Approximate amount of times you can reuse pistol brass?

[Brutus]

THIS in spades. Well said. Seriously, NOBODY gives a fukc what the lawyer thinks.

^Seconded!

Ambulance chaser can go elsewhere for sympathy.

 

[Suputin]

Wrong -o
He still is not a good reloaded,

everybody can make a mistake but here is the next question you should ask

1. does he get to just walk back onto the range without any question as to steps he has taken to correct the mistake

2. any supervision or probation what does the range do to ensure safety of other members after this accident with this person and see he gets the proper corrective training or is it as you and others suggest a free for all and the range executive then says when being sued ???

3. The guy returns and it happens again and someone gets hurt seriously is the range liable , is the range officer liable, are the range directors liable with their knowledge of the accident with no probation or punishment

good questions and the majority of range directors have no clue

It has occurred to me that not a single one of these "serious" and "important" questions you bring up is applied to a person who causes a car crash, even if they injure someone. Why should this kind of grilling be applied to a shooter who made a mistake when it is not ever applied to tens of thousands of drivers who destroy tens of millions worth of other people's property and injure tens of thousands of people annually?

drayton valley range pres and cores told a 20 year old to take his 50 cal bolt action rifle to the range(illegal) and just " not do anything stupid". the kid went to the range and got goatee into showing off and put a half dozen rounds through a tree at 9 feet high with the backstop being a 25 million dollar gas plant facility a few hundred yards away as the shots were fired north instead of at the targets being east of the firing point

Uhhhh, wellllllll the kid w the 50 is a dumbass. How is that relevant?

 

[silverfoxdj]

What a crock. Even if the number 4 did represent a threshold where the risk of case failure become greater (it doesn't), so what? Reloaded cases fail during firing every day, it's inconsequential. Case head separations are not common in pistol cases but even if they were they are harmless. Neck and body splits are a complete non-event.

Edit: I suppose if you are shooting one of these notorious unsupported chamber autos it could be an issue. Case head failures are disastrous. I've never loaded for one, but it shouldn't be an issue for anything outside of .40 cal.

To answer the question, low pressure pistol cases like the .45 auto and .38 special can be expected to survive at least 50 reloads if they are not pushed to excessive pressures, often they go over 100. Higher pressure cartridges like 9mm or .40 S&W will probably only last in the 20-50 reloads range (unless again you are dealing with a badly designed chamber).

The correct time to throw a case away is after it has failed. This means visible splits, loss of neck tension (to the point you can twist the bullet in the case after it has been fully seated) or primer pockets that are downright sloppy (does this happen in these calibers? I've never seen it). Fired so many times that the headstamp has worn off is not a good reason to throw pistol brass away, load those suckers up.

Well said I stopped counting after 15 reloads and just examine them carefully

 

[Magellann]

I never count how many times a case has been reloaded, if it isn't split and reloads fine through the press it gets another turn. If it looks bad after cleaning it gets scrapped.

 

[silverfoxdj]

I reloaded a batch of 45ACP brass 40 times, could hardly read the headstamp because of the ejector marks. there was still more life left in them.

Good to know...

 

[gwesson]

My 2c worth...

I was gifted ~1,200 .38 spl empties many years ago; still working my way through them. The pistol is a 'challenged' older Dan Wesson 6" .357, very heavy and accurate but with at least one bad hole in the cylinder; it splits a lot of brass. I look them over for splits, throw the splits out (or give 'em to the kids as souvenirs at the annual Open House) and just keep on using 'em. 9mm - you can pick 'em up by the thousands; we're the only people in our club who collect 'em, I imagine we've got ~4,000 by now.

DEFINITELY recommend a Progressive - and if you can afford it, go Dillon 650. I don't have one

And get a brass cleaner; it just makes the whole operation so much funner. The most we use our revolvers is at the annual Open House (use the auto-loaders the rest of the year), and it just feels crummy shovelling tarnished brass into a revolver for a club guest to shoot - gleaming brass going into gleaming blued cylinder is a feast for the eyes!

 

[Ice05]

My 2c worth...

I was gifted ~1,200 .38 spl empties many years ago; still working my way through them. The pistol is a 'challenged' older Dan Wesson 6" .357, very heavy and accurate but with at least one bad hole in the cylinder; it splits a lot of brass. I look them over for splits, throw the splits out (or give 'em to the kids as souvenirs at the annual Open House) and just keep on using 'em. 9mm - you can pick 'em up by the thousands; we're the only people in our club who collect 'em, I imagine we've got ~4,000 by now.

DEFINITELY recommend a Progressive - and if you can afford it, go Dillon 650. I don't have one

And get a brass cleaner; it just makes the whole operation so much funner. The most we use our revolvers is at the annual Open House (use the auto-loaders the rest of the year), and it just feels crummy shovelling tarnished brass into a revolver for a club guest to shoot - gleaming brass going into gleaming blued cylinder is a feast for the eyes!

Yeah that's the hope and plan... getting a Dillon XL with casefeeder... and eventually when the sky rains money... the Mr.Bullet bullet feeder ��