Mixing Brass

[drummingchevy]

I'm talking about cheap plinking rounds in general in this thread. How important is it really to use one brand of brass as opposed to mixing a few different brands in a batch? Does anyone here mix their brass on a regular basis?

 

[PopsXD9sc]

I use whatever I find at the range and after several years of doing so I have yet to have a problem. I use this for plinking, IDPA, USPSA, and Steel Challenge and accuracy hasn't suffered yet.

 

[country_boy]

I have mixed pistol brass from time to time. As long as the brass isnt split etc your fine. As for rifle brass ive used mixed too. Just make sure they are trimmed to the same length check for defects too.

 

[txfireguy2003]

I just loaded up a bunch of .223 for a tc encore in mixed range brass. Factory barrel on that gun produced sub .5 moa groups with those loads. I don't think it's that big of a deal unless you are measuring your groups to the third place after the decimal.

Sent from my Samsung Captivate using Tapatalk.

 

[woolleyworm]

I have mixed pistol brass from time to time. As long as the brass isnt split etc your fine. As for rifle brass ive used mixed too. Just make sure they are trimmed to the same length check for defects too.

took the words right outa my fingers... Trim length is important, even for "just plinking".

 

[Texasjack]

What's been said so far is right - there isn't much difference for plinking rounds. However, the amount of variation is different for some calibers. 5.56/.223 is a good example where the case thickness may be different and because the volume is small, it can affect the reload. A .45 ACP round has a large volume with (usually) more space than needed for the powder and so there isn't much variation between brands.

As always, be careful of 'range brass', as that's where I leave my old brass when I think it's risky to reload it another time.

 

[country_boy]

Heck when I worked with that commercial reloading business. We used mixed brass all the time from reds indoor range.

 

[medalguy]

I use mixed brass all the time. Check it for cracks and bad dents and go. For match work I always separated my brass by headstamp and year if it was military, but certainly not for plinking ammo.

 

[zfields]

What is your purpose? Pistol brass, hell yes. AR brass not for shooting tight groups but general plinking / short-medium range tac shooting, yes.


loading up some rounds to do some 200 yard long rifle....Id start weighing them out and go for uniformity.

 

[CanTex]

took the words right outa my fingers... Trim length is important, even for "just plinking".

+1... or is that +2

 

[M. Sage]

Mixing it up when I load .45 ACP. I'm not running near a max load, and I'm not looking for outstanding accuracy (though I've got zero complaints, my reloads are as accurate as anything else I've run).

 

[Dcav]

I dont sort pistol brass, if I was reloading rifle rounds for accuracy then I would.

 

[jfrey]

I mix pistol brass all the time and never had a problem yet. If I load for rifle, I keep the brass in the same box and never mix brands there. Pistol loading isn't near as picky as rifle. When you are loading stuff like 220 Swift you better really be careful with everything.