How many times can I reuse brass

[Vanilla Gorilla]

How many times can I safely reuse my old brass?
Just looking for a general rule of thumb number

[bjl333]

It all depends on what kind of loads you use. If you load to the edge everytime then shorter. There is no real "number" to go by. In rifle you could trim and anneal the brass. In pistols the gun itself can limit how many reloads you can get. A Glock 45 will have a buldge in the brass and its not recommanded to reload those.

If you load a light 38 special load, you could probably load it 20+ times. the lip of the brass is the first to split. I would not recommand you load a rifle round more then a couple of times without having a seasoned loader teaching you what to do afterwards.

[HighLander51]

Depends on the caliber and load. High pressure rounds such as 40S&W usually have a much shorter life than low pressure rounds such as .45acp. Loading any caliber to maximum pressures will also shorten the life. You can load .45acp in Glocks pretty much over and over at the published loads. If the cases are bulging your load is a little warm. I ran well over 100,000 .45acp lead loads thru a G21 in competition and used the same cases multiple times.

[GunsForSale.com]

As the others have said, pressure of the round and gun type have a big influence. I've reloaded a lot of .38 Special. With once-fired brass, I can generally get about 8-10 reloads out of them before experiencing case mouth splits. That's using a mild to medium load with 158 gr LSWC.

[ireload]

As others have stated it depends on how "hot" your load. For my .223 load shot out of my Colt AR, I'm on my 8th loading. But I load them "meduim". For my handguns I would say +15 so far.

At times it not only depends on how many times you load or how "hot" you load but the type of firearm you fire it from. My Chicom SKS when brass is used, on the 5th firing of the brass I start getting split neck due to oversized chamber.

[gau17]

Another factor on brass life is how much the brass gets worked. Are you full sizing, Neck sizing only, or how far the shoulders get bumped back after each firing. You can get more life out of riffle brass by annealing, but that's another subject.

No real way to tell when they will fail. Just inspect them for cracks each time.

[PoofNoEyebrows]

Without reiterating what everyone else has already said, just keep it simple. Inspect your brass before loading (I do it after I decap and size). If it looks good and there are no cracks or splits and the primer seats tight load it. If you are playing around with some really hot stuff and want to play it safe just use it a few times and discard.

[Chief-7700]

As stated above. Until they split or you lose them.

[WTSGDYBBR]

If were talking about a 45acp it could be loaded over 5 times with no issue. It depends on how hot you load the brass that's a fact. You should inspect all your brass for cracks non normal ware. Dents don't matter to much's but if the brass is deformed or looks like a rat chewed on it trash it.

[J-cat]

I recently reloaded two 9mm cases 26 and 30 times each in a single sitting. The 26x one started leaking gas through the factory crimp ring (the one they place at the base of the bullet- looks like a cannelure). The 30x one is still good. The 26x one used a mild load of 5.3grs of HS-6 under a 124. The 30x one used a relatively hot load of 3.6grs of 231 under a 147.

Usem 'till you loosem.

[Jonathan Doe]

I lost a track of how many times I reloaded pistol cartridge cases. My 38 SPL and 45 Auto cases last very long time, since I loaded with mild load. For my 308 Win cartridge cases, I loaded 6 - 7 times. It is still fine, but I have plenty of 308 brass and I don't want to deal with any issues later. 6 - 7 times is plenty for me.

[Vanilla Gorilla]

Thanks for the good advice I have just recently got into reloading and right now I am loading for my .45 and .223 I am just doing light loads for cheep fun at the range nothing too crazy

[knucklehead0202]

nickel brass splits long before brass brass. but with basic plinker loads, again, depending on what you're loading, you can go a long time on some stuff. certain brands of brass are also longer-lasting than others. just experiment, if they start looking beat up, toss 'em and get more.

[Fjold]

I replace straight walled pistol brass as I lose it at the range.

[Spdjunkie]

ALL IMHO:

PISTOL BRASS: Split or Lost = Toss
- You'll lose more shooting than splits.

RIFLE BRASS: ___ x ___ = Trash. . . Basically, too many factors.

Example: "YMMV"
- FGMM .308 Brass = Till it wont hold primers, 5-8 loads depending on your load.
- Lapua/Lake City = 15-25 depends on your load.

Rifle Brass: NOT all brass is created equally.