Sort then clean or clean then sort?

P

Prof Young

New member
Loaders:

For most of my reloading life I've sorted my brass then cleaned them. Recently I got so far behind that I cleaned everything all mixed together and am now in the process of sorting them with a set of progressive sorting tubs.

The pros here are that . . .
it's cleaner to sort clean brass.
it's much easier to get the rim fire brass out or the mix.
it's easer to get the 32 acp out of the mix.
and you don't have to have a full load of one caliber to go ahead and run them through the tumbler.

The cons are . . .
you have a brass that is stuck in other brass along with cleaning media.
and that's about it.

What is your practice? Thoughts, comments and ideas welcome.

Life is good.
Prof Young
 
I sort dirty first. That cuts down the waste in every steps down stream. It is dirty so I put on nitrile gloves.

-TL

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I try to always sort before cleaning. When I have tried to clean mixed brass I get cases stuck together, (9mm inside 40SW inside a 45, and 223 stuck on pistol brass) and only partially cleaner brass. To me the big lesson is to not let brass get mixed.
Now, if I did have a big tub of mixed dirty brass, I might add hot water and DW tablet, and soak overnight. This cleans some of the worst dirt before sorting. But I Do Not Tumble mixed brass.
 
If you have cases that can get stuck together, sort first.

If cases are close enough in size so they won't get stuck in each other, I tumble first to get a rough clean, then sort and then tumble the sorted brass for its final clean.
 
For all handgun brass, I sort and tumble by caliber, then by headstamp. Nothing I hate more than a smaller caliber stuck inside something larger. Amazingly sometimes it seems it's permanently welded in.

For long gun cases, usually I'm just doing a hundred or so of one caliber at a time, but sometimes the 243s get dumped in with a batch of 270 or 308's just to make it more efficient. Most all of it has already been narrowed down to one brand so the headstamp sort goes really quick. Nonetheless it is all again sorted by headstamp while loading.
 
For large batches of mixed brass, I will sort dirty (nitrile gloves help) before cleaning. I don’t want to waste time cleaning cases I don’t load.
 
Sort by caliber first. Then clean. Then resort by headstamp. Just easier that way.

--Wag--
 
<scratching head> Mine come out of the 100 round plastic box, and go right back in. None hit the the ground. So sorting is a foreign concept here :) . If I did, sorting would be done first. And no gloves. Gloves is also a foreign concept for working with cases.... and reloading.
 
I am like Marco on pistol brass, I sort first. I had a .40 slip in with 9mm. A 9mm kind of telescoped into the .40 and took a hard yank to separate.

I am like rclark on rifle brass; my rifle shooting is carefully done with same head stamp brass, kept together.
 
I always sort first, nothing worse than a 9mm upside down in the bottom of a .41mag where you can easily miss it. Kind of tough on decapping pins.
 
Rifle and revolver brass stays in the assigned lots when first processed.
A box of 20, a box of 50, or the rare box of 100.

It stays sorted.
When I tumble the brass, I'll combine cases that won't nest or get stuck together, and, most importantly, won't mix lots.
Like a box of .223 Rem (50) with a box of .270 Win (20), with a box of .30-06 (20).

Or, maybe a box of .270 (brass) and a box of plated .270, topped off with something like .300 Blk, .223, or .243.

Or .300 Blk (50) with a box of .30-06 (20) and a box of .32 H&R (50). (They're all .30 caliber, if you hadn't noticed. ;) )

When it is done, each cartridge is easy to pick out and return to its box.
 
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