I have weighed small lots of 308 Win brass when reloading, to keep consistency in the batch I was loading. I wondered how different manufacturers would be, so I weighed a few:
(have not been deprimed)

Winchester: 169-171gr

Remington(R-P): 174-176gr

LC 86: 181-184gr

IMI Match: 182-184gr

I knew that the military brass would be heavier than the commercial but had not realized how thick the IMI brass was.

Please don't forget that the alloys could be different as well.
You did not mention if the weighing was done with primer IN/OUT ;cases cleaned or dirty?
Boxer or Berdan or mix?
The only true way to tell is to measure water capacity.

quote:

Originally posted by Rapidrob:
Please don't forget that the alloys could be different as well.
You did not mention if the weighing was done with primer IN/OUT ;cases cleaned or dirty?
Boxer or Berdan or mix?
The only true way to tell is to measure water capacity.

It's not as if he's weighing gold to be sold. He's just indicating there is a rather noticeable difference in weight not volume. roger

people that sit around pouring water into cartridge cases have a whole lot of time on their hands.
You can closely eliminate the volume/weight question that is keeping you awake at night by standardizing on one brand of brass and doing a little fire culling.

quote:

Originally posted by wasbeeman:
people that sit around pouring water into cartridge cases have a whole lot of time on their hands.
You can closely eliminate the volume/weight question that is keeping you awake at night by standardizing on one brand of brass and doing a little fire culling.

Yes. But that will take away some of my fun.
I am an openly OCD, anal retentive, individual.
Reveling in the minutia of the world.

muck

OH, I have nothing against folks that are into that sort of thing but IMO the folks that do that sort of thing would be better served by using the time to practice dry firing or actual trigger time.

How does that improve the study of minutia?

quote:

Originally posted by wasbeeman:
OH, I have nothing against folks that are into that sort of thing but IMO the folks that do that sort of thing would be better served by using the time to practice dry firing or actual trigger time.

I guess I will have to keep working the minutia thing as I haven't progressed to pouring boiling water in my brass cases. Or was that rifle barrels?

No really, I just thought the difference was interesting (and yes I believe I stated that I hadn't deprived them yet). For the 308 that I shoot off the bench, I weigh the cases and separate them into groups of 5 with similar weights. I just do that with small batches that are being reloaded - I suppose if I really had time, I could deprive and sort my entire collection of 308 brass by weight?

quote:

Originally posted by sputster:
I guess I will have to keep working the minutia thing as I haven't progressed to pouring boiling water in my brass cases. Or was that rifle barrels?

No really, I just thought the difference was interesting (and yes I believe I stated that I hadn't deprived them yet). For the 308 that I shoot off the bench, I weigh the cases and separate them into groups of 5 with similar weights. I just do that with small batches that are being reloaded - I suppose if I really had time, I could deprive and sort my entire collection of 308 brass by weight?

I used to spend time (hours) sorting brass by weight to get the most consistency in my reloads. What I found was that my accurate loads were close enough to maximum that the military cases needed to be reduced by .7 to .8 grains to get the same kind of accuracy as the Winchester cases. Now I separate the military and commercial cases and leave it at that because the difference between a 5/8" group and an 11/16" group is just not a justifiable reason for the hours of work. I suppose if I was shooting at 1000 yards in competition I would use a single batch of brass, sorted by weight but I am a hunter and I don't require better accuracy then I have.

I mean deprime, not deprive. I hate typing on my phone.

quote:

Originally posted by wasbeeman:
OH, I have nothing against folks that are into that sort of thing but IMO the folks that do that sort of thing would be better served by using the time to practice dry firing or actual trigger time.

OH you are I think Quite correct.
But I just have to measure "one more thing"...... It never seams to end.
The more I think I know the more I find I need to learn.
It is an ugly monkey that does get in the way of trigger time.
It is an addiction.

muck

That is good information. I think I am deprived, or at least not anal as I should be. I have only weighed about 10 cases in my life. They were 308 and my only thought was that they weighed about the same as the bullet I was using. They were Winchester and I was loading 165 Gamekings. I never really thought about it again, since I always work up again when changing brass types.

quote:

Originally posted by muck:

quote:

Originally posted by wasbeeman:
OH, I have nothing against folks that are into that sort of thing but IMO the folks that do that sort of thing would be better served by using the time to practice dry firing or actual trigger time.

OH you are I think Quite correct.
Muck.

But I just have to measure "one more thing"...... It never seams to end.
The more I think I know the more I find I need to learn.
It is an ugly monkey that does get in the way of trigger time.
It is an addiction.

muck

I would separate by manufacture and not worry about it. But if you need to find out what does improve accuracy you can try this.
Start with 20 new cases load them and shoot in a known rifle with out doing any prep. Now do one thing (clean the primer pocket or trim) to them and load them and see what you get. Repeat this with every prep item you can and see what you get. Shoot at 200 yd or preferably 600 yd. This should keep you busy and you will find what really improves your groups.
Bill