Separating 380s from 9mm brass

[j33716]

Whats the best way to separate 380 brass from 9mm brass?

It urks me when a 380 gets thru and breaks or bends the depriming pin on my 1050.

[DWFAN]

It urks me more when Im picking up MY brass from an afternoon of shooting and find a .380 that was fired through my 9mm. gun.

[jmorris]

The best way I have found is using a brass sorter.

Edited August 4, 2010 by jmorris

[Field]

wow i got those colored tubs off midway that seperate 9, 40 and 45 but that thing looks pretty high tech

[Sarge]

wow i got those colored tubs off midway that seperate 9, 40 and 45 but that thing looks pretty high tech

I use the same ones as you do field. The company makes a 380 plate to sort them from the 9mm as well.

[Bigpops]

where in the world do you get one of those machines?

[DWFAN]

He built it.. but Camdex makes a sorter also.

[TRNinTX]

Get one of the RCBS loading trays and dip in your brass. When you look across it pick the short brass out. The worst is 9mm Makarov.

[Chills1994]

for me, I have the opposite problem...the .38 Supers in with my 9's...ARrgghh...

But I do notice it in time because it takes so much more effort to resize the taller .38 Super case and/or I notice that it takes more effort sooner on the downstroke of the 550's handle.

Soooo...I would expect the .380's to be easy to pick up because you feel the sizing die start to engage the shorter brass later on the downstroke.

I also QC all my ammo by sticking them primer end up in one of those plastic flip top ammo boxes. I place the ammo box on a flat surface, then glance across the top looking for any height irregularities, then I swipe a finger across all the headstamps looking for high primers, then I take a sharpie marker across them to mark MY brass. It takes less time to do all that then it did just now for you to read this.

[DyNo!]

I sort them with my 650. :lol:

[JeffWard]

I've got a good 100 primed and resized .380 cases...

They made it all the way to the primer/powder position on my SDB, and popped out of the shell-plate after getting primed! All I need it some 95gr bullets.... LOL

Jeff

[usmc1974]

I don't pick up my 9mm brass. I buy a crapp load cheap load it fire and forget it.

[ajg308]

The best way I have found is using a brass sorter.

Are there plans for this somewhere?

[PBA2]

I've run across a fair amount of .380 in my "once fired brass". I've actually managed to get them deprimed and primed as well, even charged and don't notice until I try and set the bullet Now I can tell if it deprimes very easy it's .380

[1911jerry]

I use a Dillon 45 acp 100 round ammo box. I dump more than enough to fill each slot, shake the balance off. When all 100 slots are filled, you can tip the ammo box at an angle and see that the shorter 380's will be lower than the 9mm. Takes about 60 seconds to sort out each 100.

I do this when I sort out my 9mm brass after it goes through the tumbler.

JS

[Field]

ill just see these little midget cases that didnt get charged with powder when i go to seat the bullet in them, toss it, wasted a primer on it but whatever

[jmorris]

Camdex and Scharch make similar machines but they are very expensive, around $7000.

The one I built will sort 38 super, 380, and 9X19 from each other. Details and more photos of the machine are in this thread (2nd and 3rd page).

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11364&hl= brass sorter&st=25

Edited August 5, 2010 by jmorris

[ajg]

Before lubing and dumping in the case feeders on my 550s I dump the tumbled cases into a rectangular 2" deep metal cake pan. A good number of the cases will stand straight up and odd calibers can be easily identified by their diameter and picked out. .380 cases stand out because of their short height. Shaking the pan sideways will make more cases stand up.

Edited August 5, 2010 by ajg

[SA Friday]

I visually inspect while sorting my brass for cleaning. I visually inspect while separating my brass from the media. I visually inspect before loading brass into my reloader. I've had two get through over the years.

[joecichlid]

I visually inspect while sorting my brass for cleaning. I visually inspect while separating my brass from the media. I visually inspect before loading brass into my reloader. I've had two get through over the years.

+1 I do a LOT of visual inspection too. I sort the brass before it all goes into the tumbler. I load the cleaned brass into old trays out of .40 S&W ammo trays and the short ones are usually the 9mm and the shorter ones are the .380. Since I shoot .38 Super they are all the tall ones, the rest get sorted out later on and passed around to the other shooters in the club in need of whatever brass. Once the brass is sorted I deprime it and clean the primer pockets then back into the ammo trays to double check and make sure all primer pockets are clean and free of media. While doing this inspection I sort out any Super Comp from my Super and check for any strays that managed to slip through this far.

From there I hand prime the brass to insure all the primers are in right side up and seated correctly then on to the loading press for the rest of the goodies.

Yeah it is a lot of work but I have never had a single 9mm or .380 get loaded or even deprimed.

Joe W.

[noylj]

I inspect, sort, and deprime prior to cleaning. Seems the most logical time to me.

All by hand, as, after cleaning, they go into a case feeder or into storage. I haven't had any problems with .380, but I did get a 9x18Mak in with my 9x19 and the 1050 tried to reload it. Ended up with a slight bottleneck case when I decided "Hey, that feels too hard...wtf is wrong." It took only one 9x18 Mak case for me to want to ban the caliber.

[njl]

I take used plastic shopping bags to the range and when picking up brass, try to be sure to put different calibers into different bags. After tumbling, I hand sort the brass by headstamp, and weed out any off-caliber brass in the process. I haven't had any make it to the press yet.

Very occasionally, after tumbling, I'll find a .40 nested in a .45.

It probably helps that I only shoot 2 pistol calibers and 2 rifle calibers...and don't pick up other calibers unless I find a bunch of it, and then it gets its own bag. Like last trip to the range, I found a whole bunch of .380. I don't have a .380...but some day I might, so if someone leaves a pile of it, I'll pick it up and store it.

[470nitro]

I'll throw a couple of handfulls in an ice-cream pail and start gyrating like a hula-hoop (the pail, not me....well most of the time not me anyway). The weight of the head will usually make all the cases orient head-down. A quick look down and I hand pick the shorties. I can sort through 100-200 each "spin cycle".

[noylj]

It was a 9x18 Mak that got me.

I do my case sorting, inspection, and depriming prior to cleaning. Every case has to be inspected, so I haven't had much problem with .380s. Had never seen a Mak case before and the 9x18 looked like 9x19 or I didn't pay enough attention. I wanted to ban 9x18...

[Punkin Chunker]

I took one of those plastic 'egg crate' covers that go over flourescent lights and cut 2 pieces that I stack in the bottom of an old cake pan.

I dump the cases into it after cleaning -- with a little shake, most wind up base down, and the ones that don't are easy to flip with a fingernail.

After that, I can just look across the tops and the shorter .380s are obvious.

Also, I can inspect the cases to make sure the cleaning media is gone, and also ditch any split cases.