I have recently started reloading 9mm among my other cartridges. I have a friend and his wife that I shoot with that both carry a 380. They want me to load for them for practice.
We shoot together, so we pick up our brass together, and they obviously get mixed up.
Does anyone have a quick and easy way to seperate 9mm brass from 380?
The only thing I have come up with is to stand every case up and just look to see which ones are shorter. I stand them up in groups and then look, but even this is really time consuming.

Ideas ?

If you have a lot and are going to do it often Midway or Dillion sell a basket separator. You can get a 380/9mm insert for it.

Yes, make your friend sort them out; he is the one causing the problem.

Are you guys shooting hundreds and hundreds rounds each outing?
Red sharpie across the primer of one caliber and blue (or maybe nothing) on the other.

My friend shoots 9MM and gives me any 380 brass he picks up. I stand them all up in a loading block and always find a few 9MM he missed. Doesn't take too long, but I'm only dealing with a few hundred cases at one time.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Yes, make your friend sort them out; he is the one causing the problem.

+1!

I've found after gathering brass of all sizes from the range into a five gallon bucket then later hand sorting sometimes months later.

That by doing it enough I can spot nearly all the different sizes just by looking at them in my gloved hands.
No, I'm not claiming 100%, but, it's way up in the high 90's%.

The main problem I've found/had is the 380's will slip inside the 9's, ACPs, 32's, 25's etc and can be a real bitch to get apart. Especially after running them thru the shaker getting some grit in with them on the few I missed.

Depending on my attitude at the time, some get tossed in the scrap bucket rather than fighting it.

I do it just to gather brass. What I don't shoot, is great trading materials among friends.

Have fun, that's the thing.

George

As suggested marking them before is easy. Also lets you identofy a high primer as you run thearker pen over the case head and primer. Old method used by those of us shooting in action shooting sports who want our own brass back amd not that of other shooters... Also pick up more frequently and sort as you go.

Lastly friends don't let friends carry 380's.... unless they are 007.

quote:

The main problem I've found/had is the 380's will slip inside the 9's, ACPs, 32's, 25's etc and can be a real bitch to get apart. Especially after running them thru the shaker getting some grit in with them on the few I missed.

yup and then you through them into a dillon 650 case feed. and then you practice pronouncing every four letter word you know