Brass lifespan for AR

[gj169]

I've been reloading some winchester .223 brass for my ar180b.It gets full length sized and crimped,(and trimmed when needed).Its been fired 5X.Other than looking a little beat up from cycling thru the semi,it still looks okay to use.
Anyone else reloading for AR's,how many times do you reuse the brass?
thanks, Gerry

 

[RifleDude]

I've been reloading some winchester .223 brass for my ar180b.It gets full length sized and crimped,(and trimmed when needed).Its been fired 5X.Other than looking a little beat up from cycling thru the semi,it still looks okay to use.
Anyone else reloading for AR's,how many times do you reuse the brass?
thanks, Gerry

With proper care, it should last at least 10 firings. I've got .223 brass fired 15X from my AR15 that is still good to go. I do anneal the necks after 10 firings though In my experience, you get non-catastrophic neck splits before head seperations 99.9% of the time. In thousands of handloads, I have had maybe 2 or 3 head seperations.

 

[Canuck223]

I generally loose it before it wears out from use.

 

[Mr AR15]

I'm with RifleDude. I've been shooting several thousand rounds out of my AR-15 now for going on 5 years and I am still using the same brass. I started with about 1000 cases and top up every once in a while with once fired stuff I find at the range. All I do is neck size and check case stretch on rndomly choose cases but I have never found a case that needs to be trimmed.

I've had a few neck splits but nothing else significant.

 

[gj169]

I'm with RifleDude. I've been shooting several thousand rounds out of my AR-15 now for going on 5 years and I am still using the same brass. I started with about 1000 cases and top up every once in a while with once fired stuff I find at the range. All I do is neck size and check case stretch on rndomly choose cases but I have never found a case that needs to be trimmed.

I've had a few neck splits but nothing else significant.

Neck size eh?Do you crimp?I've been trimming anything over 1.760".When do you decide to trim?

 

[Canuck223]

Neck size eh?Do you crimp?I've been trimming anything over 1.760".When do you decide to trim?

The cheap and dirty way is to trim them all to 1.750 at first, then adjust your seating die to set the bullet at the rear of the canelure. When the brass is at or god forbid over the front edge of the canelure, they go back for trimming next cycle.

 

[Mr AR15]

I take every 10th case and put it in my case trimmer just to check and it never needs trimming since nothing is ever cut off the neck. It's pretty idiot proof (thank God). So far the only time I trim is when I have once fired brass as the first time the brass is used it stretches quite a bit. Other than that, the only other check I have is when I seat the bullet. If the case is even slightly longer than spec, it gets slighty deformed, which I can feel when I seat the bullet. That one goes in the recycle bin, but this rarely happens.