when are cases done??

[Klunk]

Im terrible for keeping track of how many times brass has been reloaded

and-I reload for a slew of 'army calibres' that get fired out of a slew of army guns

how can ya tell when its time to chuck cases (and not when they start splittn and comin apart)

??

 

[H4831]

No need to keep track of how many loadings. When they have used up their useful life you discard them.
But you asked how do you know when they are finished.
With normal, full power loadings, the necks will eventually get length wise cracks in them, from normal working of the necks as they are sized and expanded. A couple of heat treatments of the necks can extend the life of them a fair bit, or maybe I should have said, considerably.
Getting these cracks presents no danger. Sometimes an insipient crack is not noticed, but on seating the bullet it will be noticed the bullet goes in easier. For ordinary range shooting, I complete and shoot such a case.
If you are using quite heavy overloads, the primer pockets may expand, so they will have to be discarded before the necks crack.

 

[greg11]

What about when the body of the case cracks? Like, the fat part of the .308Win? How can you predict whether that is going to occur?

I had a batch of 80 or so .308 that I was reloading over and over again. I must have got about 15 reloads out of each case. I tossed them as I think they were about to get unsafe, if they weren't already.

I wonder, are straight wall cases (like .45-70gov) able to be reloaded significantly more than shouldered cases??

 

[tigrr]

Like Bruce said necks crack, primers get loose.
I'll add that I check the inside of the case with a small dental pic to see if the case head is separating(at 7 firings plus). There will be a spot down near the case head on the inside that the dental pic will catch somewhat. If it catches I chuck the case. Sometime you can see the fracture line forming. Google case head separation.
No special treatment I get 7 firings out of hunting brass. Same caliber with special treatment, Full lenght sizing 1 - Neck sizing next 4, Annealing, repeat. I get 20+ firings using this method. Coming back west soon?

 

[easysauce]

.... 7 fireings.... not to hijack the thread, but im getting into reloading, is this a typical # of re-uses you get out of brass?

 

[Ganderite]

I load many calibers for many different guns.

For pistol I just keep loading and loading and loading. Every once in awhile if find a split case or a loose primer - so I toss that case.

For rifle I use 50 round boxes to store the loaded rounds and I keep those cases together. Eventually i get a couple split necks or loose primers. At that point I toss the entire box.

I do not keep track of how many reloads I get. The last time I kept track it was a batch of Winchester 308 brass that i got from a Marine Rifle Team. I stopped counting at 20...

 

[zuke]

I did a test about 20 year's ago with 20 30-06 case's.
I had reloaded them all at least 25 time's with full load's, 50 gr of 4064
Fired out of a 98 mauser and neck sized.
The only reason I stopped is because I was running low on 4064

 

[dead meat]

I also watch for split necks and loose primer pockets. Had some 204 cases develop a split neck on the second loading, have some 06 cases that have been loaded 18 times. Lots of variables in play here.

 

[jonny45]

i shoot em till i break em
after 5 or 6 rounds per case ill trim them back to specs for the first time.
if you dont load them hot, a dozen rounds per case is not a big deal.
neck sizing adds rounds to the case. dont ream the pockets to much.
i am told case anealing works wonders but i never have done it.
the thing with shooting army guns and reloading for them is they have big chambers and there not all the same size so you need to full length resize, if you have a slew of them in the same caliber otherwise youll end up with feeding issues. the end result is short case life. shooting them till they crack is not a big deal so dont worry about that. when a round goes off in a chamber the brass stretches and forms a seal which prevents gas blowback. you will notice a little bit of burnt powder along the crack but it wont be much even with full power loads and keep an eye out for gas leakage around the primer pocket as well, if use see burnt powder here one of two things are happening, first you could be way over max for your rigg, if the primer has a crator over the firing pin dent chances are this is the issue. second, the case has streched at the web and through the pocket, then there pretty much pooched but keep in mind this does not happen much.
with millitary chambers i have cracked them around the web because the chambers tend to be large youll notice them starting to shine bright around the web after just a few loads per case.
and if your chamber is very large youll notice after firing, the cases no longer appear straight and square, the case is under alot of stress, it will crack there sooner or later. again its not that big of a deal.
what is important is basic safety put on your shooting glasses, burnt powder in the eyes does sting a bit believe me, ive been there and dont load too hot, if you need more speed go to a bigger case.

 

[easysauce]

wow.. thats a lot of reloadings... yay to saving $

 

[Dean2]

I have only ever lost cases to the primer pockets loosing up. I only neck size, even my hunting loads, and all brass is used in the same gun, even if I have multiple guns in the same caliber, that way I don't have to Full Length size. I have never annealed a neck and more than 20 loads from a case is very common on standard calibers. On the 7 and 300 mag. the pockets ussually go after 12 or 15 but I load them pretty warm.

 

[kamlooky]

One chap I hunt with says his step brother buys new brass for hunting reloads and
he keeps this batch strickly for hunting.
He has his range brass and again, solely uses it there.
Makes sense I guess.
I can't keep track of all this stuff.
I toss them in a bucket and when there are enough or I run short of ammo,
I reload them.
Check them carefully and squish the NFG ones.
I used to drive myeslf crazy with this one two three chit, but
now I just check and recheck my reloading steps.
So far, no fail to fire or squib loads.

 

[DFarmer]

I toss them in a bucket and when there are enough or I run short of ammo,
I reload them.
Check them carefully and squish the NFG ones.
I used to drive myeslf crazy with this one two three chit, but
now I just check and recheck my reloading steps.
So far, no fail to fire or squib loads.

I am with Kamlooky on this. I have raw brass bins for each calibre. This is where fired brass goes until it is needed for reloading again. We check length each time and trim as necessary. My son recently annealed some 243 brass as we were having a few split necks. We full length resize because we have 2 guns of each calibre and are not interested in having brass for a specific gun. I don't know how many firings we average per brass but I have a pile of empty bullet boxes and we have not had to throw out very many brass yet.