How safe is brass fired four times?

slushee

slushee

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Now, before you answer, I am shooting .308win brass through an M14. Everything I have read thus far tells me the M14 is a brass monster. I know there are those who say they have a sure fire way to get more then four firings from their brass, but I dont want to risk head seperation thus I crush all my brass after four firings.

Now on to the question.

Would it be safe to sell in EE my .308win brass fired four times from an M14? I would of course specifically say that, but I'm wondering if it would be safe for bolt actions to continue using this stuff instead of crushing.

Thanks in advance..
 
Why crush it? Why not check to see if the brass is showing signs of separating by dragging a bent paper clip inside the case walls. You will be able to feel if it is getting close to head separation near the web of the case.
 
If they ain't showing signs of wear why toss?

I'm nearing 10x on some of my .308 (from a bolt gun though) and am just now culling.
 
With my m14s, I get between 6 and 10 loads out of most commercial brass. A little more out of military brass, or nickle plated brass. Out of a bolt gun way more.

My m14 loads are midrange with a 150 or 168 gr tip.

With the m14, what I do is load each case the same number of times from a batch of same brass. Then, when one from a batch shows wear, I put the entire batch of brass in the recycle bin.
 
I am in the process of an experiment to see how long brass will last in my M14. I took a new box of Winchester 308A ammo, shot them off, reloaded, shot them off...

Last weekend they were fired for the fourth time. I resized them last night. They all still look good, though some battering of the headstamp is becoming apparent. I will load them today and don't expect any problems. I will put a post on here what the results are when all the cases have died.

Crushing them because they have reached some arbitrary number is silly. But, selling brass that you would not feel comfortable using yourself is plain unethical.
 
If you're pitching brass that's only been loaded 4 times, you might as well shoot commercial ammo. Even 10 times can be light with good brass.
 
so that article on m14 matchloads by zediker is wrong?- in it he recommends only 4x- head separations are extremely unfunny- i had one with winchester - locked the breech up, split the stock,( wood) and blew the mag apart- the only thing that had to be replaced was the mag tube- and the round LOOKED alright going in- and i DID check for signs of incipient head separation going in
 
I don't know anything about the M14 rifle you talk about. But if the brass wears out by stretching it at the base until there is a danger of head seperation, it is being resized incorrectly.
Normally, brass wears out by getting cracks in the necks of the case. This comes from compressing the neck by sizing it down, then expanding as the bullet is fired. Not much you can do about this, except annealing will lengthen the life of the brass.
There is no danger in shooting cartridges developing cracks in the neck. It will be noticed on seating the bullet that the bullet seats easier. If it still holds the bullet reasonably well, you can fire it, the last that case will be used, as it will likely open the crack.
 
t-star said:
so that article on m14 matchloads by zediker is wrong?- in it he recommends only 4x- head separations are extremely unfunny- i had one with winchester - locked the breech up, split the stock,( wood) and blew the mag apart- the only thing that had to be replaced was the mag tube- and the round LOOKED alright going in- and i DID check for signs of incipient head separation going in
Click to expand...

That sounds more like a case head failure than a separation. I have only had two head separations, both in my Savage 99 .250-3000. There was absolutely nothing unfunny about either one. I cranked the lever, and this L-shaped case went flying through the air. Turns out the case had separated but was holding on by a ligament, making it look like a bent case as it went flew. It made me a giggle a bit. If I hadn't been trying to catch the brass, I likely wouldnt have noticed. There certainly was nothing unusual about the firing of the shot itself.

If you are reloading for match accuracy, then maybe 5x fired cases are bad news due to deteriorating neck tension or something. There should be no actual safety issues.
 
you might be right- the case was not completey separated but had a big hole just above the head in the side- it took a hammer to the oprod after stripping it down to release it- either way, i junked the whole lot and went with brand new remmy-peters-
 
Nobody in their right mind would pay for 4x fired brass from an M14. Take it for free... sure.

With the M14, its difficult to say if they'd be safe without knowing your load and actually seeing the condition of the brass. If it inspects ok, you could potentially use it in a bolt gun for a few more firings.

With my bolt gun, once I can no longer reload the brass to supersonic loads, I toss any that show signs of head separation and use the rest for my subsonic loads. As subsonics, the cases no longer grow since the pressure is only around 20-25K. I get dozens more loadings out of them before the necks finally crack.
 
This post makes me laugh... you load the brass and shoot it once it cracks you throw it away anything else is foolish...

I have already reloaded .308 more then 4 times and shot it threw my M14-s these are factory spec reloads the cases look perfectly fine... when you collect them up after fireing, then you inspect for cracks, and throw out the bad ones and continue reloading them...

I have been reloading the same remington .223 for almost 8 years now fireing them out of everything from 700's to AR's and sometimes very hot custom loads when the neck cracks you toss out the bad ones...
 
I have some IVI brass in 308 (7.62 NATO) that I have reloaded at least 5 times, I have annealed the neck after the third reload. Until the cases show some sign of failure they will continue to be used. They slowly get changed out due to the fact I lose 1 in 20 every time I go out, grass at the range is a bad thing!
 
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