Who Sorts .223 Brass and Why?

gmazza2

gmazza2

New member
Just wondering, does sorting brass really make that much of a difference? I've read that the military brass is thicker walled and can't hold as much powder therefore you should reduce you loads by 10%. Let me know if you sort and what the reason is. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif Thanks all!
 
Sort it by weight.

Most Mil 223 brass weighs the same as commercial. Some commercial is heavier than mil brass.

.223 Rem Case Weight
Case Manufacture - Case Weight - H20 Capacity**
Lake City 06-------- 92.0 -------- 30.6
WCC99 -------------- 95.5 -------- 30.5
Remington ---------- 92.3 -------- 30.4
PMC ---------------- 93.5 -------- 30.4
Hirtenberger ------- 93.7 -------- 30.4
Lake City 04 ------- 93.0 -------- 30.4
Federal ------------ 96.3 -------- 30.2
Hornady ------------ 93.9 -------- 30.1
IMG (Guatemalan) --- 95.4 -------- 30.1
Lapua (new lot) ---- 93.4 -------- 30.1
Winchester --------- 93.9 -------- 30.1
Olympic ------------ 97.4 -------- 30.0
Radway Arsenal ----- 96.1 -------- 30.0
PMP ---------------- 104.5-------- 29.9
FNM '93-1 ---------- 97.3 -------- 29.8
Lapua (old lot) ---- 104.0 ------- 28.0

So it's not as some folks tell you... some mil is lighter than commercial.


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I also wondered that! After looking around I came across this:http://www.6mmbr.com/223Rem.html. Youll have to type in the adress cause I dont know how to link, but on the site it is easier to read than the copy and paste I did below. It goes into the different weights and capacities of all the brands.

Brass--New and Once-Fired
To achieve high levels of accuracy in the .223 Rem, you need quality brass. Among the dozens of .223 Rem/5.56x45 brass makers, Lapua produces the highest quality and most uniform brass we have found. If you look at the charts, new lots of Lapua .223 brass showed the smallest extreme spread in weight among all brands, even though we measured 100 Lapua cases as opposed to 50 with other brands. Lapua is more expensive, but you can reload Lapua cases a dozen times or more. Also, Lapua maintains primer pocket tightness with hot loads better than other brands. After Lapua, the recent Lake City brass is very good, and it offers the highest case capacity, at 30.6 grains. Winchester brass is favored by many Highpower shooters. Current Hornady brass has shown very good uniformity (see chart). Brass Manufacturer Aver. Wt.
(Sample) Extreme
Spread Standard
Deviation
Lapua (new lot) 93.35 (100) 1.2 gr 0.31 gr
Hornady 93.88 (50) 1.7 gr 0.43 gr
Federal 96.28 (50) 2.3gr 0.75 gr
Lake City '04 92.97 (50) 2.5 gr 0.61 gr
WCC 99 95.5 (20) 2.9 gr 0.74 gr
IMG (Guatemalan) 95.42 (25) 3.1 gr 0.88 gr
PMP 104.4 (50) 3.9 gr 0.93 gr
Radway 96.05 (50) 4.1 gr 0.89 gr
PMC 93.48 (20) 4.6 gr 1.36 gr
Remington 92.33 (50) 4.9 gr 0.85 gr
Winchester 93.91 (44) 6.5 gr 0.96 gr
 
Case wt is not a good indicator since differant makers use slightly differant mixes for the brass they use and that makes a differance in wt. I sort by maker and/or headstamp. Then by average volume in grains of water. Normsally not enough differance to worry about but some loads I want to be more exact (I am getting less anal in my old age I guess, or I have more time )
 
I do not sort .223 brass because I do not own a rifle that has the inherent accuracy to benefit from that level of case prep. I did sort brass for a 22-250 I own and was able to eeck out .3 to .4 groups with a factory barrel. This was with fully prepped brass and the bullet seated just off the lands of the rifling.
I will not assume to know as much about reloading as many on here do. So if there is a safety issue with not sorting brass with sensible loads then please let us know. An inexpensive lot of mixed head stamp brass is not worth blowing up my rifle!!
So is it only an accuracy issue or is there a safety issue with less than max powder charges?

RKR
 
People do it on the assumption that cases weighing the same will have the same volume, and that's not true. First, weighing new brass is meaningless because it's not all the same length....except for Lapua Match which is very consistently 1.750". Then after it's been fired-trimmed-neckturned, the heaviest case can just as easily have more volume than the lightest. Not only that, brass with a greater weight difference heaviest-to-lightest can be more uniform internally than brass with less weight variation.***** Weight can be anywhere, including the rim and extractor groove. I did a bunch of volume measurements on .223 brass to satisfy my own curiosity about sorting. With fully uniformed brass there was no correlation between caseweight and case volume. In other words, weight sorting .223 brass is a waste of time.

*****IMI weight variation heaviest-to-lightest was about 3x more than Winchester, but was very uniform internally........Win. had 6X more internal volume variation.
 
The key phrase was "with sensible loads" then you are OK and I would say it probrably would not make a big difference in accuracy at shorter ranges.
 
I sort it by brand that is it. But I have Win brass for the .223 and the .204(70 Hornady brass). Federal brass for the .308.
 
I'm with CWeeks, I sort by headstamp/brand. Not that I'm trying to eek out the last bit of accuracy, I do it 'cause I'm a bit anal. I keep records of what I load up. If I load the same bullet for two different rifles, I know the Federal brass goes to rifle X and Winchester brass goes to rifle Y. I also neck only size after the first firing. assigning brands to rifles helps me keep it straight. I actaully don't own rifles that would notice the difference.
Wow, a simple answer got long........sorry /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif
M
 
Same here. Sort by headstamp if it makes you feel better. I have two tack driving .223 rifles, one a Savage and one built on a AR-15. Any ground squirrel missed at 300 yards with either of these fine guns is not going to be the result of having the occasional odd headstamp in the box. It is going to be me.

If you a paper puncher only, it may be worthwhile. If you shooting at something that wont sit still, where the wind is blowing, off the hood of your pickup, who are you trying to kid? Put it in the crosshairs, pull the trigger and hope for the best.
 
I sort by headstamp also for two reasons. I like the way Winchester brass works for me and some other manufacturers don't seem to be as easy to work with. I have a neck size die for a 243 and load for two rifles right now. I use Winchester in mine and Remington in my friends. This way there is no confusion on which brass was fired in which gun.
 
Catshooter, that was quite a post! Thanks! I think that your post should go in the tec section.]

In my rifles, I always stick to the same brand of brass.
 


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