Why "6" brass reloads?

[Munny$hot]

To stay problem free I case gauge everything, do a good visual inspection after loading and tap the head at an angle against a hard surface to see if I can unseat the primer.

[ChrisToad]

I lose my semi-auto brass at the range before I could ever dream of loading it 4-6 times...

[huckberry668]

this is a topic you're going to get a lot of different experiences and opinions on. here is my experience.

Pistol brass in general can be reloaded many more times than 6. Glocked brass are problematic but not all Glocks do that. I believe this is a defect in the barrel and it's the single most compelling reason for my dislike of Glocks nowadays. I'd chuck those when I find them. I believe the over stretching of the case head area weakens the brass and next time it may not hold the pressure. And the 'donut'ed' case head causes reliability problems.

I'm more concerned with the straight wall case rim's health for reliability reasons. Extracted too many times causes rim damage. bad rim can mean feed & extraction problems. Primer pocket gets loose with higher pressure loads but that's mostly rare in pistol cases.

Rifle brass is more complicated. the bottle neck shape has much more room to stretch during resizing and 'work harden'.

During resizing, you're really stretching the brass into shape. the brass mass doesn't change. so if it stretches, it means somewhere is getting thinned. The case head area not supported by chamber gets stretched thin. which is why 'case head separation' and loose primer pocket. both situations can cause hot gas and/or debris or a flier at the least.

here is 1 factor most shooters don't see, chamber quality. the more room a chamber allows the brass to expand length & OD wise, the more stretching of the brass during resizing. the more full length sizing you do the less brass life you'll get.

I've see chambers large enough to cause case head separation with 2 firing of new brass. this is also why a 'match chamber' and neck sizing would allow for longer brass life.

My FN A3G, Savage 10FP have less than .001" head-space tolerance and the diameter of the chamber is at a minimum. The brass i use in them are loaded more than 10 times without problem signs (mostly neck-sized).

My old Ruger M77 30-06 would start to cause case head separation after 5 reloads of the same fire formed neck size brass.

work harden - brass gets brittle the more it's pressured during firing and sizing. you'll see split case mouth, case rupture when this happens. which is why some reloaders 'anneal' their rifle brass to normalize the neck tension and extend brass life. work harden can happen to both straight wall and bottle neck cases.

there is not a hard and fast rule how many times a brass case can be loaded but we know its life span is finite. If you reload, pay attention and learn to watch for pressure signs, brass fatigue signs for safety.

[Sunday]

The life of reloaded brass depends upon how hot the load is ,the quality of the brass and the resizing of the brass.

[Dutch Henry]

For bottleneck rifle cases, I've used the rule that after four case trimmings, cases are disposed of. Seems to work for me and with the cost of brass, why push your luck?

[Oceanbob]

I have some .45ACP brass that's been reloaded so many times the headstamp is gone.

This....^^^^

On the other hand when I reload hot 10MM, I keep good notes and I sort the brass by groups based on how many times they have been fired.

I get up to about 8 on Hot 10MM....depending on if I run it in my GLOCK barrel (which has about 8 thousanths more expansion and therefore puts more stress on the case because I have to resize these fat cases full size down to normal size).

Or my aftermarket barrel which is tighter and doesn't take much to resize them back to normal. Less stress, less fatigue on my Starline brass.

I keep good notes and have them in marked boxes.

A big area of wear is actually the rim gets cut up by the extractor and after several loadings I end up chucking the case. Not worth any problems.

[Cowboy T]

This *6 is all" may come from something out of Lyman's 49th, page 50. They say that for typical rimless cartridges, a good case life is about 8 firings. For max loads, it's more like 5. Belted magnums might get two or three, with rimmed cartridges (e. g. 7.62x54R, .30-30) seeing somewhere in between belted and rimless.

My guess is that someone came up with the number "6" as an attempt to somehow "average" all these possibilities.

.38 Special cases will very often last well over 20 firings (yes, I've done this, and those cases are still goin' strong). Remember that the .38 Spl round is a pretty low-pressure round. Same for .45 ACP. Now, .357 Magnum loads will reduce that case life.

[Kappy]

I reload mine without worrying... I just keep going until I see a problem... a light ring, a split in the neck... etc.

[the86d]

At the range the last time I went, I heard "a regular" that is usually there on the same day I am, talking about how he would not reload the cases from that batch anymore.

I queried him for more info, and asked to look at the brass he was not going to reload.

It had a definite ring toward the base of the case that looked... defiantly thinner than I would reload. I mentioned that I was planning on only reloading 6 times per recommendations posted here I have read multiple times. He said that he knows people that have reloaded .223 20-24 times before not trusting brass for another reload. I asked him if it damages your chamber if you have a case-head separation during firing, and he said that the only real issue is that if you don't have a broken shell extractor, your rifle would be out of service for the remainder of your range session, until you got home to pull it out.

I am going to go with what he said... I have reloaded with Varget all the way to the top of the case (~27 grains), and compressed the load with no overpressure signs on the #41s that I could see. The "ring of resizing" doesn't look bad at all yet (like it is getting thin), after like 6-7 reloads, so I will keep the once-fired collecting until I need them. I have a broken-shell extractor...

I have heard of resizing 9mm brass, but I have not seen the need, even after 10 reloads, and a co-worker never has resized his in the 10 years he has been reloading straight-walled pistol brass. He just chucks split-cases, and the any that "look unsafe".

My straight-walled pistol brass does not seem to have issues... yet with Unique and punchy loads.

I need to get a nut-wizard...

[JNunez23]

Great info fellas!!!

[ar15barrels]

I need to get a nut-wizard...

I have nut wizards in Los Angeles if you are local...

[Kappy]

I have nut wizards in Los Angeles if you are local...

I bet all you LA guys are nut wizards.

Sorry. Had to. I don't even know what a nut wizard is.


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[CalTeacher]

I have heard of resizing 9mm brass, but I have not seen the need, even after 10 reloads, and a co-worker never has resized his in the 10 years he has been reloading straight-walled pistol brass. He just chucks split-cases, and the any that "look unsafe".

Am I reading this correctly? You don't see the need for resizing 9mm brass?

[Kappy]

Am I reading this correctly? You don't see the need for resizing 9mm brass?

I suspect he meant trimming, not resizing. I've never trimmed pistol brass.


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[ar15barrels]

I don't even know what a nut wizard is.

A rolling basket with a broom handle designed for harvesting nuts from the ground.
They also work great for picking up brass.