How many times can brass be reloaded

H

hoverhog

New member
EE Expired
Rating - 100%
13   0   0
Location
Edmonton,AB
Hello All
I have been reloading for a couple months now and started thinking how many times can I reload my brass safely.
I reload for one bolt action .308 only I have been full length resizing my brass and trimming each time.
The brass is not abused only been using 45gr imr4320 cci primer and hornady SST 150gr and 165gr Nosler.
So my question is how many times can I reload my brass and what should I look for?
If I kneck size will this prolong the life of the brass and should I really trim the length every time.
I use the Lee case trimmer so anything over nominal it will remove brass.
 
Trimming is not necessary unless your brass is longer than the maximum spec. You can use an inexpensive caliper to take that measurement after resizing the case. The Lee case trimmers that use a pilot / length gauge will not damage a case no matter how many times you trim, they positively stop with the tip of the gauge on the shell holder, and will not trim too short. I don't know of any possible way that trimming could "reduce the life of your brass quickly". You are only making yourself extra work, but not hurting anything.
Full length resizing may not be necessary, depending on your rifle and the fit of the cases in the chamber. The service life of cases fired in most bolt actions will be improved by neck sizing with special dies or by partial full length sizing with normal full length dies (what most people call neck sizing).
The shoulder should be just barely bumped back 0.001-0.002" in a properly adjusted full length die for cartridges fired in a bolt action. Hornady sells an excellent tool called a head and shoulders gauge that helps you to measure this dimension with a caliper.
If you only move the shoulder back a minimum amount and don't load too hot, you may get up to a dozen or more loads from good brass before necks start to crack from work hardening. Annealing the necks can help rejuvinate brittle case necks. Primer pockets that have expanded so that they won't firmly hold a primer are not fixable, and are the usual reason to discard brass that has been "worn out".

Any cases that have been full length resized a few times and shot in a sloppy chamber may thin out so much that a case head separation occurs just ahead of the thick part of the brass near the base. This a dangerous condition and is to be avoided. Discard any brass that has an internal stretch ring ahead of the base. Purchase and read the pertinent sections in a good reloading manual, it will explain the details.
 
waynewjw said:
Should only trim if you have to. Trimming will reduce the life of your brass quickly. Neck sizing will definately increase the life of your brass. After 4 trims, I would consider new brass. I'm on 5th and 6th reloads but have only trimmed twice. I'm finding after the 3rd reload a FL is best.
Click to expand...

ok...... bit of fail in this statement. trimming does not effect brass life, however failing to trim could result in reducing life of your gun, by causing an out of battery detonation, or damaging the bore by jamming the case neck onto the lands.

your putting the cart before the horse here. If your cases "need" trimming every time because they are elongating 4 thousands of an inch every time your fire, yes they will fail sooner, not because your triming them... but because its cheep brass that's deforming excesivly (I find federal brass the worst for this). you generaly see the elongation when you resize it back to spec... hence why you should trim after resizing not before. But regardless; this is why neck sizing alon makes brass last longer... you are working the brass less.

I have norma brass fired through norc m14's... on reload 8-10, and LC on 4-6 with no issues, FL sized and trimmed every time (regardless if its need i;t I run it through, if it trims it trims. I use the RCBS 3 way cutter so it does the beveling as well all in one shot) .

My norma .308 for the tikka... woo-eeh beyond 10 reloads with no case failure. FL sized it as well bumped it back 1 thou so it fit back in tight... but I did not have to force the bolt handle down.
 
I have .308 Lapua brass that I am still using with the 4th barrel on my target rifle. I FL resize with an S Type bushing die every time and bump the shoulder back .002". Every once in a while I will find a primer that seats with a little less pressure than the rest of them, I set this case aside to use for practice only, then chuck it. However a friend of mine that is on the US Palma Team told me that when the primer pockets start to open up, he switches to Wolf Primers and gets another 4-5 loadings out of them. He tells me Wolf primers are about .0005" bigger in diameter.

I only trim my brass when it gets up to max book length and trim it back to .005" under spec.
 
brass life depends on how you work them and how hot are your loads
when the necks start to get hard and brittle, the crack
so to avoid it, you can anneal the necks
best way to feel when it is time to anneal is when you feel the case neck is harder to pass on the expander ball on the way out of the die
then you star to gen unconsistent neck tention and it affects accuracy as well
 
I neck size Lapua brass, and bump the shoulder back as needed. (4-5 loads) I also trim to uniform length every load.

I have Lapua brass that I have reloaded 12 times, but I discard cases when they will not readily fit into a shell holder, the primer pocket doesn't "feel" tight, or the occasional neck crack.

In my experience, shooting in the rain with wet ammo is hard on brass.

I have found Laupa to be the best for consistency and longevity.
 
2 things start to happen when you get to 6 - 7 - 8 reloads. 1 the brass starts to harden from work hardening around the neck and cracks and 2 the case stretches till the head separates as in the above pictures. Keep trimming, watch for case head separation and discard any that have cracked necks, lines of case head separation or loose primer seating. Google paper clip case checking for case head separation.

Myself I shoot, full length resize, neck size the next 4 reloads, anneal, shoot, full length resize, neck size the next 4 shots. and so on, and so on. Some of my first 308 winchester are at 16 reloads.
 
Because I use a Giraud power trimmer, its so easy to trim that I just run the brass through the trimmer after each resizing to ensure everything stays within spec. Sometimes a sliver of brass is removed, other times there's no contact with the trimmer blades. Likewise, the Lee Trimmer when attached to an electric drill performs in a similar manner, although you might have to fuss some with the position of the brass in the shell holder to prevent wobbling. While its true that full length resizing works the brass more than neck sizing alone, if you have case separation before the primer pocket opens up through the use of full powered loads, you don't have much to complain about, you've got your money's worth from that brass.

The key here is what the load is being used for. If you neck size alone without bumping the shoulder, difficulty in chambering will occur sooner or later. If you bump the shoulder back slightly with each resizing, it will have little impact on your brass life. As for me, when I load ammo for use in the field I full length resize. Case life to me is secondary to ease of chambering, and even then I run my handloads through the rifle to ensure there will be no surprises. When I load match ammo in expensive brass, I just give the shoulder a nudge, setting it back perhaps .002" which can be achieved with a set of competition shell holders and a Redding body die which allows sizing a loaded cartridge.

The real key to brass longevity though is how hot you load the stuff. Even very soft brass will last indefinitely with light loads like you might use when shooting cast. IMHO, your load with 150 gr bullets is a good one which should result in good brass longevity without reflecting negatively on the practical performance of your round. If as you seem to suggest however, you use that same powder charge under a 165 gr bullet, that additional 15 grs of bullet weight puts you well into the dangerous pressure territory, and you're asking for more trouble than just short case life.
 
Boomer said:
Because I use a Giraud power trimmer, its so easy to trim that I just run the brass through the trimmer after each resizing to ensure everything stays within spec. Sometimes a sliver of brass is removed, other times there's no contact with the trimmer blades. Likewise, the Lee Trimmer when attached to an electric drill performs in a similar manner, although you might have to fuss some with the position of the brass in the shell holder to prevent wobbling. While its true that full length resizing works the brass more than neck sizing alone, if you have case separation before the primer pocket opens up through the use of full powered loads, you don't have much to complain about, you've got your money's worth from that brass.

The key here is what the load is being used for. If you neck size alone without bumping the shoulder, difficulty in chambering will occur sooner or later. If you bump the shoulder back slightly with each resizing, it will have little impact on your brass life. As for me, when I load ammo for use in the field I full length resize. Case life to me is secondary to ease of chambering, and even then I run my handloads through the rifle to ensure there will be no surprises. When I load match ammo in expensive brass, I just give the shoulder a nudge, setting it back perhaps .002" which can be achieved with a set of competition shell holders and a Redding body die which allows sizing a loaded cartridge.

The real key to brass longevity though is how hot you load the stuff. Even very soft brass will last indefinitely with light loads like you might use when shooting cast. IMHO, your load with 150 gr bullets is a good one which should result in good brass longevity without reflecting negatively on the practical performance of your round. If as you seem to suggest however, you use that same powder charge under a 165 gr bullet, that additional 15 grs of bullet weight puts you well into the dangerous pressure territory, and you're asking for more trouble than just short case life.
Click to expand...

Yes sorry I should have added this info my 165gr load is still at the bottom end of the scale at 42.5gr imr4320.
As for my plinking needs I don't think I need to go near the max load at least not yet anyway.
 
Thanks to all who replied to my thread lots of great info here and I thank you for sharing it.
I think I may go with the neck sizing Die if I can find one locally. and give it a try hopefully buy neck sizing I can keep the amount of trimming to a minimum as I
hate to remove brass if its not required. as for full length resizing I think im probably just work hardening the brass for no reason so I wont FL resize every time.
Im using factory loaded brass and have reloaded it twice now so with the factory load it has had 3 loads through it.
The first trim took a lot of brass off or at least it felt like it but not sure how hot a factory load is so probably going to get more brass
stretch being that its a new case and it is being fire formed to my gun. second and third resize and trim was only a couple of turns with the Lee trimmer
and some nothing at all.
 
Just set up your full length die right and dont worry about it. I trim my brass every time as I like it all to be the same length there is no need to do this though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom