Brass how many reloads

I'd like to know peoples reasoning behind their magic number if they care to share. Re: How many times can you reload brass? There's still a few of Wile. E Coyote's ideas that I haven't tried yet. Google for it and hopefully you find it. There's a guy who shot a m or m record or something, and he was on his 54th reload for the brass. I just trimmed a bunch of brass with a mate after a days load testing for his.

The brass with starting load didn't need a trim at all. His max load cartridges needed nearly a mm trimmed off afterwards. Obviously the formed will last a lot longer than the latter which is have a few grains of brass thinned out and trimmed off each time. Remington Milspec 5R. So I took 10 pieced of range pick up Remington cases After getting to being out of bullets, I had shot the cases times I lost 3 cases due to operator error at the reload bench If it were a right, it would be in the Constitution.

South of Minnesota. I "retire" my rifle cases after 10 firings, not because I feel that they are worn out, but just because I do it that way. I size them and then put them away in boxes that I've marked as 10 firings.

I would have no qualms about using them should supply dictate it at some point. Not a real member - just an ordinary guy who appreciates being able to hang around and say something once in awhile. Happily Trapped In the Past Thanks, Joe Not only a less than minimally educated person, but stupid and out of touch as well. As noted I don't shoot heavy max. Works pretty good and is easy enough to keep track of number of reloads etc.

I guess I'll run them to 15 reloads and see how they look. May even go to Joined: May In the Swamps. I anneal.

Don't recall the last time I threw a piece of brass away due to age or number of firing cycles. I do not have any cartridges that spec at terribly high pressure, call it 50K or less and few that wander up to the top of that realm. Concerning the difference between man and the jackass: some observers hold that there isn't any. But this wrongs the jackass. Joined: Jul I used to count, but after I ran a couple of batches of brass past 30 loading cycles I stopped worrying about it, and no longer bother.

After a few loading cycles I neck anneal. FWIW I don't tumble my brass either, though the work-hardening effect and wear due to that is likely to be small.

I just don't see any point to it, nor to scraping residue out of primer pockets. After a while the cases go a bit brown with patina which is actually slightly protective but primer residue doesn't build up and I can't see any measurable effect on reliability or accuracy. The usual determinant of case life for me is losing the case in the field, or the odd neck split if I've neglected neck annealing. I have had pistol brass which ended up with loose primer pockets, but that brass had had a lot of cycles - to the extent that the headstamps were getting unreadable - so it might have just been wear.

As long as the primer pockets hold the primers, the necks aren't split and there's no evidence of incipient separation which I do check I can't personally see why I'd toss them. I don't usually load right to the ragged edge of pressures. I'm more interested in accuracy and reliability than the last few fps of velocity. I also only ever neck size my bottle-necked cases, mostly with Lee Collet dies. I don't full-length size bottlenecked cases, and don't have issues with shoulders moving forward enough to necessitate pushing them back.

I think that if you are seeing this it is a product of the way you are sizing them. It should be self-evident that when the fired case comes out of the chamber it must be able to fit back in, and indeed have some clearance, so if it won't chamber easily after you reloaded it, unless it is significantly out of round, it must be due to something you did to it in the reloading process.

I only use a given batch of brass in the one rifle - where I have more than one rifle in a given calibre I keep the brass separate. With rifles with large chambers such as my Lee Enfields I take a bit of care on the first firing to ensure they are fire-formed concentrically. Toss them when the neck splits.

Never annealed any but I will trim rifles. Some are more forgiving than others. If they have to go into different rifles then I have found it is up to the individual chambers. I had two 's that would not load each others fired cases unless really full sized. The North Coast. It depends. I've got over 30 reloads so far with a batch of 6XC cases. No anealing. No expander ball in the die.

I don't understand why they even make dies with expander balls. My load has a calculated 42, psi. On the other hand, I could only get about 5 reloads from new Winchester. The old Wincnester primers, the plated ones that I suspect are thicker, were good for about 10 and then I got neck splits.

The load was not a hot one: 24 grains of Varget and a 69 grain bullet. American Redoubt. I neck size all my brass except for hunting loads which are either new brass or once fired full length sized. Any gunk around the neck I remove with steel wool before cleaning. Had some 7mm Rem Mag with early case head separations due to full length sizing and incorrect headspace. Happy Trails. Not necessarily in that order. Almost all of my centerfires are custom chambered to a very light crush fit on the go gauge.

Because of this I encountered very little loss due to case separation except on belted magnums and now most of my cases that I toss are due to neck splits or loose primers at installation.

I'm not into annealing. I don't keep track anymore how many times a case has been fired as it's not my goal I once had five rifles chambered for. I just ran them through the Dillon again The one thing I do monitor is my primary hunting cases I only shoot new virgin brass or in a few cases once-fired in my hunting loads that are actually used for hunting.

All other brass is used for off season loads at the range or trying to find a more accurate load It is very rare for me to buy new brass as a bag of fifty lasts a very long time this way and I've had no trouble in the field with issues due to brass cases. All my rifles are bolt action except a. The Hornady cases work quite well for me. In short, I believe more in controlled headspace than annealing I have never annealed any brass but would like to. I have watched several videos but always put off doing it.

I bought Lapua 6. I was old school and always full length resize but now I have some body dies, Lee neck sizing dies, and plan to extend the life of the Lapua brass. What's a good process for someone that doesn't want to spend a lot of money? Print Thread Switch to Threaded Mode.

Key: Admin , Global Mod , Mod. All Rights Reserved. Powered by UBB. Reloading states that you should be meticulous when examining the casing before reloading. This ensures the casing is strong enough hto withstand the pressure of another firing event. There have been times where the casing was only fired once but still showed signs of failure and, therefore, cannot be reloaded.

Here are the points you want to look at when examining your rifle casings:. Case Necks: You want to make sure that there is no splitting, ragged edges, or any other signs of poor condition. Case Rims: Signs of wear on this portion will be broken portions, chips, or other damage that effects the integrity of the casing.

P ri mer P ockets: You want to be sure the primers are still fitting snug, as well as making sure there are flash holes have been thouroughly inspected, cleaned, and deburred if necessary. Case Walls: This i s the mo st important portion, and often most overlooked, in casing inspections.