Sorting pistol brass

[Letus]

I wonder if how you guys sort other brass from 9mm luger? .40 and .45 acp can be done by their size but 9mm M and .380. How do you sort them? I built this thing to sort them by length but it's still time consuming. Any better way?

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[DLS]

So, how do you use that contraption?

 

[CLT65]

It's a bit time-consuming, but I set them all up on a counter top and just pick out the short ones.

 

[Letus]

So, how do you use that contraption?

I load them in, compare the end of the cases. If all luger, they should line up. I check the shorter lines and pick out 9mm M and 380. I did visually checks before but by using this technique, I found lots more

 

[DLS]

Thanks, that makes sense.

 

[LuckySG]

The quickest way I know to get them roughly separated is to toss them all on the vibration plate or a case tumbler (without media) and after a few minutes the largest will be at the top and the smallest at the bottom. You will of course have some that have nested, but with this little help you can pick them clean rather quickly.

 

[ageingstudent]

I throw them all in a factory empty 9mm tray. It's easy to spot the .380 and pick them out that way.

 

[Letus]

I throw them all in a factory empty 9mm tray. It's easy to spot the .380 and pick them out that way.

how fast can you sort 1000 pcs? Can you also sort 9mm M this way?

 

[ageingstudent]

I forgot I use a .40 cal tray otherwise the 9mm cases stick lol. It's been awhile. Well I never really timed myself but if you have a spare 40 cal tray laying around try it once? You just pile the brass on top of the tray and shake the tray over a bucket to catch the ones that fall off.

It's a lot easier to see the .380 that way.
I just pick out the .380 with tweezers because there's usually a lot less of them and dump the 9's.

 

[CLT65]

This is how I do it. Honestly it doesn't take long to do a few hundred. A thousand would go pretty quick if you have sharp eyes. I just set them all up like this on a table or counter and eyeball them closely. The short ones jump out when you're looking at the case mouths from an angle, them you just pick them out. You can also pick out those annoying stepped cases as well, and check for berdan or anything odd with a flashlight.

 

[Mikej]

Easy....Tumble them all. .380 doesn't feel the same when you size them. Throw the .380s in a separate container.

 

[Member 34319]

Sort everything by hand, by feel. Everything but 9 and 223 get put into a bag to be given away.

9 gets wet tumbled. Then into the buckets with the rest. I tend to find the 40s that sneak in during this step, stuck on a 9mm usually.

Come time to load, 380 makes its way into the mix on occasion. It shows itself on the progressive quickly.

Once I find one, I smile, then throw it in the garbage.

Sneaky little sucker.

 

[Certaindeaf]

I don't get real worried about it. Their rim sizes are different enough that when inserted into a 9mm shell holder, it's pretty hard to not notice.. at least for me.

 

[Tilos]

This guy has sorting down...

 

[FordPrefect]

When @Reno911 gave me a bag of 9mm brass I was able to "sort" them using the sizing/decapping die. When you put it through that, you can tell the difference between .380 and 9mm really quickly.

Bonus of it is that the .380 will then be de-capped if you give it to somebody else.

 

[Letus]

I have also found 9mm M cases. I wonder if you care about those

 

[Heyjoe]

Is 9mm M, makarov?

 

[MrElectric03]

I'll just drop this off here. I want to build one but is super overkill and not needed. Cool though.

 

[Letus]

Is 9mm M, makarov?

Yes.

I'll just drop this off here. I want to build one but is super overkill and not needed. Cool though.

I don't think this sorter can sort out 9mm Makarov

 

[MrElectric03]

Probably not, however imagine if you saved all the other time spent sorting. You'd have time to go through those