Weight sorting Rem STW brass

[Moman]

Hi all. I wanted to see if any of you had some advice or real world experience with weight sorting this Remington STW Brass. Typically I buy Nosler, Norma and Lapua Brass in other calibers but thought I'd give this stuff a try.
I started with 100 pieces, same lot. Lost 20 pieces that had a neck variation greater than .002
Of the 80 I kept, here is what I did for further sorting.

32 are 251.0 to 253.0 gr.
18 are 254.1 to 255.5 gr.
20 are 256.0 to 258.0 gr.
10 others that don't really fit anywhere. 8 of these are in the 250.5 range.

I'd like to sort to 1.0 gr. But I'll have too many little batches of brass. Little batches. Give me some ideas here, I'm new to the STW. I don't think the weights will have the same effect as a smaller caliber but I'm not sure what should be acceptable.

also, the gun is just a out of the box Rem 700 SPS and it's super throaty. But, it's got potential and I'd be happy getting a 168 ABLR to 700 yards or there about.

 

[SammySTW]

I am also curious to learn more about this. I have always tried to buy the premium brass too, so I don't have any experience with case variances like that to worry about. I have only been using Nosler brass for my STW and it has been very consistent as far as I can tell.

I decided to buy 100 pieces of Remington STW brass recently just to give it a try, and because you never know when you might have a hard time finding STW brass. It seems like a lot of people use it so I figured it might be alright. Well I started to weigh some pieces and after about a dozen of them, I just put it all back in the bag and gave up. I didn't know how to sort them either. I'm not the most experienced with this stuff, I've only been reloading for a couple years now so I don't know what the tolerance goal should be here.

Both of my STWs are custom rifles, I want my hand loads to be the best that I know how to make in order to reach the full potential of the rifles.

 

[dok7mm]

I've had better luck with the Nosler brass in my 7 STW also. I bought a big lot of Nosler 8mm RM brass. It was quite a bit cheaper than their STW brass. Just run it through your die and you're GTG. I've still got a stash of early Remington brass that weight sorted very well, unlike the current stuff.

 

[wildcat455]

I don't shoot the 7 STW, but I can help you with your brass sorting.

If you are shooting long distance, (like, 1K yards) or are very meticulous and precise, you'll want weight groups of 1.5 grains.

1.5 grains brass weight represents an equivalent .1 grain of powder. And .1 grain of powder is about 1inch vertical at 1K yards, and about 10 FPS to your ES and SD.

If you're not concerned with any of that, then you probably shouldn't be sorting brass...

 

[J E Custom]

Hi all. I wanted to see if any of you had some advice or real world experience with weight sorting this Remington STW Brass. Typically I buy Nosler, Norma and Lapua Brass in other calibers but thought I'd give this stuff a try.
I started with 100 pieces, same lot. Lost 20 pieces that had a neck variation greater than .002
Of the 80 I kept, here is what I did for further sorting.

32 are 251.0 to 253.0 gr.
18 are 254.1 to 255.5 gr.
20 are 256.0 to 258.0 gr.
10 others that don't really fit anywhere. 8 of these are in the 250.5 range.

I'd like to sort to 1.0 gr. But I'll have too many little batches of brass. Little batches. Give me some ideas here, I'm new to the STW. I don't think the weights will have the same effect as a smaller caliber but I'm not sure what should be acceptable.

also, the gun is just a out of the box Rem 700 SPS and it's super throaty. But, it's got potential and I'd be happy getting a 168 ABLR to 700 yards or there about.

I would recommend that you do a complete case prep first before you start sorting. This includes full length sizing, trimming, flash hole prep And neck turning. This will give you the best chance of uniforming the cases and the ability to sort within 1 grain. also you wont loose/reject very many cases.

Weight sorting or volume testing is not very effective if case prep is left out. The idea is to make the cases as close to identical as possible on the outside dimensions so the sorting or volume is more consistent and predictable.

Done this way, I normally end up with 3 or 4 rejects out of 100 and I use those as seating depth gauges for different bullets, and they stay in the die set for reference.

J E CUSTOM

 

[Moman]

Thanks for the replies. I originally posted this one month ago so I'll give some feedback as to what I ended up doing. First off, I started this with Nosler brass. I've used a lot of Nosler over the years but wasn't overly impressed with the lot that I had. I bought this lot of four boxes (100 cases) about five years ago but did not keep the receipt. I had to table this project but just recently picked it back up. I only opened one box of this brass and found the neck uniformity to be all over the place. Unfortunately I didn't keep notes on this but if I remember right I would have to say a lot of the case necks showed .003+ thickness variation. I only opened one box and after seeing this I put them right back in the box. I contacted Nosler and explained the situation and they were great. They had me ship all four boxes to them and although it took 2-3 weeks, they sent me four new boxes of STW brass of a new matching lot.

As this was all happening, I looked at other options and found an online vendor that had a pretty decent price on this Remington STW brass. That is the 100 pieces in my first post. I was fairly happy with the neck uniformity of this lot that I ended up ordering a second bag. I couldn't find lot numbers on either bag but after working through the second bag, it almost mirrored the first bag so really looked to be from the same run. Also, the online vendor only had 7 bags of this in stock at the time. Anyway, after going through all 202 (there was 101 per bag) pieces, squared up through FL die, de burred flash holes, uniformed primer pockets, trimmed to same length, chamfered, and weight sorted, here is what I ended up with:

171 pieces had a neck variation of .001-.002
31 were pulled right from the get go for being over .002 , I don't neck turn. Yet

22 pieces weighed between 249.8 and 250.8
66 pieces weighed between 251.0 and 253.0
30 pieces weighed between 253.5 and 255.5
40 pieces weighed between 256.0 and 258.0

i culled another 13 pieces that were at extremes for weight and just didn't fit anywhere. All of the 43 culled will be used to set up annealer etc. So in the end, I ended up keeping about 78% of the brass, but all together they vary by weight some 8 grains. I've been working with the 66 pieces of 251.0 to 253.0 group but mostly has been for barrel break in and just starting to do a little load development, so far nothing great has stood out. It was sort of nice though to work with this level of brass again, sort of back to basics. All the hours of prep we all use to do before we switched over to buying higher quality and much more expensive brass. Just for fun I weighed the brass shavings from the prep work, if anyone is interested, here is what I came up with.

From 100 pieces of this brass, I had 4.7 grains of brass shavings after de burring the flash holes. For uniforming depth on 100 primer pockets, I had 0.4 grains of brass shavings. The flash holes blew me away, I couldn't believe the pile of brass shavings on the bench, that's why I ended up weighing it. Both bags were about the same.

So in the end I'd have to say it was a crap load of work, but like I said it was sort of fun just to get back to basics. But, with the weight variation, I don't expect too great of results for long range work, but who knows, maybe it will end up surprising me. I haven't even opened the new boxes that Nosler sent but will probably dive into that real soon. Fingers crossed.

 

[J E Custom]

Thanks for the replies. I originally posted this one month ago so I'll give some feedback as to what I ended up doing. First off, I started this with Nosler brass. I've used a lot of Nosler over the years but wasn't overly impressed with the lot that I had. I bought this lot of four boxes (100 cases) about five years ago but did not keep the receipt. I had to table this project but just recently picked it back up. I only opened one box of this brass and found the neck uniformity to be all over the place. Unfortunately I didn't keep notes on this but if I remember right I would have to say a lot of the case necks showed .003+ thickness variation. I only opened one box and after seeing this I put them right back in the box. I contacted Nosler and explained the situation and they were great. They had me ship all four boxes to them and although it took 2-3 weeks, they sent me four new boxes of STW brass of a new matching lot.

As this was all happening, I looked at other options and found an online vendor that had a pretty decent price on this Remington STW brass. That is the 100 pieces in my first post. I was fairly happy with the neck uniformity of this lot that I ended up ordering a second bag. I couldn't find lot numbers on either bag but after working through the second bag, it almost mirrored the first bag so really looked to be from the same run. Also, the online vendor only had 7 bags of this in stock at the time. Anyway, after going through all 202 (there was 101 per bag) pieces, squared up through FL die, de burred flash holes, uniformed primer pockets, trimmed to same length, chamfered, and weight sorted, here is what I ended up with:

171 pieces had a neck variation of .001-.002
31 were pulled right from the get go for being over .002 , I don't neck turn. Yet

22 pieces weighed between 249.8 and 250.8
66 pieces weighed between 251.0 and 253.0
30 pieces weighed between 253.5 and 255.5
40 pieces weighed between 256.0 and 258.0

i culled another 13 pieces that were at extremes for weight and just didn't fit anywhere. All of the 43 culled will be used to set up annealer etc. So in the end, I ended up keeping about 78% of the brass, but all together they vary by weight some 8 grains. I've been working with the 66 pieces of 251.0 to 253.0 group but mostly has been for barrel break in and just starting to do a little load development, so far nothing great has stood out. It was sort of nice though to work with this level of brass again, sort of back to basics. All the hours of prep we all use to do before we switched over to buying higher quality and much more expensive brass. Just for fun I weighed the brass shavings from the prep work, if anyone is interested, here is what I came up with.

From 100 pieces of this brass, I had 4.7 grains of brass shavings after de burring the flash holes. For uniforming depth on 100 primer pockets, I had 0.4 grains of brass shavings. The flash holes blew me away, I couldn't believe the pile of brass shavings on the bench, that's why I ended up weighing it. Both bags were about the same.

So in the end I'd have to say it was a crap load of work, but like I said it was sort of fun just to get back to basics. But, with the weight variation, I don't expect too great of results for long range work, but who knows, maybe it will end up surprising me. I haven't even opened the new boxes that Nosler sent but will probably dive into that real soon. Fingers crossed.

I am a big Nosler fan and when their brass came available I had to try some of it. All of the brass was very good and uniform so I ordered some more. That's when things got strange, the second case of brass was no where near the same as the first. I called Nosler and they were very helpful and told me that when they sort the cases, they are as close to the same In that lot as they can get them, but if you order another batch and it has a different lot number, It will be very consistent in that batch but may not be close to other batches/lot numbers.

So maybe if it has the same lot numbers, it will be very close. I don't know about now, but at the time their cases were made by Federal.

I have had good luck with the Remington brass even in the 8mm RM (What we use to make out 7 STW cases out of). But I have been turning the necks for a long time and have very few rejects. On wildcats, I turn the necks and fire form before I weight sort/volume test and trim to length.

J E CUSTOM

 

[eshorebwhntr]

I think nosler contracted the early runs out to Norma. That's why it was good. Then they started making their own. That's when it went wild for a little bit. I think they've got it under control now.

As far as weight sorting...if it was for a factory 700 in STW I wouldn't do it. It's certainly not going to hurt but I'm not sure you'll reap a great amount of benefit.

I guess one way to go would be to test your best load recipe in weight sorted vs unsorted.

I think you'll see the biggest improvement after 1x firing and resizing.