Reloading pistol, 45 acp?

Question

I have a little over 800 rounds of spent brass that I've inspected and is reloadable, its several different manufactures, will it matter if the brass is mixed. For example, will a lload in a federal casing be the same as one in a winchester casing? or do i need to sort it by manufacturer ?

Answer 1

if you were shooting a match you might possibly want to segregate your brass but there's no reason to for practice ammo loaded at reasonable levels.

Answer 2

For general target shooting and plinking I load mixed cases all the time. But, for competition and hunting (in hunting calibers) I match each  lot to the same manufacturers. This is just a personal choice.

shoot safe

Answer 3

the difference is that the case thickness varies. Some guy will fill the case with water and then weigh the water to determin e the difference in the cases. the effect is that the amount of volume a case possesses is directly relevant to the amount of powder a case will hold, and the room for expansion when the primer is struck by the firing pin. the rate of expansion and the unoccupied space in the case affect the rate at which the powder burns as it is still under pressure until the bullet  is expelled from the casing. In turn if the rate of burn is not uniform in all of your cartridges, they will act differenttly; velocity and trajectory will be affected by the difference in the pressure that expels the bullet from the case. your groups may be off a lot or a little. I just separate mine, as it will have an effect on your accuracy, if you've sighted in for a specific load and grain of bullet, fired by a standardized amount of a specific powder. They say it only takes a half of a grain of powder to make a difference.

Answer 4

No need to sort.*

Answer 5

There will be slight variances in the capacity of different makers rounds. But if you stay away from maximum loads you "should" be ok.

If you start working up maximum or match loads separate the brass.

Answer 6

I reload it all as mixed brass. After reloading, as I'm inspecting the loaded cartridges, I divide them by manufacturer. Keep a log of your loads, and write down in the log how well each loading shoots, you might find some brass is better than others, or you might find tweaking the powder charge might make a bad cartridge a great one.