Does Mixing brass matter?

Well, you need to fill with water and weigh the water you pour out! And yes, for every piece of brass!
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I would use something less messy than water. Perhaps some fine grained spherical pistol powder with good metering characteristics to compare internal case capacities.
Also, once a case is fire formed to your rifle's chamber, the internal volume should be reflected by the weight of your brass. Heavy cases have less internal volume than light ones.
 
I used to weigh each case and prep each case. Took a lot of work. Decided to just go with Nosler, Norma, and Lapua and quit weighing and prepping.
 
You really don't have to go through the gaggle of using water or other filler to measure the case, Simply weighing the cases will work.

For example. I buy a heck of a lot of .30-06 M2 Ball Greek HXP from the CMP using it for both practice and GSM matches.

Its good brass but when you buy a 200 round can you'll get all sorts of manufacture dates.

I've shot 20 round groups with out sorting, then 20 round groups sorting by year. Sorting by year, regardless of what year gives you better groups.

Yes some years group better then others. Not a big problem when shooting the GSM matches at 200 yards where if you can keep them in 3.5 Inches you can clean the target.

It does matter in the Vintage Sniper Matches where you shoot at 300 and 600.

I don't use the surplus ball in VS matches but I do reload the HXP brass. I sort them by year, then reload them. I find the best year and use that for my VS Rifle and in my Pre-64 Model 70 hunting rifle.

When I buy brass, I buy Winchester. Its pretty consistent, especially if you keep it separated by lot years.

I again weigh it, and separate it buy weight. If the brass has the same out side dimensions. and weights the same, you can be pretty sure the inside capacity will work.

You also have to make use you have uniform primer pockets and flash holes.

No need filling and weighing the water.
 
I was joking about weighing the water....some people do this.

With an uber precision rifle, I would maybe....I'm undecided.

With my normal precision rifle, I do what many br guys do....I buy 100 new brass of the same lot, NIB. Then I form them to my chamber, trim,neck turn and start making loads.

With an AR or Mosin....I would either mix them all up or maybe sort by head stamp, trim and weight to make 100 special accuracy cases.

Typically, I would just mix them for a Mosin or other 2 MOA rifle.
 
My amateur recreational shooting skills play a more significant role in lack of precision than does mixing brass or primers or trim length. As a general rule I sort brass but I have no concrete data that suggests significant variances in accuracy (at least out to 200 meters). When I load up sighting ammo I have no problem mixing misc range pickup brass and misc primers and bulk projectiles. When I'm looking to stretch out to 600 yards now I like to keep the variables to a minimum. Sorted brass , +/- .005 on the trim lengths and so on.
 
8mms brand cases I am messing with range from 160 grains to 188 grains
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I tested WW2 30-06 brass extensively and the stuff nearly had the weight spread of your 8mm brass. My test groups got rounder and smaller when I weight sorted the 30-06 and divided it up by weight.

However, I was shooting the stuff in a Wilson match barrel.

In my 223 match rifles, I regularly shoot mixed brass out to 300 yards and I shot HM scores sitting and rapid fire prone. I have never seen 223 brass with as high a weight variation as your 8mm brass.

I have 3 different brands of 8mm Mauser Brass, S&B, PPU, And Winchester. Would it make much of a difference in accuracy if I loaded the same load in these cases in my M24/47?
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Here is the thing, unless you have changed the barrel, removed all the military hardware and bedded the thing in a good aftermarket stock, your rifle is a military rifle. It is not a target rifle, the barrel is not that high of quality. I have several of these Yugo rebuilds and the Communists were not into quality control. Nor were they into building precision rifles, these things were assembled to go bang. So, I really doubt you are going to see much of any accuracy issues with mixed cases.

If you are going to keep it in full military condition, bed the action in the military stock, adjust the trigger for a clean release, and install a new mainspring. Then, and only then, go play around with different bullets and cases.
 
yes it makes a difference because of the case capacity will be different thus it will change the pressure. so you will get eratic velocities.
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Nailed it. If you see going for super accurate groups, don't mix brass. If you are plinking? Go for it.
 
Waveslayer said:
yes it makes a difference because of the case capacity will be different thus it will change the pressure. so you will get eratic velocities.
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Sound logic. Never gave this aspect much thought. Next time I load up a batch of hodgepodge sighting ammo I will run them through my chrono and access the ES's . Funny thing about ES's I sometimes don't see a correlation between tight ES's and high precision. I've observed sub moa accuracy with .308 ES's as high as 70 fps and 3 moa with ES's as little as 15.
 
8mms brand cases I am messing with range from 160 grains to 188 grains
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Even if you are not going for maximum accuracy, you should be aware that a load that produces safe pressures in the 160 grain cases might go overpressure in the 188 grain cases.
 
For '06, it was common knowledge back fifty/sixty years ago that GI brass was a bit thicker than commercial brass--and thus less capacity. The usual recommendation was to reduce the max load by two or three grains when using GI brass.

Mixing brass can matter, as noted by Waveslayer. But if the case capacity is the same for Brand A as for Brand B, it won't make any difference.
 
I still shoot a lot of 22-250 and have a lot of brass from various manufacturers.

I use a Lyman manual trimmer with a carbide cutter. What I have noticed lately is I may take a brass that I have shot and gage it for length.

I put that brass in the trimmer and adjust the trimmer until I get the brass back to factory spec.

I then go through all the brass and trim to length and amazingly, some brass will not clean up, yet when you put the caliper on them they are oversize.

Trying to figure out what is going on makes me think the way the Lyman snugs the brass up against the ball in the chuck means that a slightly over size primer pocket would allow the brass to lock down closer to the chuck and farther away from the cutter head.

I have seen this occur with brass from the same manufacturer but different lots.

I can't easily measure the thickness of the rim to see if that has anything to do with it.

I normally clean the brass, then decap and clean out the primer pocket and then clean again, trim,prime and load.

Clearly I am missing something. Just not real sure of what. I am seeing the biggest problem with Winchester brass and am going through that seperating them by headstamps.

Anyone else have this issue?
 
Even if you are not going for maximum accuracy, you should be aware that a load that produces safe pressures in the 160 grain cases might go overpressure in the 188 grain cases.
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Yes, yes they can.

Load #1
200 gr Nosler Partition
C.O.L. 3,07”
Norma 203-B
Case: Headstamp; Winchester 8x57 Headstamp. Case weight 160.1 grains
Primer: WLR

46.0 2395fps
47.0 2442fps
48.0 2508fps
49.0 2557fps (no pressure signs.)


Load #2 (Note that a different case was used)
200 gr Nosler Partition
C.O.L. 3,07”
Norma 203-B (same lot)
Case: Headstamp; WW 8mm Mauser Headstamp. Case weight 178 grains
Primer: WLR (same lot)

46.5 2495fps
46.8 2510fps (my settled on load.)
47.5 2563fps (max with pressure signs.)
 
Does Mixing brass matter?
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To me? I don't, I throw brass into a tumbler, when finished I want the same 20 cases that were removed from a box of ammo back into the same box after sorting. Then there are cases with different case head thicknesses. I have case heads that are .200" thick from the top of the cup above the web to the case head and I have cases with .260"+ thick case heads. When considering unsupported case head and case head protrusion the safest case is the case with the thick case head.

As always there is the heavier military case and the commercial case that is thinner because it is lighter. There are times that 'old saying' is half truth and half fiction.

F. Guffey
 
It's nice to have prepped and weight sorted brass, all with the same head stamp. But, if your shooting is coyotes inside 250 or 300 yards, you don't need brass of that quality. If you are shooting prairie dogs at 400 yards, you do need brass of that quality. If you are a serious target shooter, you will want the good brass.

Mixed brass will work just fine, if your accuracy needs aren't really serious.
 
Even if you are plinking, I would still recommend making sure your load is safe in your heaviest (lowest internal capacity) cases. Do a few test loads in the heaviest case you have and look for signs of over pressure and then use that load for all your cases.
 
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