reloading magnum caliber brass

[hunters home]

There is no set limit, and case life involves many factors, brand and quality of the brass, how much the case stretches on the first firing and how far you push the shoulder back during resizing.

I have been reloading for over 47 years, I do not anneal and the majority of my cases fail due to split necks. I also have 30-30 cases over 25 years old and I had one split neck.

Bottom line your case life will depend on you and how well you take care of your brass.

Below .308 Winchester cases tested until they separated and a "ball park" idea on case life. Just remember that rifle chambers and resizing dies vary in size and some dies "might" work your brass more. Example I have a Lee .223 full length die that will reduce the case diameter "MORE" than my small base dies do. So having gauges to measure your cases are good to have.

Pretty well sums everything up.

 

[H4831]

In the past I never kept records and got brass mixed up , and I never annealed , when I noticed the necks splitting I would cull , often loose primer pockets would show before the necks split and/or signs of case head seperation . I now keep track and have better luck but I don't shoot enough to know how many firings the brass is good for , I have just used new brass after problems started to show .I have went up to and over 5 with small batches sized properly (5-10) that I used for testing then I culled them .

Gee, you must have been around longer than I thought! I could write exactly the same thing, only I would add that I used to keep a factory load around my loading gear, so I could compare the length of the brass I was loading, with the new brass, to see when I had to get the file out and shorten my brass.