
shoot 'em
rinse and repeat

That may be over simplifies but it's the basic sequence and done with attention to detail will get you safe loads. There are additional steps that may at times need to done, like trimming cases. Depending on the cartridge and you level of loading you may never need to trim. There are some one time steps like de-buring flash holes and uniforming primer pockets, that are necessary, but can in some cases improve accuracy.

Ultimately you develop a routine that produces safe, accurate for purpose handloads and enjoy the hobby.

Make smoke,

3 Wheels beat me to it! Most depends on the caliber; rifle or handgun. My rifle rounds get more steps and my semi-auto brass gets less, and my revolver ammo gets way less. Some gets polished cases (45 ACP and 30-06 so I can spot them in the dirt at the "range"), some are cleaned only. Some are measured (rifle) some are not (handgun). But all are closely inspected after cleaning/polishing before starting any reloading...

This is a loaded question with not quite enough information ......
I sort everything by head stamp I've become a lot more picky about rifle brass through the years because a particular rifle forced the issue .

Pistol brass just gets sorted by head stamp .

Mostly AR family brass also only by HS but GI also gets sorted by yr .

30-30 gets sorted by HS as the rifles don't seem to care same for 308 family and a cousin so far .

06' family goes from HS straight to the scale the first time I don't even ask the rifles anymore I just do the weigh lots .

Depending on where you are and goals from HS and weigh lots , by volume for unknown lots or case weight for known lots , you have trimming , chamfer/deburring mouthes , annealing , neck ream/turn , flash hole deburring , primer pocket uniforming .

Then you have choices about FL , partial , and neck sizing , shoulder bump , small base , standard dies or going to a custom die . Standard neck expansion , push expansion , collet/mandrill sizing , tapered/carbide balls , and bushing neck dies that only size down to the desired ID with no expansion needed .

A whole lot of this is completely unnecessary for 50 yd can killing . Some of it is only important if you need to shave 1/10 of an inch off a 500 yd group to stay in competition
, and half or more will never matter to the typical 300 yd deer hunter . Some rifles will demand some of these things and some of them won't give you back a dimes improvement for $100 investment .

"This is a loaded question with not quite enough information ......
I sort everything by head stamp I've become a lot pickier about rifle brass through the years because a particular rifle forced the issue ."

Sorry, I'm loading 9mm, I've been reloading for almost a year now. I reload picked up indoor 9mm casings.
I reload about 200 cases per month. I started separating my 9mm cases by brand. Then I now Weigh each
one and organize them by weight. 0.0 Grns to = or - 0.5.

Example: F.C. Headstamps. Most of them weigh in at 54.4 grns but a few weigh 1.5 grn more.
Same with Blazer, CBC, G.F.I, S & B, and WIN. I guess based on the Factory batches, The weight varies??

Will taking this extra step of sorting by headstamp and Weight result in more accurate shooting?

sonic306090 wrote:Will taking this extra step of sorting by headstamp and Weight result in more accurate shooting?

With 9X19 at handgun range? Likely no.

My findings in 9 mm .

1 load worked for Winchester brass .

The RP would occasionally ftf especially if the grip was not solid .
S&B showed some primer flow beginning with raised edges around the firing pin dimple .
GI brass , FC , and 2-3 foreign HS suggested variations also mostly higher pressures than the WIN .

While I would agree with accuracy levels for 7-21 yd being good enough for training , in other uses it might not be . A friendly game of kill the pop can/golf ball could quickly become an exercise in futility .

Sorting by HS is generally enough in most pistol brass . You typically won't see enough difference per brand without a significant change of HS suggesting a major retooling .

With FC I sort in it's sister brass also , in pistols , Speer , CCI , Blazer ......I think I missed one .

I separate WCC from WIN , RP gets its own space

The rest pretty much goes into a rainy day box for liquidation by Flat Rate Box , often with the RP also . No dig at the RP it just doesn't communicate well with my arms and load selections .

All my 9mm pistols feed mixed brass 100%. My 4 pistols are not "Bullseye Match" quality and accuracy, while good isn't exceptional. The variations from headstamp to headstamp as for load performance are so small as to make no difference with my loads. While I may sort brass by headstamp I can see no difference in performance in either my cast or jacketed bullet handloads. But a lot of my sorting is a combination of OCD and boredom. When I'm working up a load I use sorted brass, sorted bullets (weight and diameter consistency) use one mfg primer, and weigh every charge. When I find a promising load I may tweek the charge up or down until I feel I have found "The Load". After that I normally loosen my "standards" and may use mixed brass, different primers, and loosen charge tolerance to +/- .2 gr. Works for me.

But if you want to weigh 9mm brass and process it to "match" quality, no big deal, just do it!

When I shot competitively (IPSC) I sorted my 9MM by HS and then by X's fired. The reason was to help avoid a case failure in the middle of a stage. If any cases in the lot failed inspection prior to reloading I would put the remainder of that batch aside for plunking/practice. I shot and still shoot every other handgun calibre without regard to case make or X's fired.