Separating Brass for .223???

[Southwind]

I load .223 for both a Savage 12 and an couple AR's. I full length resize all my brass. Right now, I keep my Savage brass separate from my Ar brass. Savage brass is mostly Win with some Remmy and LC brass mixed in. My Ar brass is mostly LC with some other kinds mixed in too.

Since I full length size, is there any reason to sort like this or would it be better just to sort all brass by brand and call it good.

thx, Steve

 

[M14 Shooter]

I would sort by brand to try to control internal volume in the cases by each brand .Sorting by head stamp should work ok. Some times different lots of brass from same manufacture can vary somewhat.Some bench rest shooters will sort by how much liquid volume is in each case.I would also sort brass by which will be used in the bolt gun and which was used in the AR.
Lake City brass work real well in the AR and will hold up a little better the commercial brass.

Regards,Mike

 

[Quinc]

I tried sorting by weight within .1grain and head stamp. Had the same results with both out to 1k.

 

[Mad_Charlie]

Just sort by headstamp and call it good, An AR is not a "benchrest" rifle.
No way am I going to sort all of my .223 cases by water weight capacity, that kind of time is much better spent with your finger on the trigger.

 

[lightman]

I keep my AR cases separate from my bolt gun ammo. My AR stuff is a mix of brands, years, and even times fired. If I lose a few I don't worry about them. I usually try to keep the "better stuff" separated out for the bolt gun. When I've shot the AR stuff in the bolt gun, it shot very well, kinda surprised me! An AR or even my factory varmint rifle will not be seeing any weight sorted cases! Lightman

 

[bigedp51]

Uniformity equates to accuracy, keep your Winchester brass for your bolt action and sort by weight/internal volume depending on the type shooting you are doing.

For your AR15 rifles again it depends on the type shooting you are doing, but sorting by head stamp will give you more uniformity. If its just blasting ammo at 100 yards or less mixed brass is OK. This is with the understanding that internal volume variations will cause differences in chamber pressure and NOT loading mixed brass HOT or near maximum.

I also have a Savage .223 and two AR15 rifles, if you would check neck thickness you would see the Winchester brass has the thinnest necks and the Lake city has the thickest. This neck thickness variation is just one of the variables that causes pressure variations that will effect accuracy meaning group size. You will need to group/sort your ammo by accuracy and decide if your shooting in minutes of an inch or inches of man.

You need to decide if you want to make head shots on Zombies at 100 yards.............

Or if your just laying down covering fire.
(mixed brass Zombie humor, only head shots count)

Below .223/5.56 brass sorted by headstamp and the bolt action get the best of the sorted brass.