[liontech]

I left Stealthfixr's post of Oct. 20, "why I'll never miss checking cases," wondering if there is some general rule about number of times brass cases should be reloaded. I have .45acp brass that I have been using since Hitler was a Corporal and I am still using them. I always check them after polishing and they still function as well as when they were new. Am I heading for a disaster in waiting?
liontech:uhoh:

[Hutch]

It has been my experience that you lose .45ACP brass before you wear it out. Magnum revolver cases wear out, but i've never seen a seperation or a split in a .45ACP. Dented beyond use, lost, crushed with a careless resizing, but never worn out. Just my experience. Others who hot-rod and have good eyes and limber backs my have other experience.

[Black Snowman]

I watch my 40 S&W cases carefully due to kaBoom rumors and my own healthy paranoia. I don't reload anything else often enough but .357 to orry about it.

The life of the brass will be a culmination of how hard it's pushed in temp and pressure, how bad it's beat up by the gun, and initial quality. There are other factors but I think those are the major ones. For my 40 brass I avoid loading it more than 10 times but don't officially keep track.

As mentioned I mainly I lose my brass before it wares out. That doesn't mean I don't watch it carefully though :scrutiny:

[Paul "Fitz" Jones]

The best brass with the longest life and the least cost is American GI and and it was made for military calibers and when available it is the best for those calibers like 45Acp, 30/06, .223, .308. Nuff Said.

[Sheldon]

I was recently given about a thousand 45 acp cases that were from 1963. Upon reloading them I had a higher than normal incidence of splitting at the mouth of the cases. I'm guessing they were just too tired from being reloaded so many times. This guy is one of the old timers at the range that shoots bullseye. I'm guessing he loads them up pretty light as they went through my press with less effort than my usual cases. I culled out the ones that split and will leave them behind next time out. That's about what I usually see when the brass goes bad....that and the occassional split in the middle of the case.

[Mike Irwin]

I've got some .38 Spl. brass that I bought in 1982. So far it's got better than 50 loadings through it. All fairly mild. I've lost some cases over the years, but I figure this stuff is good to go for quite awhile yet.

If I took the time to anneal the case mouths I could probably run them indefinitely.

[larryw]

45ACP brass will last a long-long time as its a very low pressure round.

One nice thing about 45 brass is it has a distinctive ring when it drops: even I (being partially deaf) can hear when the extremely rare split case hits the dirt or is picked up and dropped into the bag.

Nickel plated brass seems to be much more brittle and I don't bother keeping it any more as it will split.

Other than that, give it a post-cleaning inspection and load it up.

[Mike Irwin]

Larry,

Nickled brass is more fragile. The nickle doesn't have the elastiticity that brass does, and it will fail from work hardening before brass does.

I keep, reload, and shoot nickled brass, but I don't go out of my way to pick it up if there's some on the ground unless it's obviously new .

[444]

I have .45 ACP cases that are so worn that you can't read the headstamp and they still load and shoot fine. I almost never throw away a .45 ACP case. The only handgun cases that seem to split for me are .357 cases. Every batch out of the tumbler will have one or two with split case mouths, although I am sure I have loaded them 20 or more times, often with full throttle .357 loads. I probably don't shoot enough .44 Mags to have this problem, but I am sure the case life in that caliber is much shorter than say a .45 ACP.

"Am I heading for a disaster in waiting?"
No, certainly not in handgun calibers. Or I should say, normal handgun calibers. I have spotted split cases AFTER loading the case and shot them anyway; no disaster, never noticed anything different about them at all although I don't recommend this practice; I am an idiot. In rifle cases, you do have some danger although I wouldn't put it in the catagory of a disaster. Bottlenecked rifle cases firing regular loads don't last anywhere near as long as straight walled handgun cases. Usually somewhere between a half dozen and a dozen loadings.

[MaterDei]

How would you anneal the case mouth? With a torch?

[Mike Irwin]

You set the case in a pan of water, heat it until it's dull read, and then tip it into the water to quench it.

[MaterDei]

For real???

You wouldn't be sending me to search for a can of squelch or a box of grid squares, would you? :scrutiny:

[larryw]

Yep, nickle sure looks purdy, but I don't like to load it. Some of my diminishing supply of commercial pistol ammo uses nickle plated +P Starline cases. In the past I figured to get a couple reloads out of these, but lately I've seen cases split after the first firing (new!!), so I don't even bother with it any more. Brass is cheap, guns and body parts aren't.

Is there enough neck on a 45 case to anneal without softening the head? I've done it with rifle cases, but never a short-squat pistol case. Do you put the case on a platform while heating so it fully submerges when knocked over?

[Mike Irwin]

Go to Google and plug in these three search terms


anneal case mouth



You'll have about 1000 references to help you decide whether I'm pulling your leg or not. :)

[Hutch]

Mater Dei, Mike speaketh sooth. The straight skinny. Honto desu. if you look at real US milspec rifle ammo, you'll see the annealing discoloration on he top third of the case. Personally, I don't think it's worth the time or effort, unless you're workiing with some exotic, hard-to-find cases.

[liontech]

I agree with Hutch- not worth the time or effort. I've used the same brass for 15 years and, up to a few years ago, shot 200-300 rounds a weekend. My brass probably looks like 444s- can't read the headstamp.

[444]

Well, for some reason, I have to anneal the cases in .22-250. If I don't, they won't hold a bullet after two loadings. I don't know why, but I assume it is the condition of the chamber. I can neck size and on the second loading the bullet just falls into the powder.