When do you toss Brass?

Montanapete1

I'm currently getting to the end of the life cycle on some of my .243 win brass. And being the cheap buzzard I am, I'm trying to milk every last bit of life out of them. I count the number of times I've reloaded cases and find the life on them very from one manufacturer to another. So the old "I load them 4 or 5 times", makes me feel like I could get one more out of some, and toss others upon inspection. Do you wait till you find a crack? Do you wait till you find a ring around the bottom? Are you putting a mic to the walls? How are you doing it? None of mine have started to crack all have about 4 loads in them, the R-P Brass looks New still(no stress signs) and some cheaper Frontier Brass I have is developing a faint line around the base. I'll try to post a photo or two. Just wanting someone elses 2 cents. regards pete.





Sorry bout the marks down the middle, thats from the vise. The faint ring could also be where the mouth of the die runs out? maybe, going to mic them.

MG1890

I don't push the shoulders back, and only fire a case in 1 chamber. Then, I discard when the neck cracks.

charliemeyer007

All my firearms have nice chambers. Rifle ammo is usually only neck sized. Some of the 45-70 and 45-350 Mag have made the trip 50 or so times. When they split at the case mouth there done. My 222, 7mm Mag, 30-06, 8mm goes 10 then becomes cast bullet only until split. Pistol brass is run to split.

Tailgunner1954

I started out with 250 pieces of brass, and 8000 shots (and now on barrel #3), I still have 240 of them left.
I'll let you do the math.[:D]

Montanapete1

quote:Originally posted by Tailgunner1954
I started out with 250 pieces of brass, and 8000 shots (and now on barrel #3), I still have 240 of them left.
I'll let you do the math.[:D]


Wow! what kind of brass? Just went through that 200+ rds I had and 5 had a crack in the neck, with one in the Base. all this was R-P.

Tailgunner1954

Rem brass (30-06)
All of it was once fired when I got it (brass barrel at a hunter sight in).

Nordicwargod

I have some Chineese .223 brass thats 93 headstamped. Bought the ammo loaded and I have reloaded it more than ten times with no signs of it going bad. The necks arent even annealed! It just keeps going. I was told by many that Starline brass was some of the best but with 38super its the first to crack! Some brass is better than others! I also have some real old 1950's LC 30-06 brass that just keeps going through several loading cycles with no issues.
How do you know its at the end of its life cycle?

bpost

If you anneal the brass every 4-5 shots it stops the neck splits. I have 6BR brass with 15 plush shots out of them and still going strong.

Okie743

I save the brass on ALL of my rifles after it's been reloaded several times (at the end of it's life cycle for High Velocity loads and label the brass, FOR Low velocity loads. I have Low velocity for most all calibers, to name a few, 300 win mag, 7mm Rem mag, 264 Win mag, 30:06, 270, 308, 243, 223. I use accurate 5744 powder for the reduced LV loads and can usually vary the powder charge up and down a few grains and can usually tune the LV plicking, practice loads to be very close to the same scope setting as a HV load at 100 yards and not have to re-set the scope for either. I get the LV loads from reloading manuals or by contacting Accurate for recommendations. Can usually just neck size the LV brass and very seldom have to full size. (I keep ALL the brass matched to the gun when neck sizing only) On the large calibers the velocity is around 30:30 velocities, with low recoil, lower muzzle blast and is great for kids, women, etc, for practice and for using a large caliber gun for Deer hunting at modest ranges of around 150 yards and less. I use the 223 loads for squirrel hunting. I neck size the LV brass and very seldom see brass failures, other than a split neck every once in awhile. I keep a feel for the manual press force when seating a bullet and if seating force is weak the neck is usually cracked. I use jacketed hunting bullets, not cast bullets.

Riomouse911

I run revolver brass until I ruin it by catching a bullet heel on the edge of a bullet and wrinkle it, or until it splits. I haven't bought new brass in years.

Montanapete1

quote:Originally posted by bpost
If you anneal the brass every 4-5 shots it stops the neck splits. I have 6BR brass with 15 plush shots out of them and still going strong.


Thanks for the tip!

jonk

I shoot it till it cracks at the neck, or the case head shows signs of separation, verified with a dental pick inside the case. Or until I lose it out of a semi auto.

I don't anneal except for oddball stuff; just isn't worth the time (to me) and getting repeatable results from case to case is either an art form or requires an expensive set up (IMHO). However, for the stuff I have annealed, some of it is on 100+ rounds and after tumbling looks like new... 8mm Kropatschek cases for instance are a pain to make and expensive to buy so those I anneal.

For something common like .243, just shoot and enjoy.

One other note- for things like 30-06, if the neck cracks, it gets sized down to 8mm Mauser, if that cracks, sized down to 7.65 Argentine, if that cracks, sized down to .308. With neck reaming as needed. I'm chea

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er. Thrifty. Yes.

Montanapete1

quote:Originally posted by jonk



For something common like .243, just shoot and enjoy.

One other note- for things like 30-06, if the neck cracks, it gets sized down to 8mm Mauser, if that cracks, sized down to 7.65 Argentine, if that cracks, sized down to .308. With neck reaming as needed. I'm chea

---

er. Thrifty. Yes.


was think along these lines.

nemesisenforcer

I mainly neck size the brass for my bolt guns. Only had a few neck splits over the years. I generally wait for excessive stretching or a split.

For my autoloaders I keep it to 5 or 6 since they have to be FL sized.