Brass, how many reloads?
- Thread starter wildfowler.250
- Start date
Hunter300
Well-Known Member
Do you aneal?
Just keep trimming and don’t part neck size with a full-length die as such will lead to premature failure and an ugly belt-like neck ring.
As a certain member has none too diplomatically pointed out, learn from the experience that will only come from lowering the press ram on your reloads and shooting them.
K
As a certain member has none too diplomatically pointed out, learn from the experience that will only come from lowering the press ram on your reloads and shooting them.
K
Just keep trimming and don’t part neck size with a full-length die as such will lead to premature failure and an ugly belt-like neck ring.
As a certain member has none too diplomatically pointed out, learn from experience and purchase a reloading manual.
K
As a certain member has none too diplomatically pointed out, learn from experience and purchase a reloading manual.
K
ChesterP
Well-Known Member
Agreed. Case prep is one of the most important stages (along with determining headspace) of the reloading process and a load manual makes essential reading when starting out. There's several which can help including Lee 2nd Edition, Lyman and the classic "ABC of reloading"
Not sure if it has been mentioned, but if you ever get a 'clicker' (sound made by the brass when the primary extraction cam has to engage fully to lever the case out of the chamber), that piece of brass is toast, forever, and no amount of annealing will bring it back as the total elastic limit of the brass has been exceeded.
wildfowler.250
Well-Known Member
Cheers guys! Apologies I didn’t realize this thread was still ticking away.
I don’t currently anneal but I’ll look into it. At the end of the day, if I full length Norma brass 3 times from new and then buy a new box it’s not the complete end of the world if I’m £100 for some new stuff,(not far off 1 or 2 refills of fuel these days days anyway…).
I’ll check out the ABC book. The Sierra manual is so so. To be honest I find it more helpful for loading specs than protocol info
I don’t currently anneal but I’ll look into it. At the end of the day, if I full length Norma brass 3 times from new and then buy a new box it’s not the complete end of the world if I’m £100 for some new stuff,(not far off 1 or 2 refills of fuel these days days anyway…).
I’ll check out the ABC book. The Sierra manual is so so. To be honest I find it more helpful for loading specs than protocol info
ChesterP
Well-Known Member
The most useful one with imho the best researched data is the Lee 2nd Edition. Now should be widely available on the used market in hardback. Sierra are more about the powders and loads for their bullets but the data that they do have is pretty decent on loads.
wildfowler.250
Well-Known Member
Thanks!
Ive had the thread running on separated case in my die, Ive been shown that with abore snake you can actualy see in side the case and see the fault forming in the case as a ring around the inside middle. Brouht one on amazon £73, from now on Ill check the inside for signs of movement before resizing as well as visual checks. Some of my lapua cases were 308, 8 or 10 fireing and resized to 7/08 and had 2more. Yet its the newer case that split!
ChesterP
Well-Known Member
I use something similar. As soon as the case starts developing a waist above the head, it can be felt. Cases have to be pretty clean internally for the average amazon borescope to see anything. I'd trust the bent wire, and the tell tale signs externally of the "doughnut" ring forming more. By that stage, cases have had one too many reloads and the batch ought to be dumped. 10 reloads is all I'd keep most cases for unless they measured and looked ok. I work on 3 to 4 reloads for 223PPU, never more and sometimes less! Possibly twice that for .308 PPU but into double figures for .308 in Lapua; Small primer brass for the Creedmoor I'm still reloading my original batch of 200 cases which are up to 7 firings and looking good (Lapua). Lapua and Sako brass tend to give more reloads and are a better quality brass but there's cheaper alternatives which are good too such as Peterson. All cases are FL sized and annealed.
Foxyboy43
Well-Known Member
Yep indeed to all of the above though as someone who is not a big bang fan I usually get quite a few reloads out of all my brass.
This. Cheaper still is a bent and sharpened paperclip.Presume you mean a borescope?
A piece of wiper blade metal stiffener bent and sharpened - cheaper and just as effective!
View attachment 261588
I use Norma brass too, and would be surprised if it wasn't good for at least 5 uses (for stalking purposes) without annealing in those cartridges. I have some that has done 6 or 7 with no discernible ill effect, although in 6.5x54.
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