Now that winter has again set upon us, we may getting around to thoughts of next year already, and have an assortment of cases that have accumulated themselves on our bench.

Sorting and sizing is not as “simple” as it sounds.

Just tossing all the 30-06 cases in one bucket and all the 270’s in another, is not going to do it.

You are going to need lots of little boxes or cans.

First you need to sort all the cases by caliber, 30-06, 270, 300 Win etc. Now they must be sorted by manufacture, be it Winchester, Remington, or Federal etc. Next, nickel-plated ones must be separated from the brass.

Even further, be sure and keep the once fired brass from the “multi” fired ones. That way you can keep the once fired ones to load for hunting next year, and use the others ones for load development and zeroing.

Now if you really want to get with the program, take each box of separated cases, and WEIGH each case. That’s right, weight each case. Here is where a digital scale really comes in handy.

After you weigh a few cases you will find that there is a “norm” that is being established. For example, case weights might be 241, 242, 250, 239, 241, 242, 251, etc.

It appears that 241-242 is the “norm”, so use those as your best cases to keep for hunting. Actually anything that is 241-243 ranges is OK, and toss the rest into the zeroing box.

Do this with each caliber and manufacturer. Label each box, (empty 12 Ga. Shot shell boxes work pretty good for this), with the pertinent information.

Now that all the sorting is finished, are we ready to size some cases and get to reloading. Not quite, odds are that all those cases have “hit the dirt” somewhere, and there is sand either on them or in them.

Guess what that sand and dirt will do to a fine die if subjected to it? Scratch it for sure. I have found it almost a necessity to clean all cases before and after resizing.

Get yourself a vibrating case cleaner and 10 lbs. of ground walnut shells or corncob, and run all cases for a while before resizing.

First thing this does is clean all the dirt off them. This will make them go in and out of your dies much easier, and not damage the dies either.

Then after you have sized them, run the case again for a little while to polish them up and also this removes all traces of lubricant left on the case. This also removes any lube left IN the cases, which might contaminate the powder or primers.

Now you have nice clean, dry, and polished cases fit for a king.

Many of the same requirements apply to sorting shotgun shells too. Certainly it is much easier, provided you are not color blind.

Do not load any shells that have sand or dirt in them. Even if is perfectly dry, and the shell fires just fine, that sand will imbed itself in the sides of the plastic wad, and scratch the @$#&^%*%^* out of the barrel as it leaves.

Shotgun shells are cheap, toss any that you suspect have dirt in them what so ever.

Feel free to contact Terry anytime at tblauwkamp@superior-sales.com or call days 616-896-6500