Probably no surprise to you single shot pistol guys, but my 7mm TCU brass just seems to last forever.

I shoot IHMSA pistol competition and one of the guns I shoot is a TC Contender in 7mm TCU. This 10 inch barrel has had more than 7000 rounds down it, still shooting fine. (I have a back up 10 inch barrel sitting around here since they do not make them any more.)

I guess I should not be surprised, but I just loaded another 100 rounds of ammo for this thing and according to the data on the box, this brass has been loaded 15 times! I got to looking and I have any number of boxes that have been loaded either 14 or 15 times.

The brass I loaded today is Remington, but most of this brass is military 223 stuff that I bought from Cabela's or Midway, I do not remember. People warned me not to make 7TCU brass from military brass, but it has worked for me for a lot of years now.

Just interesting, no big deal.

Properly cared for and not pushed to max on a consistent basis, brass can last a surprisingly long time. I have some 7mm Bullberry brass that is on either its 24th or 25th firing. And I've never annealed it.

I use partial FL sizing for this particular Contender barrel, so the brass is not overly-stressed via work-hardening, either.

What could the 7mm TCU do with 160+ grain bullets in a 30" barrel? I was wondering about a cartridge for up to 1k that would have minimal recoil and stay supersonic. The 223 is too boring!