Signs of Stress

Count extractor marks on brass?

I generally loose my pistol brass before I have any problems with neck splits loose primer pockets etc. If you have to run that 40 brass through a bulge buster each time I would just count it as being all worse case number. Otherwise shoot it until it fails. Rifle brass you do need to keep track and check for case head separation at a minimum

I used to religiously track brass by lot of 100 and toss it when 5 cases had split necks. Fast forward to brass shortage, I found that handgun brass failure has not presented a major problem when it happens which is fairly regularly. More of a nuisance but less of a nuisance than having no brass.

After many years, most issues I’ve had with split handgun cases have been nickel plated .357 and well used full pressure .44 Magnum cases. Also, too much case belling can weaken case mouths causing split case mouths.
.223/5.56 cases get loose primer pockets after a while.

JDTomba said:

I mistakenly mixed a batch of once fired brass with my twice and 3 times reloaded brass in 40 S&W. Need to separate of eliminate some before reloading again. Thanx

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I have no idea how many times which brass has been fired how many times in my batches. I look for failures, discard that piece of brass and continue on.

Targa said:

I have no idea how many times which brass has been fired how many times in my batches. I look for failures, discard that piece of brass and continue on.

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Exactly. Fired once, or ten times, the inspection criteria remains the same

Shoot 'um till they split and keep loading the rest! I've done it all my life without any problems!

Milt1 said:

Shoot 'um till they split and keep loading the rest! I've done it all my life without any problems!

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^^^^^^ this is what I have done my 45 acp and .357 I've reloaded up to 9 times without an issue.

JDTomba said:

What are the best indicators of reloaded pistol brass stress. I mistakenly mixed a batch of once fired brass with my twice and 3 times reloaded brass in 40 S&W. Need to seperate of eliminate some before reloading again. Thanx

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I've loaded 9mm pistol brass over and over again until the headstamps start to fade. You will far more likely lose it before it breaks. However, every time I load, no matter what the caliber, I run a fingernail around the case mouth to see if my nail catches in a crack. If it catches, it gets recycled.

This is a very interesting test on the lifetime of 45 ACP brass

How many times can I reload 45 ACP brass?

My nickled cases have been lasting longer than his

Cartridge Case Longevity

I really really wanted to keep my 9/40/45’s separated by “times reloaded” but that lasted exactly 1.04 range trips. If you add in picking up range brass, I never came up with a easy and reliable way of keeping everything separated.
I don’t hand inspect every case, but I do pay attention in the progressive and gauge every round on exit. Good luck.

I've been shooting the same pistol brass since 1985. I've had very few splits. If I happen to find a range pickup with the same headstamp, I add it to the rotation, but I don't need to add any more. Bottom line is my pistol brass has many, many varied firings and it makes no difference in performance. I can still keep them inside a 1" dot at 15 yards and I don't need to shoot any better than that.

Cemetery21 said:

I've been shooting the same pistol brass since 1985. I've had very few splits. If I happen to find a range pickup with the same headstamp, I add it to the rotation, but I don't need to add any more. Bottom line is my pistol brass has many, many varied firings and it makes no difference in performance. I can still keep them inside a 1" dot at 15 yards and I don't need to shoot any better than that.

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My level of shooting, can't tell the difference in pistol brass. I shoot next to Bullseye shooters who shoot same headstamp, probably same times sized, but these guys have OCD. I have shot next to outstanding Bullseye shooters who just loaded and shot them, mixed headstamp, and unknown times reloaded.

I am quite sure it makes a difference past 600 yards in a rifle, but I have shot some outstanding groups out to 600 yards with mystery brass. Virtually nothing makes much of a difference at 300 yards in terms of case preparation and bench rest practices. Except for, bench rest shooters.

Walkalong said:

Nothing to worry about, assuming safe loads.

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My personal experience is, straight wall pistol brass will split when it’s loaded, and you’ll notice it or it will split when fired and you’ll notice it. Either way I’ve never found it a complication. It may however have an effect on accuracy on the shot that splits ?? Note I’m referring to 38, 44 and 45Colt. I’ve never had a 45ACP or 9mm split. I don’t shoot 380 or 40 enough to know.

JDTomba said:

What are the best indicators of reloaded pistol brass stress.

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In reality, as others have mentioned, case splits or enlarged primer pockets are your normal indicators of when a piece of pistol brass needs retirement. I have had bad (or, perhaps, 'not so good'...) lots of brass, they started splitting after 2 or 3 midrange loads (.38SPC,) so I junked the entire lot and started over (with a different brand, this time.)

I keep my brass segregated by headstamp, but that's it. I have no idea how many times my .45ACP brass has been loaded...

Segregation of brass by times fired and or head stamp is,IMO, practical for hunting or competition shooting. A complete waste of time otherwise. One already spends more time cleaning and reloading than actually shooting and as all my shooting on twice weekly range trips amounts to several hundred rounds it’s just not practical except in revolver shooting where the spent case is reboxed , even then several hundred are pied for cleaning in a tumbler. So I shoot, clean, reload and if nothing better to do box by head stamp. But that’s just me and it’s all target shooting loads no max stuff.

My bucket of 45 ACP brass has head stamps spanning late 1940's to current. My 38 Special probably goes back to late 1930's (I have a heap of original Peters head stamps in the mix) It all goes into the case feeder and through the machine. I throw them out when the primer falls out or if they are split. With pistol brass I have never found it worth keeping brass lots separate.

FROGO207 said:

I generally loose my pistol brass before I have any problems with neck splits loose primer pockets etc. If you have to run that 40 brass through a bulge buster each time I would just count it as being all worse case number. Otherwise shoot it until it fails. Rifle brass you do need to keep track and check for case head separation at a minimum

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If counting a batch as the highest possible number of firigs, it's a good idea to keep the container and dump container labeled thus. If 10th firing makes them unsafe to fire, but you have 20% loaded only 7 times, then it may give you a false sense of confidence in that brass that may lead to trusting it beyond the safe point down the road. That is, if you don't remember combining them.
I have had to separate them before. Got a magnifying glass with a ring light. Like has been said, I just pick a spot on the case head (like the 4 in 40) and rotate it around counting ejector marks or extractor marks if they're visible. Use a marker if needed, but 3 fires is easier than 8 to count for sure. This is how I learned to just use as many boxes as I need, lol.

armoredman said:

I've loaded 9mm pistol brass over and over again until the headstamps start to fade. You will far more likely lose it before it breaks. However, every time I load, no matter what the caliber, I run a fingernail around the case mouth to see if my nail catches in a crack. If it catches, it gets recycled.

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i have actually trimmed the crack out of some. Should have put that in a control group, I have no idea where they went.

mcb said:

I throw them out when the primer falls out or if they are split. With pistol brass I have never found it worth keep brass lots separate.

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Every once in a while I will get bored and separate pistol brass by headstamp. It's like doing a sudoku, word search, crossword, or jigsaw puzzle - a fun time-waster to keep my hands and mind occupied. Is it nice every once in a while to make a box of all Winchester, Federal, R-P or *--*? Yeah, I guess. But mostly its just something to do on rainy days.

Unless your brass is "done" after 5 firings - which makes me wonder what the heck you're doing wrong - shoot it until the primer pockets are V-shaped and the necks look like Granma Mummy's.

Interestingly the plated brass I use (mostly 38 SPL) does last longer than the test in the link above. Also some split in the center of the brass leaving the necks intact. At first I thought I had some bad chambers but never found any. Still the bad brass may have come from a firearm used at the range that had a bad cylinder/chambers prior to my picking it up from the ground. FWIW I have some 38 SPL brass that has the plating worn off everywhere but in the headstamp and it is peened so much there is hardly anything to read. Estimate 100 plus reloads over the years anyway.

GeoDudeFlorida said:

Every once in a while I will get bored and separate pistol brass by headstamp. It's like doing a sudoku, word search, crossword, or jigsaw puzzle - a fun time-waster to keep my hands and mind occupied. Is it nice every once in a while to make a box of all Winchester, Federal, R-P or *--*? Yeah, I guess. But mostly its just something to do on rainy days.

Unless your brass is "done" after 5 firings - which makes me wonder what the heck you're doing wrong - shoot it until the primer pockets are V-shaped and the necks look like Granma Mummy's.

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*--* is starline. good stuff. Yeah, to prioritze sorting by firings is kinda wasteful of one's time. I used up a month of free time not long ago feeling like I had to with 45ACP and now I'm catching each sub batch up to the same number of firings. This just makes range time a chore. If anyone reads this ten years from now, just keep each box of empties together and never have to contemplate whether or not you need to just bc Lyman said so. Now I'm commited and behind on loading.

GeoDudeFlorida said:

Every once in a while I will get bored and separate pistol brass by headstamp. It's like doing a sudoku, word search, crossword, or jigsaw puzzle - a fun time-waster to keep my hands and mind occupied. Is it nice every once in a while to make a box of all Winchester, Federal, R-P or *--*? Yeah, I guess. But mostly its just something to do on rainy days.

Unless your brass is "done" after 5 firings - which makes me wonder what the heck you're doing wrong - shoot it until the primer pockets are V-shaped and the necks look like Granma Mummy's.

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I have done likewise with my 44 Mag that does not get shot as much as other pistols I reload for so I will often sort it by head stamp. But it gets loaded in much smaller batches of 50-100 rds

With rifle brass I do sort by head stamp and with my precision rifle I sort by head-stamp and brass lot. But for high volume blasting/competition (USPSA and similar) ammo it all gets mixed together.