Rites, rituals and other ways to waste time - Handloader

Guns Magazine, July, 2003 by Charles E. Petty

Many of the things we reloaders do come to us by way of the everybody knows rule. We do things because we are told they are beneficial without asking for evidence. Lots of stuff sounds logical or reasonable but fails any objective test. Let me give some examples:

Sorting Brass

One of the things we are told to do is keep brass sorted by lots of the same make. I was once roundly criticized by some bullseye pistol shooters because my 45 brass was of mixed origins and none too clean either. My critic went on to explain that my scores would surely improve if my brass was all of the same make.

It was one of those rare gotcha moments for I was able to point out that I had just won the match by a comfortable margin. But there's no such thing as too many points so, contrarian that I am, I set about trying to document how my scores suffered. It was an easy experiment.

I carefully sorted a bunch of once-flied brass and made one lot of 200 pieces of Federal brass. In another box I put roughly equal quantities of brass from Remington, Winchester and Federal. This one was stirred up and then all 400 were loaded at one sitting on the old Star tool.

I've always enjoyed testing, but it was a rather long day to shoot 40 ten-shot groups from the Ransom Rest. Just to be even pickier, I shot the groups by taking rounds alternately from the sorted and mixed boxes. Now that's a bunch of rounds but the results are surely statistically significant. Was there any difference? None at all. In fact the average for the mixed ammo was a bit smaller.

Well, are there cases where it does pay to sort brass? If we're talking about handgun ammo I'm not sure it does with the possible exception of cases like the .44 Magnum where case length can be a factor in crimp uniformity.

Sometimes It's Important

My opinion changes when we get into bottleneck rifle cartridges although it really depends on what you want the ammo to do. If, for example, we want a bunch of plinking ammo and are willing to stay a notch below maximum charges I don't think there's any reason to be too fussy. But if the very best accuracy is your goal then brass sorting begins to be more appealing.

One of the things with rifle ammo that isn't a problem for handgunners is case trimming, and there is evidence to suggest that uniform case length can be a factor. If the absolute highest velocity is a goal then case sorting becomes mandatory. The actual capacity of cases really does vary from one make to the next. So if you work up a maximum load in one brand of case and switch to one with less capacity it is sure to raise pressures -- perhaps too much. That is absolutely true if you should happen to switch to GI brass, which routinely has a smaller capacity due to extra thickness.

Cleaning Primer Pockets

One of things we are told to do is to clean the primer pocket before reloading. This is one of those things that seems logical at first glance but which fails the test of objectivity. The logical part says that uniform primer seating is important -- and so it is -- but can the mere fraction of a thousandth of an inch attributable to a bit of carbon in the primer pocket make a difference? Again this is easily tested.

Using the most accurate rifle I own -- a custom benchrest gun in 6mm PPC -- I took 50-cases made from reformed Lapua 220 Russian brass that were matched in weight and loaded 25 with the primer pockets squeaky clean -- the others were left alone. When the resulting 10 groups were measured there was no difference. They all fell within the size that I have come to expect from that load.

Of course it only takes a minute to brush out a primer pocket so if you're snowbound on a miserable winter day with nothing better to do, go ahead and shine those pockets.

In reloading we do a lot of busy work based, actually, on the premise that it can't hurt. Weighing powder charges to the nearest milli-tad (that's one thousandth of a regular tad) or polishing cases to mirror brightness are good examples. I've actually known guys to compete over who had the cleanest brass. But if it builds their confidence or makes hem happy who am Ito criticize?