Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Sorting .223 LC brass by year?

I pick-up others range brass in .223 Remington when I can find a decent amount has been left behind. So far I've only bothered to load the R-P brass but I have acquired a fair amount of LC 11 (a few years back) and LC 14 (a month ago). I know that LC brass has a reputation for quality but what about mixing different years? Do you keep LC brass separated by year or do you consider all LC brass to be equivalent?

Thanks.

I usually weight it and sort it buy numbers it works really well last a long time.

One of the reasons I ask is someone left behind 66 LC 14 cases last month. I already have a few dozen LC 11 cases. Just wondering if it would be better to keep them separate lots or just combine them into one.

I have been loading/shooting some with the 68-72 date on them and they work just as well as the 14 do.

I just finished weighing over 500 LC cases. This makes a 1,000 I have weighed and preped. It cut down on fliers but it does require quite a bit of prep work. Once done, keep them seperate from the other weights.

The work pays off.

If you are just loading blasting ammo and your loads are not up against the firewall, mix away. If you want the most accuracy out of your reloads, at least sort by date. You can compare the two dates for weight and volume and may find they are close enough that it won't matter if they are mixed. Realize too that the LC brass probably needs to have the crimp removed from the primer pocket before seating a new primer. Can be cut or swaged out.

I mix years and sort by weight within 1 grain.
My L.C. 5.56 brass averages 92 grains prepped. I divide it into two lots 91-91.9 grains and 92 -92.9 grains.
Those over and under weight go into the blasting brass.
Larger cartridges like .270 Win I will sort into lots of 2 grains each.

I have found sorting by date to be meaningless. Date does not = weight.

P.S. Weight does not equal capacity, but you got to stop somewhere.

I know this sounds like a lot of work, but the results are very good. When shooting for small groups,any case that shoots out of the group, should be kept separate. Even though the cases may weigh the same, the differences in capacity causes different pressures.

Another way to check and cull out the different capacity cases is with the chronograph. Any large variation in velocity, could easily be from capacity differences.

As I worked thru this accuracy learning process, some of my commercial cases would give me up to 150 fps variations. When I am loading weighed and prepped LC cases, the variation will be in the 25 fps area or less.

I do for schits and giggles. All mine is '79

What do u weigh them with a digital or beam scale and is that after its sized design primed and trimed?

I use a Hornady digital scale after sizing and neck turning, which cuts to length.

Weighed on my RCBS digital after full prep and trim, no primer.

My Tikka T3 lite .223 shoots groups like this with unsorted LC brass.



LC brass seems to be pretty consistent. The only brass I have found that this rifle doesn't like is S&B.

Unless you know the specific lot's metalurgy, the weight won't definitively mean a volume. Without also knowing the specific line that was built on, or the associated tollerances from that run.
If you want to sort by volume, you need to measure the volume, not weigh it.