How do I know if its time to replace my brass?

[Gunneegoogoo]

You can get some tempilaq 750 to better gauge that you're not under or over heating the brass. From my reading it's really easy to do either, with bad results either way. Look at Amazon.com - you'll get raped at acklands, praxair, or air liquide.

I don't know how many pieces of brass you're talking, but if you can get double the life from the brass with an annealer, it becomes worth it in a hurry. I've read someone getting 30x out of regularly annealed lapua brass. That's the extreme, but even if you get 15, you're rockin. The smallest group ever was shot with brass annealed after every use.

-J.

 

[bigedp51]

I reload for a few different calibres, but I am noticing something with my .260 Rem that has me wondering if it is time to replace my brass.

A little background:

• I'm using Nosler Brass
• My "recipe" is: 40.5 gr IMR 4350 with 139 gr Lapua Scenar bullets seated to 2.250" (at the Ogive) giving a Muzzle Velocity of about 2590fps. (Definitely not a "hot" load, but it is a very accurate one in my rifle.)
• I do not have an exact count of how many times this brass has been used, but it is about 10 times.
• There are no visible problems with the brass (after wet tumbling with SS Media, they look brand new)
• The Brass shows no signs of wear or stress and it still chambers effortlessly in the rifle.
• There is no noticeable drop in accuracy
• I am using a Forster Co-Ax press and Redding Series A dies (I typically only neck size.)

Here is my dilemma:
The last couple of times that I have reloaded this round, I have noticed that it is getting very easy to seat the bullets and/or the Primers. It is not getting to the point where accuracy is being affected, and it certainly isn't so loose that anything can be moved by hand, but I have noticed that things are getting very easy to put into place.

Here is my question:
Given that there is no apparent wear or signs of stress on the brass and that accuracy remains consistent, should I just keep using this brass or is the ease with which the components are seating an early sign of a potentially larger problem and it may be time to change out for new brass?

Thanks for your advice.

The cases below were fired in a new Savage rifle and the die was setup to make hard contact with the shell holder with the press reaching cam over. What was missing was the amount of shoulder bump or shoulder setback after sizing so below are "ball park figures" not knowing the cases head clearance in the chamber.

 

[Hoag]

Hmmm...

Honest question here; doesn't dropping them in water actually temper them? I thought with annealing they are supposed to be let cool slowly, at room temperature.

That is exactly what I thought too, but like I said, I am only as smart as what I saw on YouTube and that can be a pretty low threshold. Most of the videos that I saw showed the casings being dropped into water after they were heated.

 

[Hoag]

Here's a good article about annealing, lots of good info:

http://www.6mmbr.com/annealing.html http://www.6mmbr.com/annealing.html

Dropping the cases in water won't hurt anything, but is unnecessary. I would try to keep the flame higher on the case so the colour change just starts to appear on the shoulder.

Thanks. Great article and advice.

 

[jethunter]

I think he means just below the neck to stop the heat flow. Obviously heating and dumping is quenching the metal therefore making it harder/brittle? Or have I completely forgotten how annealing/quenchingwork.

That would be correct for steel but not brass. Different metal.

 

[mark222]

The cases below were fired in a new Savage rifle and the die was setup to make hard contact with the shell holder with the press reaching cam over. What was missing was the amount of shoulder bump or shoulder setback after sizing so below are "ball park figures" not knowing the cases head clearance in the chamber.

Interesting, it looks like he got his money's worth out of most of them. If the author testing the overall life of the brass, where are the cases that cracked at the neck? The majority of my brass in any caliber would crack at the neck without annealing. From what I can see in the picture, every case shown failed as a result of the case stretching from the web which is a classic headspace issue. Annealing will only affect the neck area to reduce splitting there and help improve neck tension consistency.