Once fired brass

[entropy]

I bought 500 USGI surplus .38 Spl. brass at a gun show over 30 years ago. I still have some, I stopped counting how many loads through them.

 

[Eddietruett]

I remember reading an article from a guy who wanted to see how long .38 special brass would last, so he took one case and just loaded and fired it over and over until it split.
I forget the exact number but it was well over 100 times before it did.

Now he wasn't hot rodding anything, just a standard target load.

That does not surprise me one bit. I have so much brass on hand, I generally toss one when the primer does not feel snug when seating. I mark these with a sharpie and toss them after shooting it that final time. Since I have gone to using Federal Primers only, I think the primer pockets do tend to last a little longer. Maybe its because the Federal primers are a little softer, or it could just be my imagination, but certainly the hotter the load, the shorter the case life. I get a lot more loads out of .38 brass than I do .357 brass.

 

[Eddietruett]

When your primer pocket becomes loose, you can use metric primers like Fiocchi SP with slightly larger cups to extend the life of your brass.

I've heard that before somewhere, but I've got so much brass on hand, I don't mind tossing a few here and there. Also, because some of my revolvers have very light actions, I've gone to Federal Primers exclusively. CCI and S&B won't shoot in some of my guns. Winchester for the most part will, but Federal always works. A few years ago, they were sort of hard to find, so I went on a buying spree whenever I could find any and I think I still have around 25-30k SP left. That's when I started using magnum primers for all of my loads no matter what the powder. Magnum primers were easier to find and after some testing, I find they work better with slow burning powder as we all know, but on fast burning powder such as Bullseye I can't tell the difference, but I am not loading any fast burning stuff to max.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

I generally toss one when the primer does not feel snug when seating. I mark these with a sharpie and toss them after shooting it that final time.

I do the same if it is noticeably loose.
I usually take a pair of pliers and crush the case where it's not possible to load, then toss in the scrap bucket.