40 S&W Case life

[prs]

I'm pretty green about loading the 40 SW. I realize it is a high pressure round, although my plinkers are relatively mild mannered. I shoot an early series Glock with the poorly supported case in original barrel. Is 4 OK, would 8 be too many? I am not getting a reaily visible Glock bulge and primers look good. Is it common practice to aneal these cases after a few firngs?

prs

[geargnasher]

With mild loads you should be able to shoot them until the primer pockets get loose or the mouth splits, might be four times, might be twenty. With full-house loads two or three may be it.

Once-fired .40 Brass is dirt cheap. Stock up. Shoot them a few times and sell them to a swager.

As far as annealing, it would be difficult to do due to short necks. I think it's a waste of time to even trim them (just toss them if they ever get too long), much less fool with annealing.

My dos centavos.

Gear

[songdog53]

I shoot my 40 reloads and after each time i check them carefully and make sure nothing has changed but then i use mild loads. If anything looks strange on case chunk it, once fired brass too cheap to risk your safety or your gun. Also might look at supported barrel for your Glock.

[Shiloh]

Mild loads??

They'll last a LONG time. I have a coffee can of .40 brass that has been reloaded more many many times. The empties get cleaned and tossed back in. That being said, I load just stout enough to cycle the action and lock the slide on the last shot.

Shiloh

[W.R.Buchanan]

If you don't hotrod the round IE <900fps, and you remove the bulge in the cases after firing them, good quality cases Winchester Starline, will last indefinately.

Ignore the bulge and they are good for 2-3 reloads.

Hot rod them, they are good for once,,,,maybe.

Do not Reload cases marked "FC" these were made from 1900-96 and are considerably weaker than newer cases. Hot rodding this case is disaster!!

Randy

[CATS]

W.R. Buchanan,
To your point about the FC cases, are you meaning .40 cases made up to 1996 only or are you meaning all FC cases from all calibers made from 1900 to 1996?
CATS

[Bwana]

He is referring to the 40 S&W Federal cases which have "FC" instead of the word "FEDERAL" spelled out in the headstamp. And he is VERY correct.
The other cartridges with FC in the headstamp are OK.

[fredj338]

Most brass will get lost before it wears out if you stay off the top end. I do NOT like any Federal brass, I find it quite soft in any caliber, & loose primer pockets occur even with moderate loads. YMMV, but I load until the primer pocket gets loose or the case splits. I have never had a case head blowout, then again, I rarely push the top end either. I also use appropriate powders for the vel I want to achieve. Pushing powders like TG to major is a KB waiting to happen.

[Ausglock]

G'day. I have been using Winchester and Federal 40 cases to resize for use as 357Sig rounds. These cases are used for IPSC Major power factor loads with no issues at all.
The federal case are "FEDERAL" cases. They have been reloaded about 7 or 8 times with good results.
They are fired out of a G35 fitted with a HPB 357 Sig stainless Match barrel (Aussie made).
A lot of Australian IPSC shooters use 40 cases resized to 357Sig in STI, SV, Kimber etc etc.

I also run Major power Factor loads through the G35 fitted with it's original 40 Glock barrel. Again, no issues with the brass.