Case Separation by Manufacturer

[sinister]

Here's a reference base-line:

[markm]

That's cool. It appears that the neck area is about half the hardness of the base of the case.

[JB2000]

For my accuracy loads I sort by brand, resize and trim, then weigh and group by weight. My theory being the external dimensions are now the same so the weight difference would indicate different internal dimensions and, as a result, capacities. I then load like weights together.

For practice ammo I clean, trim, and resize all brands together and load and shoot. I usually load these a minimum of 10% below maximum but above the minimum in my load book.

By the way, I have some Hornady Match .308 cases. They are very consistent in weight.

[markm]

My theory being the external dimensions are now the same so the weight difference would indicate different internal dimensions and, as a result, capacities. I then load like weights together.

I've not found this to impact velocity S.D.s at all.... at least in my loads. We even loaded the new 77 TMK exactly the same as the 77 SMK... (the TMK eats up a lot more case volume than the SMK), and the two load shot the same velocities.

Like I've said a bunch of times here, mixed .223 brass doesn't hurt my precision loads. However mixing .308 brass makes a huge difference in POI, velocity, accuracy, etc.