How many reloads does your belted magnum brass last before you discard it? I'm thinking of the .300 winchester in particular. I was reading a reloading manual that said you should discard belted magnum brass after 2 to 3 firings, as oppossed to 8 or 9 firings of non-belted brass.

Which reloading manual was that? As long as your primer pockets are staying tight, and you don't see the shiney ring around the base, you'll be fine.

Turok

Full-length sizing with my Weatherby dies for a 300 Weatherby Magnum, I'd recommend only 3 firings with heavy maximum or near max loads. By cutting a case in half you can see evidence of case stretching in the head area, just in front of the case belt, after 3 firings. To avoid this safety problem and to extend case life, set your dies for belted magnum cases so that you do not push the shoulder of the case back each time you full-length size it.

For just regular shooting more than a few reloads can be done. If the ammo is for some big trip then like new brass is a good idea for any handload belted, rimmed or whatever.

Feel inside the case with your feeler gage and when one insipiant separation concerns you cut that case in half and examine how deep the groove is. Most are not that deep and the cases can be used for a while.

I have got about nine reloads with most belted cases. RCBS's Fred Huntington reported up to 50 reloads with many rimless cases! There is a link on this somewhere.

Turok, it was Lyman's 47th reloading manual.

Rg1, so you set your dies so your cases headspace off the shoulder and the belt?

That's about the only one that I don't have. That and the A-Square manual. Do as the others suggested, and you should be good to go for a number of reloadings.

Turok

Alot...I've got well over 10 with my 7RM

But if I'm "working up a load" or going hunting. I bow to caution and use once fired cases.

Once fired because they fit your rifle with a partial resize ,and you know there are no bugs in them like bad flash holes...

I've been using the same 7mm Remington Magnum, .300 Winchester Magnum, and all the other belted cases for years...

Some of them have over 25 loads through them...

Steve, I saw on your website, that you did a experiment w/ some case, full lenghth sizing each time, and got 50 some firings...
I see all the time people neck sizing. I try to neck size, and my ammo wont chamber correctly.
It sticks, and feels weird. even after one firing. It will chamber and close, but I seem to have to full lenghth size my brass to chamber properly.
Whats up w/ that??? I still have gotten over 5 or 6 firings, FL sizing my 300RUM........sakofan...thanks for the help..

Hey SlowHand, In some situations it depends on how well your Chamber and Resizing Dies dimensions match up. This is a Luck-of-the-Draw unless you buy custom Dies. But, in most of the rifles I've had, case life is quite long.

Like Steve, I ran a test on a 7mmRemMag a few years ago and got 33 reloads out of 3 cases. Only thing that stopped the test was I got a Neck Split. Had I annealed the cases, I might have gotten to the 50 reloads he mentioned, or maybe farther.

If you want long case life, set your Full Length Resizing Die so the bolt on your rifle closes with just a bit of resistance. Raise the Ram and place a Dime on top of the Shell Holder then screw the FL Die down to touch the Dime.

Take a fired case, lube it, resize it, wipe it off and try chambering it. Screw it in 1/8 turn at a time until you "go past" where it is too hard to chamber. At somepoint the FL Die will begin to resize the Pressure Ring (just ahead of the Belt) and that will cause the case to lengthen. At that point you may not be able to close the bolt on the empty case.

Now you are getting close. Barely screw the FL Die in a bit more, resize again, etc. and you will eventually feel the Bolt close with just a bit oof resistance. You are now Partial-Full Length Resizing(P-FLR) and have created slightly less than 0.0000" headspace, maybe -0.0007" headspace.

Set the FL Die Lock Ring so the Die comes back into position after loosening and reseating.

This will give you the longest case life possible, but you will need to "anneal" the necks every 5-8 reloads to keep them from getting neck splits.

If you are running Loads close to the upper Pressure Limit for your cartridge, then "Loose Primer Pockets" may be what limits your case life.

Toss or sell any Neck Sizers since they don't provide accuracy as well as P-FLR anyhow.

I have a shooting buddy that when asked how many times he has resized a particular case, always says with truthfullness, 20-30. Most of his are not belted cases. Most of mine are belted cases and I start looking for new brass after 8-10 shootings, although I beleave I could go much longer. The brass will tell you what to do, with a little experience. Good shooting.

I generally get ten-plus loadings out of my brass, whether belted or not. The key to the longevity of belted cases is to make sure you DON'T set the shoulder back when resizing,ie., you are headspacing off of the shoulder, not the belt. This way, you avoid early case head separations, which is probably the basis for the recommendation that you scrap your belted cases after two or three reloads.

Treated the same way, in chambers of similar relative dimensions and running similar pressures, there is no difference in the longevity of belted vs. rimless, vs. rebated, vs. rimmed, vs. semi-rimmed brass.

Many manufacturers oversized belted magnum chambers (because they can get away with it and it is cheaper for them in the long run), so belted magnums fired in such chambers and sized excessively can fail in only a few firings. But a rimless case under the same conditions would actually fail quicker, due to more of the stretching coming in the web area because of the lack of a belt to minimize the headspace slop. (In other words, you can only make the headspace as excessive as the gap between the belt and the chamber recess it rests against no matter how much you size a belted case, while you can make the headspace as excessive as your sizer is undersized with a rimless case.)

IT IS ALL IN THE CASE DESIGN--My straight belted
458 HE with medium loads can be loaded a 100 times, as their is no shoulder to work, worry about, no partial sizing to wofry about.I had resize die built to bring brass to just chamber perfect without overworking base ahead of belt,
which keeps stretching to a minimum.I can load
heavy enough with heavier bullets so brass wiil last only 25 rounds.But that is still a lot.Ed.