mongoose33
Member
I've been doing a long-term experiment w/ the RCBS X-Die in .223, seeing how many reloads I can get from one set of brass.
Short answer: 10-12. I lost a couple along the way, but 10-12 is what I feel I can expect.
At 10 reloads, I started losing a few cases to neck splits. I did a little annealing of the remaining cases--using the "hold the neck in the torch flame until it gets too hot to hold, then drop in water" method--and while that worked in allowing all 10x fired cases to make it to 11, they didn't last long after that. After 12x reloaded w/ the X-die, I lost half the remaining cases to neck splits or what was clearly going to be a neck split the next time I resized them. (small hole in the neck discernable by holding it up to a light).
I will do another long-term experiment with the X-Die using the Hornady annealing system which I'd expect would get me a bit more life from the cases.
What's the verdict? The X-die does what it's supposed to do. It controls the growth of case length upon resizing, and it allowed me to get into double-digit reloads w/ one case.
I'll probably just expect to get 10 reloads from a batch of brass. It might depend on the brand as to how well it does--the ones in my experiment were all R-P headstamps.
Short answer: 10-12. I lost a couple along the way, but 10-12 is what I feel I can expect.
At 10 reloads, I started losing a few cases to neck splits. I did a little annealing of the remaining cases--using the "hold the neck in the torch flame until it gets too hot to hold, then drop in water" method--and while that worked in allowing all 10x fired cases to make it to 11, they didn't last long after that. After 12x reloaded w/ the X-die, I lost half the remaining cases to neck splits or what was clearly going to be a neck split the next time I resized them. (small hole in the neck discernable by holding it up to a light).
I will do another long-term experiment with the X-Die using the Hornady annealing system which I'd expect would get me a bit more life from the cases.
What's the verdict? The X-die does what it's supposed to do. It controls the growth of case length upon resizing, and it allowed me to get into double-digit reloads w/ one case.
I'll probably just expect to get 10 reloads from a batch of brass. It might depend on the brand as to how well it does--the ones in my experiment were all R-P headstamps.
