#Once fired 9mm brass same headstamp full

That might be interesting, especially with more rounds fired of each type. For example, I would probably use IMR 8208 XBR powder paired with Sierra 77-grain Tipped MatchKing bullets and bench rest primers. I’ll go out on a limb and guess that if I were to take this to the next level and use all premium components except the brass, I might start to see some difference in group sizes. I would recommend that if you decide to pursue a “what the heck” mixed brass approach that you stay below maximum published loads as well. I wasn’t keen on pushing the limits of pressure AND introducing cartridges with slightly different internal capacities. Some brass is thicker so internal volume can vary a little. Just to be clear, I deliberately used a mid-range load recipe and not a maximum pressure load. The only possible differences were brass thickness and, therefore, internal volume and maybe a difference in neck tension related to the specific brass used to manufacture each brand. Heck, the outside dimensions are identical, especially since all the cases were resized. The platform probably isn’t “precise enough” to show a difference in performance from relatively small variances in cartridge cases. Consider that the AR-15 is a semi-automatic system and not designed for ridiculous accuracy as you might find in a bolt-action bench rest rifle. While I was surprised that the mixed brass grouped better, I was not really surprised that the two loads performed similarly. Based on this quick and dirty test, yours truly isn’t going to be sorting brass anymore for my everyday reloads!

#Once fired 9mm brass same headstamp full

I used “regular” 55-grain full metal jacket bullets on purpose, as my experiment was to find out whether I should go to all the trouble to sort brass for “normal” uses like plinking, training, and competition. Like I said, I was curious, and I figured if there were a huge impact associated with using mixed brass, I would see some difference in the group sizes. The takeaway seems to be that choice of brass doesn’t matter a whole lot in this specific usage case.Ĭlearly five 5-shot groups of each type isn’t enough to make a life-changing statistical conclusion. I’m guessing that due to the small sample size, there just wasn’t enough data to show minute differences. I doubt that the mixed ones are, in fact, more accurate. I have no earthly idea why the mixed brass reloads grouped better than the Lake City brass reloads. Again, I fired five different 5-shot groups and measured the diameter, center to center.įor accuracy testing, I used this FN-15 Designated Marksman (DMR) rifle with a Hawke Optics 10x fixed scope.

Remember, everything else in this batch was identical, except I painstakingly sorted spent cartridge cases to pick new vintage Lake City once-fired cartridge cases only. Heck, there were even a couple of older vintage Lake City cases in there because, why not? I don’t think I could have ended up with a more random assortment of range pickups had I hand picked them.Īnyway, I fired five different 5-shot groups and measured each, center to center.Īverage 5-shot group size: 1.296 inches Lake City Brass Results Repeat until finished.ĭoing a quick scan of the 50 round batch, I counted about a dozen different headstamps including brass like Winchester, Federal, Remington-Peters, Prvi Partizan, GECO, DAO, PMC, and even Poongsan Metal Manufacturing Company (Korea). Five shots with Lake City brass reloads followed by five shots of mixed brass reloads. As I fired everything from the same rifle, I made sure to alternate groups so both loads would be fired through the rifle in the same “all heated up” condition. It’s a monster that can double as an impact weapon in a pinch and I’ve always gotten good results from it. To get a great sight picture at 100 yards, I mounted a Hawke Optics Tactical IR 10x fixed-power scope. This 18-inch barrel gun has proven itself accurate in various testing, so I decided to use it for this little experiment. To reduce process variables, I weighed each and every powder charge with this RCBS Chargemaster scale and powder dispenser.Īfter packing up the two fraternal twin batches, I set off for the range along with an FN-15 DMR Designated Marksman Rifle.