Hey folks,
Light loads make a truly significant difference in both straight wall and bottlenecked cases. I use pretty mild loads in my shooting, and I have been reloading the same cases in 243, 30-40 Krag, 30-06, and 7.62X39 for many years. When I started with new brass, I would guess that I have loaded those calibers a lot more than a hundred times over the years. If loaded hot, those same cases may only last a few reloadings.
As far as shotshells go, I used to be able to reload the average shotshell a dozen times with a MEC single stage press. When I switched to a progressive press, the new press simply did not function well with cases that were not nearly perfect. Accordingly, I probably average five or six reloadings with my shotshells on the progressives.
Best wishes,
Dave Wile