How many firings

[shooterg]

do you get on rifle brass with cast loads ? Say .308, .30-06, .30-30 for starters.

[Hickory]

I have found that if I load my rifle & pistol cases a little below max, that I can expect to double case life.

[mike in co]

nearly unlimited with lite loads.........1500-1700 fps

[EOD3]

It depends. Helpful aren't I?

With bottleneck cases, neck sizing will greatly extend case life with respect to case head separation . Minimum "flare" of the case mouth before seating will extend case life with respect to neck splits. Staying away from maximum loads "built in with lead boolits" will extend case life.

The 30-30 will probably need more sizing than the others because, unless I'm mistaken, it's a lever action rifle and should be fully sized.

With proper care, you should be able to get several reloads. BEWARE of case head separation. :!:

[BD]

I'm going to give you a little broader reply than you asked for.

I load and fire .45 acp cases, (21,000 psi), until I lose them in the grass, or I split the case mouth = 50+ times.

I load and fire .44 mag cases twice at full power, (36,000 psi), and then throw them in the bucket for plinkers where they seem to survive until the neck splits.

I load and fire neck sized 6.5x55 cases with condom loads, (45,000 psi), at least 20 times before I anneal the necks and run them through a body die. I've never retired one and some of them have been loaded and fired 25 times. I expect the cast boolit loads in these neck sized lapua cases to last forever, (25,000 psi).

I load and fire .223 BH match cases 6 times, (55,000 psi), and trim them each time. I think I'm pretty much done with high power so I'll leave it to someone else to get particular about how they are sifted down from 600 yds to 200 yards. I retire whatever is left of the batch of twenty after six loadings and then lose them in the grass at a three gun match. Anything I recover after this point goes into the barrel for WTSHTF.

I'm still sorting out how long various cases will last in the .450 Bushmaster, I have Hornady factory brass with 10 loadings on it still going strong at 45,000 psi. The cut down used .284 brass can die earlier due to loose primer pockets from it's earlier role as .284 W or .284/6mm brass at 60,000 psi

I cut down the middle of one case of .270 WBY brass after five firings and have a look. This brass is neck sized only, shot little, and runs at 65,000+ psi. If I have any doubt I crush the batch of twenty and go on to the next. After five loadings I cut a case after each additional loading. Any pressure sign from any case retires that whole batch. Any case with a blemish, or unusual head expansion is crushed. I have some that made it 7 loadings. I retired some after 3 loadings.

Brass is a gasket among it's other roles. Your eyes are what it's protecting. When it's worn out it gets junked.

I own custom neck sizing bushing dies for my .223. I have very carefully chosen neck sizing bushing collets for my 6.5 x 55 NSDs. My .270 WBY brass is neck sized only in a die that is minimum resize for my chamber. Your mileage may vary.

Brass that is barely worked and fired at less than 50,000 psi can last a long time. Brass that is overworked and run hot can spit in your face the very first time.

BD

[Ed Barrett]

I just keep going until the neck splits and then anneal if it's a hard to get size, if not just throw that one away. I know some of my cases have been reloaded with cast 40+ times and are still going strong.

[shooterg]

Mike actually answered my question ! My rifle reloading to this point was for HP - Garand, M1A, AR - in that order from a "real" rifle to the black gun. Never shot a match with anything loaded over 4 times in those gas guns. Like others, I've shot pistol brass until it split -just started casting rifle boolits and was curious. Maybe I'll keep loading a case until failure for kicks !

[Jim]

No clue. I know I have .30-06, 8MM and .45-70 cases I've been loading and shooting since 2002.

[EOD3]

Maybe I'll keep loading a case until failure for kicks !

From Jurassic Park III: That is a VERY BAD IDEA.

Anything with enough oomph to cycle a gas gun is going to have a fair amount of chamber pressure. WHEN the case head fails, you'll be dumping several thousand PSI of HOT gasses and crud into the action. Just my .02, YMMV

[2ndAmendmentNut]

how many firings do you get on rifle brass with cast loads ? Say .308, .30-06, .30-30 for starters.

Don’t have a whole lot of experience with those calibers and cast, but using “J” word bullets I tend to get 6 to 10 reloads if I full length size the brass. There are many factors when it comes to case life, load intensity, the operating pressure, the quality of the brass, and the individual gun (some guns are just hard on brass). As others have noted neck sizing you brass can easily double if not triple case life for most guns. My guess is that with the calibers you have listed, cast boolits and proper handloading techniques it will be a long time before you start to see signs of head spacing or split necks.

[Buckshot]

...........I keep my brass segregated for each rifle. For 30-06 that would be: Ruger M77, M1 Garand, 03A1 Springfield, and a 1903 Springfield sporter. Each plastic box has a lable stuck on it with 3 lines.

Top line is: Times fired. Each time I finish a box, a 'tick' mark is placed on the line.

2nd Line is: Annealed. A 'tick' mark is placed on that line Under the matching mark on the line above.

3rd Line is: Trimmed. Once again a mark is made under the corresponding mark on the top 'Times Fired' line.

I have a couple 50 round boxes of LC43 brass for the 03A1 with WELL over 40 firings with cast lead on them. Once they settled down, I haven't lost a case in probably the last 30 firings. What will happen, or I've seen it enough to assume it must be common for others, is that you may begin to lose a case or 2 after maybe the 5th firing. You may also lose one every once in awhile up to about the tenth firing out of a batch.

I think this may be the cases with manufacturer defects fade out sooner. Most early failures are mouth splits or burn through on the neck, or almost as commonly the neck-shoulder junction. Those that fail get replaced with one out of the makeup bag. At that time, above that tick mark on the Times Fired line I write a small number in paranthesis to note the number of tossed rounds. Usually in a box of 50 you'll end up losing 5-7 cases.

I use a Lee collet die for neck sizing and a Lyman M die for mouth expanding. For this rifle the casemouths are annealed every 10 firings. After that they're FL sized, and then we go another 10 firings. To date I've not had any primer leakage, and they ARE beginning to get a bit easy to seat :-) At the first sign of it, the whole batch of 50 will get dumped. I hate the thought but lets say they do it at the 46th firing? That's 2300 rounds those 50 cases have sent downrange and that should be sufficient for an honorable retirement.

..............Buckshot

[1Shirt]

I am close to Buckshot's thread, but he is much more detailed in organization than I am. Probably need to be more detailed in record keeping than him. Am a strong believer in segration of brass for rifle, when I have more than one rifle for the same cal. Am also an supporter for the Leen Collett neck sizers for cast, as well as the Lee factory crimper. They have improved my accracy I think.
1Shirt!:coffee:

[Larry Gibson]

Mike actually answered my question ! My rifle reloading to this point was for HP - Garand, M1A, AR - in that order from a "real" rifle to the black gun. Never shot a match with anything loaded over 4 times in those gas guns. Like others, I've shot pistol brass until it split -just started casting rifle boolits and was curious. Maybe I'll keep loading a case until failure for kicks !

shooterg

Using those rifle I will suggest you get an RCBS X-die for each of them. I am getting 20 =/- firings from the M1A with full power match loads and more than that with the M1 and the AR. There is no need to get the small based dies either, the regular X-die will work fine. They also eliminate the need for trimming. I was like most other shooters who discarded many, many cases after 4-6 firings with the '06, 7.62 and 5.56 because of potential incipient case head seperation. With the X-die case life is extende 3+ times as long and no trimming is necessary.

Larry Gibson

[captaint]

Small base dies?? I once had to get a set for my Browning BLR in .308, famous for tight chambers. After the first handload, the case separated in the usual spot, right above the head. I must say, that die really squose them hard. Only rifle I ever bought factory ammo for in 35 years. It does shoot really well tho... Mike