How many times can I reload .30-06 brass?

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Micha2u

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I've got some .30-06 brass that I've loaded 18 times and I'm wondering if I should retire it or of it is still safe to keep reloading. I'm loading a fairly stout load of 165 gr. Hornady SST bullets over 57.5 gr. of IMR-4350.

These have been always fired in a bolt action and only bump resized so I have not overly worked the brass during resizing. I've pretty much done the works to this brass with flash hole deburring, primer pocket uniforming, trimming, outside case neck turning, neck annealing, etc. They produce good tight groups, still have tight primer pockets and have no signs of neck splitting or any other visible issues.

The number of reloads is getting up there and I'm wondering if discretion is the better part of valor and I should retire this lot of brass and start with some new cases. What are your experiences and/or thoughts on this?
 
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I'd say, as long as you still have tight pockets, no neck splitting, no "valleys" forming on the inside of the case in the webbing, I'd say you're still good to go.

I anneal mine every other firing or every 3 firings depending on what my rounds are intended for.

What brass is it? I know Lapua you can get a good number of loadings from
 
Until they split.

You may want to check them for Incipient Case Head separation before they actually do separate.
 
I just edited my original thread to include annealing to what I have done to these. These are Remingtom-Peters brass and not "high end" brass like Nosler or Lapua. Maybe I should cut one in half lengthwise to see what I can see.
 
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IMNHO, shoot them to failure! 18 reloads is a marvelous record! :) No enlarged primer pockets, splitting, blown cases, or incipient head separation? Wow! You have found "the" load for that rifle!:) You are good to go! Like was mentioned, a paper clip, bent 90 degrees at the tip so it will fit into the case neck, (I sharpen mine) and rubbed lightly up and down, will discover if you have the thinning ring near the base. If you see a bright ring around the case outside, and/or feel that, section one and see what's what.
I wonder what my Winchester 257 Roberts brass will do? Gonna "shoot" for 18! :D
 
Depends on the brass, how it's resized and what pressures your loading it too. I've got some Winchester cases into their 20s when it comes to loading but they're used strictly for cast boolits at about 1,600 fps.

High pressure rounds that are always full length resized (Norma or Lapua) I'm good with 5 or 6 firings and then they go into the scrap bucket. I see no reason to go farther, the cases are like powder ... expendable. Buying brass is like buying golf balls, just a cost of "doing business".
 
FOLLOW UP:

As suggested, I made a paper clip incipient case head separation tester that was sharpened and bent 90 degrees at the tip so it fit into the case neck. Most of the cases felt fine but a few might have been questionable as to whether I was feeling a valley or not. I took the "worst" feeling one and cut it in half (which was not an easy task the way I did it). It was ugly but showed me that there was no thinning of any consequence by the case head.

I've got more .30-06 brass and even though it looks like I could load these a few more times, I may retire them anyway. Lots of good memories with those cases on deer, some long shots, small target groups, etc.
 
I've honestly never counted my reloads no matter what caliber we're talking about. I carefully inspect my brass after tumbling and I do use a paper clip or other stiff wire to check for impending case head separation.

Other than that, I shoot it until it splits.

I've only had about 3-5 .30-06 cases split and that is the rifle cartridge I've loaded the most of. This is merely a guess but I would imagine they had at lease 10 loadings that I loaded (and I probably bought them once fired or picked them up at the range).

If you don't overwork the brass, it will last longer than many think.
When I get out of the apartment and get a shop again, I'm going to look into annealing to further increase the case life.
 
I only get 5-6 and toss the batch when 1 develops a problem with any case in that batch...not worth having a failure while shooting.

Of course, they get a lot of abuse as they're all fired out of a Garand.
 
I only get 5-6 and toss the batch when 1 develops a problem with any case in that batch...not worth having a failure while shooting.

Of course, they get a lot of abuse as they're all fired out of a Garand
Click to expand...


That's about what I get from my Garand. After that, they're scrap.
 
Not sure, but I don't think split rifle cases would be as forgiving to the shooter as straight wall pistol cases, which I too shoot until they split. Jmho
 
I would (and do) shoot my handgun cases until they start to show signs of splitting but with a full pressure round in a .30-06, I'm prone to be a little more cautious.

These 18 times reloaded cases of mine will be retired.
 
New cases neck split, it's just part of it. What would the difference be between a factory ammo case neck split and a reloaded neck case split?

All the neck splits I've had, have just been a tiny tiny tiny split
 
57.5 gr. of IMR4350 isn't terribly hot(56.0 is minimum), but case life is entirely dependent on the load.
"...get 5-6 and toss the batch when 1 develops a problem..." Rich guys. snicker. You shoot 'em until you get one cracked case then you pitch that one and anneal the rest.
Out of an M1 Rifle or not makes no difference. If I was only getting 5 or 6 out of mine, I'd have had to buy new brass(or high priced factory) eons ago. Couldn't tell you how many times mine has gone through both or either my M1 Rifle or '03A4. Way more than 5 or 6.
 
As long as it's still holding up in all the spots that count, I keep loading it.

It sounds like your doing everything right, other wise that brass would have failed already.

GS
 
It also depends on how may cases you are talking about.? If it just a "handful" used for hunting then no major economic loss, in scraping them and starting with new ones,is not a big deal.

Even if they do split, as far as I know the chamber contains the pressure and you just get a poor round or velocity. I have only had some 357 Mag case split and you can hear the difference. sort of like a squib. I was chronographing at the time and could see the loss in velocity.

I had a 223 case separate in a AR 16 and it was no major deal, the next round stuck in it and actually pulled out the case body.

Bolt action guys can correct me if I am wrong on the chamber part as I never had a 223 or 308 split.
 
I have a bolt in each .223 and .308, and have had neck splits in both. Nothing major. Had to really look to see them during case inspection, but they were split nonetheless.
 
I reloaded 8mm brass so many times until I couldn't resize anymore. Brass was so hard it would not go in the size/decap die. I had a lot more so to the scrap can it went.
 
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