Post by: Harold on January 23, 2011, 11:14:46 PM
Post by: JackOfAllTrades on January 23, 2011, 11:28:39 PM
Your dial indicator is your friend. Neck sizing bottle neck cases will allow more reloads than full length sizing. Hotter loads will reduce case life. Improper head space will reduce case life. Belted magnums will have less life than a straightwall case.
-Steve
Post by: JimmyHoffa on January 23, 2011, 11:31:35 PM
Post by: carpsniperg2 on January 23, 2011, 11:51:20 PM
It really depends on the cartridge. For 45acp I've reloaded much of my brass 25 times. For 30-06, I have some that's been reloaded say 8 maybe 10 times. 338win-mag, I bet I've got a few that have been loaded 5 times. (but those are custom necked down and loaded hot) I do not scribe the sides with how many times I've loaded them. I go through a visual inspection process and measuring to determine whether that next piece of brass is a candidate for loading again.
Your dial indicator is your friend. Neck sizing bottle neck cases will allow more reloads than full length sizing. Hotter loads will reduce case life. Improper head space will reduce case life. Belted magnums will have less life than a straightwall case.
-Steve
Nail on the head :tup:
Post by: Harold on January 23, 2011, 11:52:51 PM
Post by: jaymark6655 on January 24, 2011, 07:44:42 AM
Post by: high country on January 24, 2011, 08:03:08 AM
Post by: JackOfAllTrades on January 24, 2011, 08:29:15 AM
quality makes a difference too, don't expect to get as much life out of factory loaded brass as with lapua brass.
I'll almost disagree with that statement... :chuckle: But will add that some brands of factory ammo are known for being thicker, thinner, more brittle, more consistent. Lapua brass is extremely good stuff as the case walls have more uniform thickness, but Winchester and Federal from the 60's and 70's is great stuff. You'll get more reloads out of PMC than you will Starline or CMC. Remington brass in many cases is thinner than others, thus a few less reloads. Some of my brass choices actually depend on what cartridge I'm loading.
-Steve
Post by: high country on January 24, 2011, 06:31:43 PM
Post by: mazama on January 24, 2011, 07:33:13 PM
Post by: Jamieb on January 24, 2011, 08:48:45 PM
Most of it's been covered already but I have to say belted mag brass properly sized to head space off the shoulder wont wear out any faster then a non belted case. Run your brass in lots of the same loading/firring.
For standard non expensive brass, after tumbling and resizing I visually check the outside on every case and pick a few out to check the inside of with a bent paper clip. Try to stick with one brand of brass, write any brass failures down in your loading book, you'll start to see a pattern.
My 7mm-08RP brass starts getting cracks in the neck after the 8'th firring, I've ran some to 11 firings but the 10'th and 11'th firring I lost a bunch of cases to neck splits.Rem brass for the 7-08 is cheap so I toss it all after the 7'th firring, if it was expensive I'd anneal like my .257wby brass every 5'th firring. Annealing brings back the brass elasticity so necks wont split and the cases will last until the web ahead of the rim get thin from stretching and lets go. A lot of folks over work their brass and shorten the brass life from work hardening by FL resizing every reload. Neck sizing or partial full length sizing is the way to go, both for accuracy and brass life.I put tape of the box of reloads and write the number of firings the brass has.
(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv376%2Felkhunter%2FIMG_0121.jpg&hash=b4298227e3bdb7f8a2bcdce71e9803f58504876e)
Post by: high country on January 24, 2011, 09:17:00 PM
Post by: Wenatcheejay on January 26, 2011, 08:41:00 PM
How I Anneal Brass (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=190rC0iTN5M#)
Post by: jaymark6655 on January 26, 2011, 08:53:19 PM