Does 45 ACP Brass ever wear out?

[GMW]

I shoot 45 acp probably more than all my calibers put together. I am using brass that has more reloads than I can count. Will this brass last forever? My loads are around the 800fps range. I am starting to see some breech erosion on one of my pistols and now I am getting real paranoid. How many loadings do you get from your 45's?

[cabezaverde]

I have heard of guys running them until the headstamp is worn off.

[JohnFM]

Forever. Same way with 38SPL and 357.
I got some 357 brass I still use from at least 30 years ago.

[500MAG]

When they crack, I toss them. Other than that, those babies are back in action.

[geargnasher]

I use it until the rim gets chewed off from the extractor. It lasts just about forever.

Gear

[Hickory]

I can't say if they ever wear out,
I lose a lot in the grass and have to replace them.

[Shiloh]

I have heard of guys running them until the headstamp is worn off.

And beyond.

Same with .38 special brass. I have .38 brass that is as old or older than me, loaded many, many dozens of times. Low pressure, mild loads will make this stuff last and last.

Shiloh

[35remington]

If it has a cannelure rolled in the middle of the case, its life is a little more finite in my experience. Eventually I get a vertical crack in one of the cannelure indentations, especially if the cannelure was rolled deeply.

I only very rarely get any other issues, and mouth splits really don't happen very often for me either.

[fecmech]

I remember reading on the web somewhere of a couple of bullseye shooters picking up their brass after shooting. The one asked the other if a certain headstamp was his. The other replied," If you can read the headstamp it's not mine"!

[GMW]

When should I be concerned about gas blow by through the primer pocket? How can you tell if the primer pocket is worn out? My Les Baer TRS is showing two tiny pot marks around the firing pin. This pistol has about 4000 reloads shot through it and it would kill me to know that I am being too cheap to change out old brass and mark up my breech face.

[knifemaker]

You should be able to tell if the primer pocket is worn out by feeling little resistance when you are seating the primer. Using a progressive press makes it harder to feel this resistance, but there is a difference in when you encounter a inlarged primer pocket.

[quasi]

I have quite a bit of .45 acp brass that I bought new 20 or so years ago. You can't read the maker any more, and they still work fine.

[crabo]

They are gone when they split. That is one reason I tell my friends to buy a 45 acp. It is one of the cast friendliest calibers out there.

[Frank46]

I started shooting 45acp about 16 years ago. At the time most of my brass was range pickups.
Approximately 1200 cases. Do not know how many times they have been fired. Haven't had to chuck any yet. Cast 230 rn at 830fps and the brass is still going strong. Frank

[MtGun44]

I have some that the headstamp is nearly obliterated from the ejector hits. Eventually,
the brass cracks, but it takes a whole lot of reloading. .45 ACP is a great cartridge for
a lot of reasons, and this is one.

Bill

[fcvan]

I have only had a few .45 ACP cases fail over the past 25 years. The first brass I bought was stamped Midway and that stuff is still like new. Lika many here I have thousand of 'range pick up' brass that I shoot and shoot. some of it is military brass stamped 1942. Still good stuff. Frank

[L1A1Rocker]

When should I be concerned about gas blow by through the primer pocket? How can you tell if the primer pocket is worn out? My Les Baer TRS is showing two tiny pot marks around the firing pin. This pistol has about 4000 reloads shot through it and it would kill me to know that I am being too cheap to change out old brass and mark up my breech face.


Don't be concerned about it. I've had a few that would no longer hold a primer and tossed them. typically though, just set the mouth expansion to expand a little on the heavy side. If the case mouth splits toss it.

[DonH]

When should I be concerned about gas blow by through the primer pocket? How can you tell if the primer pocket is worn out? My Les Baer TRS is showing two tiny pot marks around the firing pin. This pistol has about 4000 reloads shot through it and it would kill me to know that I am being too cheap to change out old brass and mark up my breech face.

Case life depends largely on the load you are shooting; military ball equiv. or +P obviously will result in shorter case life than a midrange bullseye comp. load. I don't shoot the .45 ACP much anymore due to diminished vision but most of my many years with the round in the 1911 were spent in the bullseye category. I started with hand-me-down brass, shot it for years then came into a bucket of more hand-me-down stuff into which I dumped the last of the original stuff. some has visible headstamp, some not so much. I lose some but toss if a case loses neck or primer pocket tension or if the case splits. Headstamps are all over the map too. Rifle shooters would cringe but I cleaned many targets and scored 290s often enough on NRA course. A good shooter could likely have shot 300s with that junky brass!

[fredj338]

I have heard of guys running them until the headstamp is worn off.

Pretty much how I load them. Breech face erosion could be loose primer pockets, some brass are worse than others for this so mark the ones that offer little resistance when priming & toss em. I do get the occasional split case mouth, but pretty rare.

[dnotarianni]

I run them till they split. Some of my brass is pushing 30 years old. Only difference between 45 brass and shotgun hulls is I can still use a piece of tape on a shotgun hull with a split.

dave

[JohnFM]

Yup, when I was a kid I kept many an old paper hull in use with scotch tape. :)

[kir_kenix]

I'm still shooting some 45 acp brass that belonged to my grandfather, then my father, and finally me. I do experience a split neck from time to time, but otherwise they remain in service.

[mold maker]

I have some "70s" 45 brass that will outlast me. Of course I'm 70 also.

[paul h]

For handgun brass, the brass is gone with the case splits at the mouth. I've loaded some of my 480 cases over 20 times, and many of those loads are over 40,000 psi. Same with the 357 mag. Eventually the belling the crimping causes the brass to crack from fatigue failure, same deal as bending a paperclip back and forth. The key to long brass life is to bell the case just enough to get cast bullets to enter without shaving lead, and crimp them just enough to ensure reliable feeding. If you go overboard on belling and crimping cases will crack after on a few firings.

The only way to loosen up a primer pocket is to run a load over 70,000 psi, possible in a bolt gun, but you'll blow up a 45 and most revolvers before getting loads hot enough to loosen primer pockets.

[Huntducks]

I have and use brass that have head stamps LC 43.

When the primers fall out it's time to retire them.

[casterofboolits]

Till the case splits or the rim won't rotate in a RCBS or Lyman shell holder. Wish I had bought a Case Pro when they were cheap. Then they would last longer.

[sundog]

Some of my 45 acp brass has been shot so many times the head stamp has been peened flat. That particular batch, IIRC, started life as WCC military issue and for whatever reason never went back to the ASP after range qualification. Most has long since been lost, but the remaining pieces are pretty well hammered, it's been in use for quite awhile.

[huntrick64]

A buddy of mine gave me a 5 gal bucket of military 45 ACP brass from 30-40 years ago. You can tell it has been loaded a bunch before I received it. I noticed that each time I shot about 200 rounds, 1 or 2 of them were cracked. Sometimes I could hear it crack when I sized or flared the case. Interestingly, only the badly stained ones were cracked and the crack was at the stain. So, I went through the whole lot and threw out the badly stained ones. No probs since.

I load my 45 colt brass to more pressure than 45 ACP and used to keep track of how many times it would load. Bought new Starline brass and after 12 loadings, I quit counting and just used it. To this date I have not had one of those 45 colt cases fail and some has probably seen 20 loadings.

[Shiloh]

If it has a cannelure rolled in the middle of the case, its life is a little more finite in my experience. Eventually I get a vertical crack in one of the cannelure indentations, especially if the cannelure was rolled deeply.

I only very rarely get any other issues, and mouth splits really don't happen very often for me either.

Remington-Peters did this and then Remington. Not sure if they still cannelure in the middle, but they are still common in my .38 brass bucket. 9mm had them as well.


I have quite a bit of .45 acp brass that I bought new 20 or so years ago. You can't read the maker any more, and they still work fine.

Yep.

an the rims have many, many marks on them from extraction.

Shiloh

[Spector]

I think the most extractor marks I've ever counted on my fired brass was 13 when I was loading the Lee 200 grain SWC. Usually around 9 firing with the 230 grain boolit. I have filed the rims when they've gotten so out of round that they would not fit my shellholder. All I fire are WCC cases..........Mike

[Mike W1]

Some of my Starline brass has been loaded 30 times, the other batch 25. Usually get a split case or two out of the 60 I generally fire on one go-round. Not much headstamp left on them by this time.

[Dan Cash]

They are gone when they split. That is one reason I tell my friends to buy a 45 acp. It is one of the cast friendliest calibers out there.

When they split, put a piece of scotch tape on the inside of the case over the crack before resizing. It will keep the water out and give you one or two mor reloads.:bigsmyl2:

[mpmarty]

In 1965 or thereabouts I bought 5000 "once fired" TZZ 45acp cases. Still got most of them and some have lost their headstamps over the many loadings and firings.

[SlippShodd]

Eventually the belling the crimping causes the brass to crack from fatigue failure, same deal as bending a paperclip back and forth. The key to long brass life is to bell the case just enough to get cast bullets to enter without shaving lead, and crimp them just enough to ensure reliable feeding. If you go overboard on belling and crimping cases will crack after on a few firings.

What he said.
Some of my .45 brass is so old and worn, it's frequently mistaken for me. I used to lose a few every session from over-belling, but I wised up and haven't split one for quite a while. I was so cheap back when I was shooting USPSA that I would load practice brass that had small mouth cracks and finally toss it when it split full length. (not a practice I'm recommending, BTW)
Forever is a long time, so maybe not, but low pressure loads are the gift the keep on giving.

mike

[Artful]

Low pressure rounds (38 spl, 45 acp) can be run for quite a few reloadings provided you don't over work the brass with the reloading die - at one point I had a batch of 38 spl I had reloaded with WC's over low charge of Red Dot and I marked the reloading label with roman IIII then cross - I ran out of room and had reloaded it over 40 times.

High pressure rounds 44mag, 357 mag, bottle neck rifle rounds not so much.

[Sonnypie]

Who knows?

http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa382/Sonnypie/PB270048.jpg

I still have some that is 80 years old. These are some never been fired.
I use an original one when setting up dies, or checking my reloads.

I'm a scrounger though, so I gather up mine and any others I can find laying around.
They only go away when they split.

[tacofrank]

I bought a used Gold Cup in 1973 that came with 250-300 empties and I am still shooting those plus 3000 + range pick up and give me's with only a few split mouths.

[H.Callahan]

I lose more of them than I have split or otherwise damaged. Some guns just seem to toss the brass into the next county. Kinda reminds me of my golf balls on the course...

[evan price]

When the extractor groove and rim gets beat up to the point that I don't feel comfortable keeping it in service any more. Takes a lot of time to get there. I've got 45 brass from Pre-WWII by date. I've had some with smooth headstamps.
They usually get lost before they wear out.

[MBTcustom]

I've been shooting 45 for 15 years. I have several thousand military brass from the 1970's. I have a batch of 1000 that I have been working on from the very beginning. I think there are probably only 500 of the original cases left in that batch and they are still going strong. I lost most of them, but this year, I finally started seeing some split cases. Seems like every time I go out I find one or two that have died on me. I think that 45 brass will give at least 20 full-house reloades before going south. If you just run your slide-iron with target loads, they could last for closer to 50-70 if you manage to find them that many times.

[Alchemist]

They are gone when they split. That is one reason I tell my friends to buy a 45 acp. It is one of the cast friendliest calibers out there.

My experience as well....easy to cast for, not finicky about powder (as long as it's a pistol powder) and brass is usually lost before it wears out.