Reloadable brass

[goarmy]

Looking for an opinion...........

How many times would you folks recommend reloadingbrass? Other than the OBVIOUS signs of wear (cracked casings, metal fatigue @ case head). I am reloading a mid range velocity 30-06 pet load, and don't dabble with excessive pressure hot loads.

Thx guys

[ColoradoElk]

Hi Go.

Thecases I carry for big game hunting are reloaded once (2 firings), and then they goto the "practice cans" for each caliber. The practice cans and my varmint cases (.204 & .223) are reloadeduntil they are visibly damaged.

Good luck.
CE

[HighDesertWolf]

I cycle my brass in 50 shell lots, Ill load 50 at a time with once fired brass after they are shot I throw them in a marked bin noted as twice fired, then ill load up another 50 of once fired brass. you get the idea. then once all the brass is twice fired Ill check them for length and trim as needed I repeat this cycle untill the brass has been trimmed 4 times because afte 4 trimmings i feel theres not enough brass in the neck to keep good tension on the bullets. If the brass looked real ratty ill toss them out or if they still look good I throw them in marked bin as plinking brass which ill load for plinking and not worry about picking them up after they are fired. my pistol brass on the other hand i load them light enough that they really dont stretch and i can load them 20 to 30 times depending on the brand.after awhile they start to develope cracks and look ratty then ill load them up once more and use them as plinking ammo and not pick them up after firing.

[vangunsmith]

Personally,i reload them no more than 10 times. vangunsmith

[gorse]

This will all depend on how hot your chosen load happens to be. You said a "mid-range" .30/06 load, so I expect that you will see some case stretching (trim every 3-4 firings ?). If you are only shooting one particular rifle with these loads, you can neck-size only, after "fireforming" new brass...and never have to full-length resize again. This will greatly prolong the life of your cases. It's impossible to say HOW many firings you will get, but it is not inconceivable to get 10-15 firings out of a fairly mildly-loaded, bottleneck rifle case. Sometimes, you could get more than 15 firings.

I shoot an 8mm Mauser, for which I reload. I use a rather mild load, well below the maximum. This load happens to work very well for me (quite accurate and plenty of power for the relatively short-range hunting I do). With this load, I have 8 firings on some cases, 9 on others, with no sign of problems. I do as I outlined above - "fireform" on the first firing (after full-length resizing & trimming the new cases, to be sure they are uniform). I do not use a reduced charge for this, though. Thereafter, I neck-size only. I have only had to trim my current cases (two batches of 50 each) ONCE, so far. Who knows, I may get 15 or more firings from these. I will probably discard them at 15 firings (if not before) though - for safety.

But, you see, much depends on the exact characteristics of your load. As well, some rifles (with "loose" chambers), can be harder on brass, than others. It's really very, very difficult to predict.

[Vapodog]

ORIGINAL: ColoradoElk

Hi Go.

Thecases I carry for big game hunting are reloaded once (2 firings), and then they goto the "practice cans" for each caliber. The practice cans and my varmint cases (.204 & .223) are reloadeduntil they are visibly damaged.

Good luck.
CE

This reply deserves repeating.