I've been reloading for many years and I've never took the time to separate my brass either by weight or brand. All I've ever loaded for have been hunting rounds and some target rounds for my .222 and 22-250 but nothting serious like competition shooting. However I have decided to start weighing my brass and separating it by brand, at least for some of my rifles. My question concerns separating by weight. All of my .220 swift brass is the same brand(R-P) and I started weighing each case individually using a beam scale which is very time consuming but thats all I've got. Should I run the brass through my dies and trim to length and then weigh them or should I weigh them first, then size and trim to length? My guess is to weigh after. Also, how much of a plus or minus range is considered adequate when establishing a weight standard? Should I separate by tenths of a grain or two tenths, 3 tenths, ect? As for the other case prep, I'm already truing the primer pockets, champfering and deburring the flashole. I haven't started shaving the case necks yet but the way things are going I'm sure that will probably be the next job I try to tackle. Thanks for any and all info.

Cobrajet, unless you have an amazing lot of time on your hands, I wouldn't be sorting any cases on a balance beam scale. Back in the dark ages (I've been reloading a while myself) I weighed 100 cases that way and the end results was I had wasted a lot of time for no real world gain.
I would sort my brass by head stamp, trim them to a uniform length and then fire cull them. As I do now even tho I have a digital scale. I load 'em and shoot 'em. If I have a unexplained flyer, I mark that case. If it happens again, that case is tossed into the scrap bucket. The fact that two cases weigh the same doesn't mean that they are the same diminions inside relative to wall thickness and web and such.

I prep cases for hunting/pleasure shooting rifles.

1) I run all the brass through the resizing die to true up the mouth.

2) All the case go through the trimmer (whether they needed trimming or not) to make them all comply to the excepted trim length and true up any unevenness.

3) The mouths get Chamfered and deburred.

The next 2 steps are steps many reloaders don’t take.

4) I deburr the flash hole (you would be surprised how uneven flash holes are). This is done once in the cases life.

5) I square off the bottoms of the primer pocket. This is done once in the cases life.

6) Run them through a vibratory tumbler in untreated walnut shells to clean off small amounts of brass flakes, hand oil, and resizing lube.

Then I reload them. Needless to say, after all that work, I done let my cases hit the ground and if they do I pick them up.

If your brass is the same batch...new then I would size and trim them all the same.....then weigh to sort out the far end of the high/low weights....with swift brass there is a LOT of wall thickness variance between Norma,Winchester and Rem....the last Winchester 220 I got had to be neck turned to fit a FACTORY P64/Mod SAAMI chamber and the Norma expanded a lot with thin factory walls.....I deburr flash holes and uniform primer pockets but don't normally neck turn for normal factory chambers.....I use a digital scale for sorting...good luck and good shooting-loading!!

For my match rounds:
1. Tumble
2. Size/Deprime
3. Trim to uniform them up no matter what
4. Use Sinclair primer pocket uniforming tool. The brass got that the first time to uniform, now it's mostly a serious cleaning tool (occasionally shaves a few ten-thousandths out)
5. Chamfer/Debur
6. Prime
7. Load
8. Shoot
9. Repeat

Eric

I appreciate all the info. I'll probably do the following: Resize all cases, trim to length, chamfer the necks, true the primer pockets, debur and chamfer flasholes, tumble, load and repeat all the above except for the primer pocket and flashole work. I just want this gun to shoot as good as possible and as anal as I am I'll prolly spend lots of time and money getting it to an acceptable level.

I did a test a while back. I took some new remington brass. 10 I just resized,prepped and loaded. The rest I weighed and got 10 the same weight, next turned, flash hole deburred, Primer Pocket uniformed, prepped and reloaded.

I could not tell the difference so I no longer spend the time.

these are just for hunting loads but I do get very good groups.

I do not mix brands of brass.

Mike

Exactly Tradewinds, but everyone ought to do that test at least once for themselves or they'll lay awake nights wondering............?

quote:

I did a test a while back. I took some new remington brass. 10 I just resized,prepped and loaded. The rest I weighed and got 10 the same weight, next turned, flash hole deburred, Primer Pocket uniformed, prepped and reloaded.

I could not tell the difference so I no longer spend the time.

these are just for hunting loads but I do get very good groups.

I do not mix brands of brass.

Mike

I can understand that, but I saw a difference 30 years ago so I continue to do it today.