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Any of you guys kept track of how many reloads you get out of a case? I've got a bunch from 30 years ago that are starting to give up the ghost. Incipient case head separation. Shot them out of several guns. Just curious.
4-5, depending upon how hot you load them and the quality of the brass. I can get that many out of a current production LC case.
I am new to reloading, why can you only get 4-5 reloads out of your brass?
Do they fail? Or are they out of spec in some way?
Also, are there brands of brass you can reload more times than others?
Thanks.
In my experience, the primer pocket enlarges ever so slightly on each firing that at some point I just don't trust them to hold onto the primer for another firing.
When using a hand priming tool during reloading, you can feel the resistance upon seating a primer. When priming a once fired LC case that's been prepped, you can feel the resistance, it instill confidence. But by the 4th/5th firing, when you reprime that same case, there's very little resistance. I don't tempt fate by continuing to reload that case after that point. Maybe it's good for another 4-5 firings, but I'm too chicken to go down that path to find out when I'm into the wall, the yellow flag flies and the emergency crews begin rolling.
Good cases -- LC, Win.
Bad cases -- FC. I load those only once. They have soft pockets. Some guys won't even mess with them. I only scrounge these cases where I see the guys shooting NIB Fed/AE. I know those are once fired cases. But if I don't see them shoot it right from the box, I let them lie.
4-5, depending upon how hot you load them and the quality of the brass. I can get that many out of a current production LC case.
That sounds reasonable. This batch is all Feds., and I load them close to max. If you take a batch of 1,000, that's 4m-5m rounds of reloads.
Hmm, All I pretty much ever used was Fed. brass and never had a lick of trouble with any of it. Of course that's not to say they haven't cheapened it up. But again this stuff is 25-30 years old. Only time I've had problems with primer pockets is from over max loads for a given cartridge. In the T/C Contender I used to have primers fall out when I shot the round and opened up the gun. I believe that was the 218 Bee or maybe K-Hornet.
I used to load only one time and that was it. Now, due to tighter brass supplies, I get 3 loads out of any given brass before I don't like how tight the primer sits, and the case starts to need trimming.
It's a bit of a pain keeping track of brass firing counts, but it's worth it. I take several bags with me and keep them segregated. When brass is on it's third firing, I mark it with an "X" with a sharpie to make sure it's identifiable in case It gets mixed up on the ground with good brass.
toddackerman
03-01-08, 10:31
I am new to reloading, why can you only get 4-5 reloads out of your brass?
Do they fail? Or are they out of spec in some way?
Also, are there brands of brass you can reload more times than others?
Thanks.
No they're not out of spec. We're talking about Mil. Spec. brass which is thicker than commercial.
Cases fired from an AR platform take a hell of a beating, and tend to expand much more than cases fired from a bolt gun. The resizing process is murder on them as the cases get severely stretched in comparison to other "Non-Semi Auto" loads.
I can get 6 loads from one case, but I have to trim, and debur after 3 loadings (and this is pushing it) because the case has stretched too much. If you re-size the case too many times, you will weaken the case wall and it will eventually separate on ignition.
A good rule of thumb if you don't want to do the trim and debur operation is to load 3 times and toss the case.
toddackerman
03-01-08, 10:34
That sounds reasonable. This batch is all Feds., and I load them close to max. If you take a batch of 1,000, that's 4m-5m rounds of reloads.
Hmm, All I pretty much ever used was Fed. brass and never had a lick of trouble with any of it. Of course that's not to say they haven't cheapened it up. But again this stuff is 25-30 years old. Only time I've had problems with primer pockets is from over max loads for a given cartridge. In the T/C Contender I used to have primers fall out when I shot the round and opened up the gun. I believe that was the 218 Bee or maybe K-Hornet.
Historically Federal brass reloads in an AR platform will be a problem as the primers have a tendancy to fall out, and get into the trigger group causing stoppages. This is due to the fact that Federal brass is softer than most.
i thought that mil spec brass was no thicker than commercial...
i know it is for .308, but i thought .223/5.56 was the same. someone referred to a water volume test which showed them to be equal... :confused:
Fed brass is a curse to us reloaders for many of the reasons list here already. For me it Often splits on second firing, have had a primer fall out of the pocket and stop the gun, had primers seat during reloading with very little ramming presure. I just Do Not trust Fed brass. Same in 10mm ... it is my absolute worst pistol brass. 45acp seems OK. For 556 Win and LC without worry. Harold H.
Fed brass is a curse to us reloaders for many of the reasons list here already. For me it Often splits on second firing, have had a primer fall out of the pocket and stop the gun, had primers seat during reloading with very little ramming presure. I just Do Not trust Fed brass. Same in 10mm ... it is my absolute worst pistol brass. 45acp seems OK. For 556 Win and LC without worry. Harold H.
Well I gotta say that they (Federal) must have cheapened their brass up in some way. I still have Fed. brass in 357, 44 Mag., 45 acp & 223 that's been reloaded alot back in the 1980s & early 1990s and I never had primers fall out or necks split on the first firing or second or third......I'm still using some of it and have alot loaded up. I always had problems with Remington brass giving up the ghost early on. Winchester was always good back then.
4-6 times: if the neck splits (bullet seating) or seating the primer has no tension....throw it away.
toddackerman
03-02-08, 18:28
Well I gotta say that they (Federal) must have cheapened their brass up in some way. I still have Fed. brass in 357, 44 Mag., 45 acp & 223 that's been reloaded alot back in the 1980s & early 1990s and I never had primers fall out or necks split on the first firing or second or third......I'm still using some of it and have alot loaded up. I always had problems with Remington brass giving up the ghost early on. Winchester was always good back then.
Bet you weren't shooting Federal out of an AR back then. Chambers for a .223 are a little larger than revolvers, bolt guns and .45 ACP. They didn't cheapen their brass. It's still good brass, just soft. Period.
You don't have the same problems in other actions like bolt, and wheel guns. 45 ACP pressures are so light that nothing splits until around 10 loads. (I've shot >100,000 rounds of it and almost all of it was reloaded).
Matter of fact, I was shooting mostly Feds. in the AR & Mini-14. I still have a batch of 400 or so that have been reloaded several times, but now are finally starting to rip the heads off. I went thru them and looked inside the case near the web and threw the ones showing the tell-tale ring around the inside of the case. These were from the 1980s.
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