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Sorting brass

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16 December 2004, 12:30
F6Hawk
Sorting brass
Do any of you have a good technique for separating scrounged brass? I mean sorting it by caliber, and getting rid of the dinky stuff. I have a lot of brass to sort, and would like to try and speed things up. 3 hours for 1800 rounds hardly seems worth the trouble!

TIA
16 December 2004, 19:50
scotty
If there's an easy way of doing this, I'd sure like to hear about it. Sorting range brass is one of the more tedious jobs I've done.
16 December 2004, 19:56
KMuleinAK
As a long time range brass scrounger, I also discovered that range brass is not really "free" if you figure in the time to sort it - what the hell, keeps me out of trouble
16 December 2004, 21:15
WELLS
I HAVE MY SON'S DO IT BY CLASS PISTOL IN ONE BOX RIFLE IN ANOTHER STEEL,ALUMINUM IN THERE OWN SO THEY CAN SCRAP OUT THE JUNK THEN I CLEAN IT AND PUT IN THERE PROPER BINS ON A SHELF UNIT TEL I NEED IT. HAVE A GOOD DAY WELLS
17 December 2004, 00:52
F6Hawk
Quote:

I HAVE MY SON'S DO IT BY CLASS PISTOL IN ONE BOX RIFLE IN ANOTHER STEEL,ALUMINUM IN THERE OWN SO THEY CAN SCRAP OUT THE JUNK THEN I CLEAN IT AND PUT IN THERE PROPER BINS ON A SHELF UNIT TEL I NEED IT. HAVE A GOOD DAY WELLS



Lol Wells, I was thinking more along the lines of automation, not child labor! My son is only 7 now anyway, and his "help" sorting the last batch... well, let's just say he did his painstaking best!

So it sounds like no one has come up with an effective means yet. Ok, got it, looks like I will have to pioneer the concept. Stay tuned for further developments!

F6
17 December 2004, 00:53
Tailgunner
My WIFE sorts out any range brass I bring home Got to love a good woman.

She also cleans the loading room (primers on the floor etc), boxes ammo, de-cosmolenes milsurp rifles, dosn't complain about my cleaning rifles on the dinning room table, helps skin, gut, and process game, points out stray cats that need shooting, etc
17 December 2004, 03:44
beemanbeme
Tailgunner, I don't care if she's carrying an extra 50lbs and is cross eyed, you would do well to hang on to that one. Be sure to pat her on the butt and tell her you love her every so often. The gals thrive on that sort of stuff.
17 December 2004, 04:06
RonsGuns
Quote:

She also cleans the loading room (primers on the floor etc), boxes ammo, de-cosmolenes milsurp rifles, dosn't complain about my cleaning rifles on the dinning room table, helps skin, gut, and process game





Sounds exactly like my wife except she won't gut deer...
18 December 2004, 13:13
Tailgunner
Poletax

Sorry, she dosn't have a sister.
18 December 2004, 13:39
F6Hawk
Quote:

Quote:

Mus' be sump'm wrong wit me. I enjoy sortin' brass.



Me too I sort mine by calibers I use, calibers I will be using someday and calibers I might use someday My first hour at the range is spent walking around and picking up brass, if I get there early enought to beat the other brass hounds that is.

Rick



What kinds of quantities are you talking about here? Cuz my first batch is about 3/4 of a 5-gal bucket, with about 10 more waiting on me to figger this out.

Yeah, I enjoy handling brass & stuff, is why I just built my own vibrating "tumbler" for about $16. But I imagine there are somewhere around 4,000 rounds in that bucket.... me wants to spend more time reloading than sorting!

F6
18 December 2004, 14:58
Sanman
Well I'll admit that I don't have anywhere near that much but I sort mine as I collect it. The "good" stuff I clean right off the bat, the rest can wait until I have a need for it.

Mostly I store it in Tupperware containers or the Gladware containers you can now buy at Wally World on the cheap.

Rick
18 December 2004, 15:13
Mark
get a sheet of plywood, nail some 1X3's around the edge and cut some holes in the edge closest to you. You might want to start with 4. put this on a table with about a foot overhanging and put some small garbage cans (plastic rectangular ones) under the holes. Now decide on 3 calibers to sort and pour all of your brass on the sheet. Sit down and just start dragging and dropping the brass through the holes. the extra hole you send all of the oddball brass to. Doing this you can sort rifle from pistol brass, then sort the rifle brass etc. If you have the holes farther apart you could use 5 gallon buckets but it really helps to have the holes closer together.

Sorry I don't know of some magic machine you can pour old brass into one end and have clean, shiny, sorted stuff come out the other, in boxes......