How many times can brass be reused?

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brockgl

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I am just starting to reload, and of course I will be keeping all of my brass and other people's brass as often as possible. However, I was wondering how many times a single brass casing can be safely reused and also be accurate? I am specifically asking about .30-06 cases, since that's what i am starting out reloading.
 
Depends upon several things: the make of brass you are using, the loads you are using, the rifle/chamber they are being fired in, and how you set up your case headspace in relation to your chamber.

Don
 
Can you give me a rough estimate? I know once I get better at reloading i will be able to understand all that stuff. But at the moment I am just looking for a ballpark. The brass I have has come from Remington Core Lokt .30-06 150gr. ammo I buy at Wal-Mart. I am going to try to reload them to function about the same as that ammo does at first because it is what I know and like. Also, I am shooting from a Remington 700 ADL bolt action. From that can you give me a rough estimate on how many times brass can be reused? I promise I won't hold you to it! :D
 
Examine your brass every time you load it and shoot it.

Sometimes once some times more than once.
 
"Can you give me a rough estimate?" OK. Between 5 and 25. Done correctly we can load it until it fails, usually a split neck which is harmless to all but accuracy.

The reasons are several. Most important are how well your chamber and die match in size, if they are close the brass will last much longer. If your die is made to minimum tolerance and your chamber is at max then the brass is worked pretty heavy each time. In this case, your brass will likely fail due to a split in the body which is usually safe but interesting. Smoke flies! Using neck sizers will extend the life of your brass because the body isn't being worked each time.

If your chamber is long and your FL die is short and you adjust your die to touch the shell holder each time and you load hot, your cases will stretch a lot each time and eventually seperate at the web. That's BAD NEWS! On the other hand, if you carefully adjust your size die to only set the shoulder back enough to barely allow the action to close on a reload then the brass will last much longer. And lighter loads will help too.

The most common case failures, for most of us, are split necks. Annealing (properly) can keep the necks safe almost indefinately but done wrong it can damage cases immediately. A Lee collet neck sizer die works the brass less than conventional neck sizers so case life is further improved with that die.

Now you can understand that anyone trying to sound like an authority by telling you the "average" case life is just blowing smoke, it depends on variables we can't appraise over the web.

It depends on your specific tools and rifle and the care you take in working more than anything else.
 
A useful tool I recommend is a paper clip bent at the end so that it can be used to feel the inside of the case for head separation. A dental pick works as well. Somewhere between the case web and about halfway up to the shoulder is where a ring of thinned metal begins to form in cases that have to stretch to fill the chamber they are shot in. It helps to have a case with this defect to learn what you are feeling for, but it's not rocket science.
A bolt gun using minimally sized cases and reasonable loads can make brass last a long time. (even 25 reloads [maybe]). I get about 5-8 re-loads out of my gas guns (5.56 and 30.06).
Case head separation is not something you want to happen in your gun. Consequences range from annoying to catastrophic.
 
I am on about my 12th reload of my 223s... Just look for problems...

Also cut a case in half lengthwise to see the inner ring that was referred to earlier... Then be like a mechanic and see with your hands and tools...
If its not a HOT charge brass can last a loooong time
 
Scrounge something like in the pic link to feel inside the case for the weak spot just in front of the case head. It is easy to feel when it starts developing.

Case Feeler Pic

It helps to work in a hospital. ;)
 
Don't hotrod your loads and you should have really good results in terms of longevity.

The factory anneal is sort of hit and miss. What I like is to resize the brass and before recapping press the empty into a pot of molten lead, up to a point just beyond the shoulder, holding the brass by the case head. As it gets hot enough to notice, remove it from the lead pot and put it in the annealed pile. Some like to drop it in water for a quick quench, you can try it either way. If you do something like this about every 4 loadings, and you don't reach for pressure limitations with your loads you can get very long case life. As the cartridge is fired a few times the case heads generally become very hard, which is a good thing for primer retention. What you don't want to do with your anneal is to soften the case heads. This is why I remove the brass from the lead as I feel the case head get hot with my finger and thumb.

Like the others said, it also helps if you either have a custom sizing die made for your chamber or set up your standard dies to approximate your headspace.

Hope this helps.
 
Signs brass is worn out:

1. Split necks.

2. Loose primer pockets.

3. Stretch forward of the web -- make a feeler gauge from a paper clip and scrape the wall of the case just forward of the web (where the solid base joins the case wall.) If you feel a groove there, your case is worn out.

Case life can be prolonged by:

1. Shooting lighter loads.

2. Neck resizing only (and especially with a die designed for that purpose)

3. Annealing the brass -- heating the neck and sometimes the shoulder area, then knocking it over into a pan of water.
 
over 50 times .308 Win using LEE Collet neck sitzer die. The gun has tight custom chamber.
 
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