Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Range brass sorting

your the Sherminator

Like most of you I do pick up .223 range brass. I sort it by length then by head stamp. Anything shorter than 1.750, I give to my friends or if it's really short I drop it in the recycle bucket. Then I sort by once or twice fired. I like to keep them separate. When I have time I sort by crimped brass and uncrimped. The uncrimped brass is easier to process. When it's cold outside and I have the heater on in the basement, I process the crimped brass. Deprime, swage, uniform the primer pockets and sort by length and headstamp. It makes the winter nights go fast then I shoot all spring and summer.

kwg

What's the point of ditching the shorter brass?

I wonder that my self there grow in time, wont need trimmed as much

You a funny guy.
How dies the saying go " Fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me" well I never went for 2 some just learn easier than others.
After the early 2,000's primer " scare" i decided then im not gonna rely on anybody for my ammo.
History repeats itself, we haven't even got out of round 3 yet may never will.

You guys must shoot a hell of a lot!!!! For fuggs sake. I picked up a few thousand pieces of range brass, in a couple days, and that pretty much gives me a lifetime supply. I bow down to you guys...

Remember too.....223 Ack Improved easily formed from LC brass

Or 20 Practical as well

For the more ambitious...300 Black Out

Although very labor intensive

Much easier to buy new Starline 300 BLK

I tumble it first, then stand it up in loading blocks. I look at it with a lighted magnifier and toss like headstamps into tubs.

I'm just trying to get more consistent neck tension. Especially on bullets that are not crimped.


kwg

I hear ya, but the average match (3GUN) is about 100-150 rds of .223 and that brass isn't coming back.

That's about 1000 pieces per match season that need to be prepped and loaded just to keep up. Then there's practice etc.

lighthman ,that is a good idea .thank you

My son was planning a trip to the range last week to shoot his 45-70 and was low on ammo so he went to the store to buy some factory ammo. I still laugh at the frantic call I got when he saw what they were wanting for a box of 20. Needless to say he made the time to drive to my shop and pick up a box of 50 reloads.

I like this idea, I'm going to try it out. Thanks!

There is a easy way to convert to 300 BO. It's not cheap to setup but buy once /cry once comes to mind, LOL. I bought the Dillon 1500 Trimmer, Tool Head, Trim Die and Lee M Die.
One pull for a complete case. I lightly chamfer the neck, inside and outside and I'm done. I tried using the chop saw, size and trim to length method. After doing 500 cases I was searching for a place to buy them.

I might have some factory 223 brass, but probably less than a dozen. I have thousands of 5.62 brass. During the Vietnam war, brass was available by the bucket load. The only problem I had with that brass was the firing pin hole was often off center and it destroyed a few de-capping pins.
Now I recapped originally with a universal decapping device that looked a lot like a punch and a raised washer.
I had a friend machine a device that identified off center firing pin holes. The off center case were scrapped. I still had maybe in the neighborhood of 10,000 cases.
I swaged the primer pockets. I’ve not had to buy brass for the 223, even though I’ll load a thousand for a PD shoot.
You can buy your factory brass. I don’t want to pay for that much brass from a factory.

Suggestion for that neck tension consistency : Get a Hornady Universal Neck sizing die which is caliber specific.
Adjust it right you won't have to worry about neck tension Consistency.