I have literally a five gallon bucket filled with .45 cases from the past thrity years. I must have a dozen different headstamps from WCC64's to TZZ87's, military HB match brass, and commercial brass from RP, to Win to Federal, with some Speer and a few others thrown in for good measure.

My problem.... I'd like to load up the similar headstamps , plink them away and thats it. But sorting is getting old and I truly do have a dozen or more different case makes, with different internal capacities,etc.

All I want to do is load up some plinking ammo that will be SAFE in a variety of pistols. I know accuracy will vary due to the different neck tensions, internal capacity,etc.

Should I go with say UNIQUE and some 230 ball loads, OR some 180-200 gr SWC lead loads with some WW231, or Bullseye??

I would think the slower burning Unique loads would be more tolerant to the variations.

Any thoughts or ideas?

FN in MT

Just go for the 180 grain bullets and load them on top of Bullseye From 5.3 grains to 5.4 grains CCI-300 Primer...don't even worry about sorting the cases..

You're wasting your time sorting this brass!!! You aren't shooting a 1000yrd match here. You are shooting, or you should be shooting, rapid fire double tap 7 to 25 yard shots. You couldn't hold your pistol still enough to notice an accuracy change in your brass. Load 'em up and blast away.

Frank,

With a low pressure round like the 45 ACP, the danger of substitiuting varied head stamp cases in loads designed for "plinking"(i.e. low pressure practice loads) is extremely small.

The only way this could be dangerous or strain the handgun due to high pressure is if you were loading to absolute max pressures in a case with comparitively large capacity and then use that load in cases with smaller case capacities.

Since the 45 ACP max working pressure, even in +P loads is quite low, this really is not a problem as far as safety goes.

In some of the cheaper, untuned handguns, you may have reliablility problems but not in a quality tuned pistol.

Don't worry, go to loading with a good target load under a light to medium weight bullet and go shooting.

Good Shooting!!!

50

Yup, sorting won't make any visible difference. Even bullseye shooters don't segregate brass for the 50 yard stages, in my experience. The only variable that may ever raise an issue is variances in neck tension but if you cull the split ones, it'll largely take care of itself.

Try 5.6 of WW231 and a 200 lead SWC for nearly any and all applications. It's my only load.

Redial

I think as long as you are not loading maximum pressure loads you will do fine by not sorting cases. My plinking loads are made up in whatever brass, except Amerc, I happen to pull out of the box. Ammo loaded for a match does go into cases segregated by manufacturer. I do not trim 45 ACP brass, at least not since I did that to 1000 pieces that were soon lost in IPSC matches.

Stans:

You don't work on enamel-covered objects, do you?

R

Why yes, I do happen to work on enamel colored objects!