Weighing cases is becoming a more of an accepted step to sort new cases. It is a step done by many benchrest shooters, long-range shooters, and other competitors. Would we sort cases by weight for varmint hunting? Some would, but others might not waste the time. With the increasing acceptance of electronic digital scales and their decreasing prices, weighing cases is not as much of a chore as it used to be using balance beam scales. Excellent choices would include the RCBS scale, the MTM Mini-Scale, and my favorite, the AccuLab Scale. When handloaders weigh a batch of brass they generally segregate the brass into different shooting lots. They may end up with two or more batches of brass depending on the weight variance they experience. For our own personal shooting, a variance of 1.5% of case weight is an acceptable level for keeping cases in a shooting lot. Each handloader may set different criteria for sorting cases by weight, and some may not determine the variance spread until they have seen how the case lot distributes by weight.

One of the reasons for using case weight as sorting criteria is that case weight variances can be indicative of differences in body wall thickness or in web thickness. Large variances in body wall thickness can affect case capacity, which can lead to pressure variances that will affect down range performance.

If we are selecting cases for competition shooting, especially long-range competition, we may weigh every case in the batch. If we are preparing cases for a hunting rifle, we may weigh a sample of the cases to see if there is a large variance between case weights. If we are sorting through 100 cases we might weigh 10 cases and check the extreme weight variance. If the variance is greater than 3% (assuming +/- 1.5% is our pre-determined criteria), than we may want to weigh some additional cases.

There is more than one way to go about weighing cases to sort into batches. With an electronic scale, it goes rather quickly once you are setup. Two methods we have used to weigh cases are the “tape method” and the “bin method”. The “tape” method is done by applying a piece of masking tape to a fairly large surface. Weigh a few pieces (3 or 4); these will hopefully tell you where to start writing weights on the piece of tape. Write weights down in increments of 0.1 grain. As you weigh your cases sit them behind the weight designated on the tape. You should begin to see a bell curve develop with the variances in case weight. It is rather easy to make up some groups of 100 cases that were within a variance of 1.0% in weight. These cases will stay together as a group unless further sorting separates them. The advantage of using the tape method is that you can easily count and see the distribution of the cases across the weight variance range. It makes grouping cases much easier. The disadvantage is that trying to stand all of the cases up without knocking them down is like playing dominos. A great tip from a customer who took our procedure a step further is to use one of those overhead light panels with a grid surface. This helps keep the cases sorted and standing up. It will work for cartridges having a case head of 0.572” or smaller (except for cases like a 30-378 that won’t quite fit in because of the belt). The two photos below show the distribution of a batch of 100 Norma brand, 22-250 Remington cases and a 100 piece batch of Remington brand, 22-250 Remington cases. I would definitely use the Norma as it stands. If this was a cartridge I was shooting long-range, I might think about culling some of the Remington cases on the extreme ends of the weight distribution. The Remington batch is actually a pretty good batch; it just looks bad next to the Norma. The downside is you have to pay over twice as much for the Norma cases versus the Remington or Winchester cases. Incidentally, in these two batches the Norma cases were about 8 grains heavier than the Remington brand.

A second and faster method of sorting cases by weight is to buy some cheap plastic bins at the hardware store or grocery store. Use these to throw brass into as you are weighing. Put a piece of tape on each bin with the weight (again in 0.1 grain increments) and begin sorting. This method’s big advantages are that it goes much quicker and you don’t have to worry about knocking the cases over. The only disadvantage is that after sorting you need to count the cases in each bin to determine the distribution of weights. I prefer using a panel.

Both of these methods work fine for weigh-sorting brass. What you establish as your criteria for grouping brass into firing lots is up to you. We have weighed batches where we simply culled the pieces on the extreme end of the spread and ended up with one nice sized batch. Weighing cases isn’t critical for every type of shooting, but it can have an impact with respect to certain cases. I know one shooter who found that he benefited greatly when sorting his 22 Hornet cases by weight. He felt accuracy was directly affected by the variances in case capacity.