brass questions
- Thread starter r106
- Start date
Caliber doesn't mean as much as what action it is fired from. Semi autos are harder on brass than a bolt gun. I have had brass make 20+trips through my bolt guns before the primer pocket start to open and then I chuck them.
Your silver brass is just nickle plated brass, still reloadable but a little harder in the dies.
Your silver brass is just nickle plated brass, still reloadable but a little harder in the dies.
Case life depends on the load used. Hot loads reduce case life. Neck sizing only can extend case life for a bolt action, but that brass can only be fired out of the same rifle. If you had two .30-06's and use the same brass, you need to FL resize when you load for one or the other.
The most common cause of failure and short brass life is reloaders creating excess headspace by sizing the shoulder back too far when full length sizing. An RCBS headspace or similar device can assist in proper die set up.
More neck sizing helps, as mentoned.
More neck sizing helps, as mentoned.
If you want maximum case life, and you are full-length resizing, the set-up of your FL sizing die is critical. You can adjust to touch the shoulder, but it must not set the shoulder back too much or you will experience case head separations within 3-4 firings [sometimes less], as Peter mentioned in the last post. I have an old lot of WW 6mm Remington brass that is on it's 20th firing. I have not lost one case of this lot yet, and primer pockets are still tight enough to use without any problems. Regards, Eagleye.
Good answer, except the part about using a device to set the sizing die. Headspace is simply the length of the cartridge, compared to the rifle it is shot in. In other words, the rifle may have excess headspace, regarding standard size cases. But once a case is fired, it fills out to fit the chamber. If the fired empty is loaded without pushing the shoulder back to "standard" size, the rifle no longer has a head space problem! In short, set the die to fit the rifle the case will be fired in, and not by a predetermined setting which will return it to factory size.
H4831, right, and if you measure the fired case it will show the rifles headspace, excess or not and the gauge is still usefull. Good point.
This summer i was given a few fired bras that were about to or had already seperated at the case head and when meaured by the case gauge showed +008-.010".
They were Lapua cases and were being called faulty, when in fact the headspace was excessive and unsafe. So this is also a safety device.
Good thread.
Regards,
Peter
This summer i was given a few fired bras that were about to or had already seperated at the case head and when meaured by the case gauge showed +008-.010".
They were Lapua cases and were being called faulty, when in fact the headspace was excessive and unsafe. So this is also a safety device.
Good thread.
Regards,
Peter
