Separating LC brass by year?

[nicholst55]

In my experience, sorting by year alone doesn't do much. I have even seen Lake City mix brass if they run short, back in the day. We had a large lot of M118 Match ammo made in 1979. While shooting that lot, I noticed one day that some of the brass was headstamped '78. I double checked the boxes, and it was all from the 1979 lot! Guess they had some 1978 brass left over at the beginning of that production run. That lot was exceptionally accurate, too.

 

[ireload2]

Sorting by weight can help if you graph the weights in .5 or 1.0 grain bin sizes. After graphing you can analyze the shape of the distribution.
If you have multiple different lots they will probably show 2 or more humps.
In any event you can take the middle 2 to 4 sigmas of the distribution for one large uniform lot.
The cases in each tail need to be segregated. The light cases in the left tail can be used for spares or sold to a casual shooter.
The heavy cases in tbe right tail can be used to work up loads since they will produce the greatest pressure or you can sell them too.
If you have really large lots of brass the quantities in each tail may be large enough to be useful stand alone lots.
The cases in the middle 2 to 4 sigma are your premium cases.
The benefit of this sorting is to get both weight extremes out of your main batch of brass.

 

[yotehater]

Even same year LC brass has different bunting marks indicating different lots. I see complete frustration with some reloaders trying to find consistency where none exists. Buy a lot of commercial brass and use the LC for foulers.