How can this be? . .

leverboy

leverboy

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I borrowed my Dad's .222 this week for some beaver culling, since I sold mine on the EE this winter. He has a Remington 788 that he bought new in the late 60s. When he bought the gun he also purchased 60 unprimed Dominion brass and a Lee Loader. Believe it or not, 45 or 50 of those cartridges are still being used, having been loaded at least 20 if not 30 times. They have never been full length resized, or annealed, or even trimmed. I assumed these must be way over-length by now, and so I got the .222 gauge for my zip-trim, and tonight I checked the five rounds that we had fired in the last few days. Imagine my surprise when three of the five didn't trim at all. The other two took just a touch and the trimmer bottomed out. This brass is still in spec. . . how can this be?
 
could have started life way under the FL max. and is probably not a very soft brass.. brass will only stretch so much, softer brass will stretch more then a hard brass, i have some .308 mix and match, the fedral brass needs to bre trimed every time, the remmington brass is hit or miss and the stuff that needs to be trimed is onlly a thou or two over the "trim to " length


if it works and doesnt need to be trimed, dont question it :p hahaha
 
Hi. Lee Loaders neck size only. Cases don't get work hardened as much when they're just neck sized. Light loads will reduce the work hardening too.
I'd bet the necks are hard though. Mind you, Dominion brass is well known for being very good brass. Better than most currently made brass.
 
I had the same experience when I was a kid. We reloaded our 222 brass over and over, never checked length, never had a case crack. Just kept reloading. Back then I didn't know any better.
 
Cases tend to lengthen faster when hot loads are used. Lee Loader ammo tends to pretty tame. Long case life, especially with really good brass to start with, is not all that surprising.
 
That is pretty neat! Imagine the horrified gasps from those who wouldn't use a Lee Loader to save their own lives!:eek:

You likely haven't been using the old .222 for shooting musk ox at 1000 yds., so it has served you well. That brass could go in a hall of fame somewhere!

Go get them beavers!!:p
 
The "dripper" in this case is a sawed off .270 cartridge that my Uncle made way back for Dad when he started reloading. The go to load has always been 23 grains of BL-C(2) with a 50 gr. bullet. Not full house maybe, but not real light either. Certainly has proven devastating for all the various local varmints! I think part of it though is that heavy old Dominion brass. I have some in 30-30 as well, and it seems significantly heavier that the newer Winchester stuff.
 
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