brass life expectancy

[terry_g]

I have reloaded a box of twenty Winchester .223 brass 15 times so far.
The primers are all tight and the case necks look fine.
I have been neck sizing them with a Lee collet neck sizing die.
The rifle is very accurate when loaded to the minimum recommended load.
Am I asking for trouble? At what point should I toss them.

Terry

 

[ron hilchey]

My experiance has been with the .223 the necks will eventually crack. Certainly not a particularily dangerous situation. I have found though, without anealing the necks periodically, the neck tension will become inconsistant resulting in an exagerated standard deviation, effecting especially long range horizontal stringing.With minimum loads, and
if accuracy is not a problem, I would keep reloading untill the necks split, or show sighns, or the primer seating pressure seems irregular.

 

[leadslinger]

With you using minimum loads and neck sizing thats the reason you are getting such long life. You are minimizing the stretching of the cases reducing the stress on them.
You might at some point start to see small splits starting at the case mouth.
Look into annealing to prevent this or buy another box of Win white box ammo
when splitting starts.

 

[tjhaile]

If there is nothing visibly wrong with the case, it will last at least one more firing:

-Cracked neck
-Incipient head separation (check the insides with a dental pick or paper clip)
-Loose primer pockets

 

[ATOM]

Good advice above.

Annealing is easy to do, requires no equipment beyond a pan of water and a propane torch and can greatly extend your case life.