How often do you guys reload your magnum brass before you get rid of it? I have been working up loads for my 338 Win mag & have reloaded it 4 times & it still looks good, I see no signs of seperation at the belt. But I'd like to have a bit of a safety factor built in. No point in running it up to the limit. Just wondering what others have found to be a safe, sound & economical cutoff before dumping brass.

Morning, IB!!

I've found in my stuff it'll vary. I've got a .300 Win with no issues with the chamber that'll have brass ruined by the 3rd firing (2nd reload). By ruined, I mean it is showing signs of "banding" in front of the belt. I had one separate upon firing about 20 years ago (no fun & not recommended). Since then, I dont piss with it.......3rd firing & chuck it. Another .300 With the same load will go several more reloads. I haven't even found where my 7-STW ruins them yet. One thing I did quit doing was the complete FL resize. I leave as much gap between the ram and the bottom of the die as the rifle will accept.

I only neck size for my .300 WM and I have never counted but I have been useing the same brass for over 15 years. I know I have loaded this brass over a dozen times and maybe close to 2 dozen times for some of it.

I have FL ReSize & used Win & Fed 338 WM brass at least 6 times with no obvious wear. Last year I did a complete brass refresh to get a clean start… Today I use a RCBS “CaseMaster Gauging Tool†to look for Head seperation… I understand you can use a paper clip too.

With proper techniques and suitable loads, you should easily get 5+ loads from ANY brass, belted or not. Excessive resizing, hot loads, bad chambers, bad brass, etc, can and will reduce this significantly. Annealing can also increase it. Simple, eh?

quote:

Originally posted by Strut10:
Morning, IB!!

I've found in my stuff it'll vary. I've got a .300 Win with no issues with the chamber that'll have brass ruined by the 3rd firing (2nd reload). By ruined, I mean it is showing signs of "banding" in front of the belt. I had one separate upon firing about 20 years ago (no fun & not recommended). Since then, I dont piss with it.......3rd firing & chuck it. Another .300 With the same load will go several more reloads. I haven't even found where my 7-STW ruins them yet. One thing I did quit doing was the complete FL resize. I leave as much gap between the ram and the bottom of the die as the rifle will accept.

Amen to three firings!!! I have been thru the same with a tack driving .300 H&H Magnum rifle. Makes me feel cheated to have to toss brass after so few firings, but the H&H was starting to separate when used a fourth time.
LLS

I do not FL resize my Mag brass. I get 8 loads out of them and toss them.

Long as they still look good, without defects.

Trimmed to length etc.

I don't toss 'em, just keep shooting til the necks split. So far, have never had a 7mmag nor .300Win case go bad.

Everytime I pick one up, it's inspected. Any question at all ,they go in the scrap bucket. They are also mashed so there's no questions about it later. I do that with brass for everything I load.

The only one of either of these two calibers I've had split so far. Loaned the gun and 100 rnds to a relative and didn't check the boxes as well as I should have.
He didn't know either and the second shot in my .300 win, happened to be a 7mmag load. Three splits in the shoulder area. My fault totally, but, he'd of found it IF he'd looked at them too. Wasn't any gun damage. But, no hole in the paper either.

You guys that toss .300WinM cases away at three loadings. Please contact me, I'll reimburse your postage to get them.

I've got hundreds of extra 7mmags, so don't need those.

George

I partially FL resize them and go until the primer pockets feel looser. That's usually around 8-10 reloads for my 7 Mag and 300 WSM.

"Magnum" brass is no different from brass of any rim style insofar as longevity is concerned. If you FLS and have a generous chamber (as many belted cartridge chambers tend to be), then you will have significant thinning at the pressure ring in as little as three firings. If you match your resizing to your chamber (neck or PFLS) you can expect numerous reloads without danger of a head separation.

Similarly, if pressures are running near the limit of the brass, then case head expansion and the ultimate loosening of primer pockets can occur in only a few firings. The same is true of rimmed, semi-rimmed, rimless, or rebated rim cartridges.

Bottom line: If pressure is kept below the limits of the brass and cases are not excessively resized, then there is no theoretical limit to the number of times that a case (of any rim/head configuration) can be reloaded. In practical terms, it will become work-hardened in the neck and the neck will split after some number of cycles.

I've recently gotten one of those New Technology belted mag. collet dies. I neck size and then collet size the area above the belt and it seems to be allowing to get a few extra firings out of a case. I think I'm up to ten firings on one case thus far. New die so I'm not sure how many more firings I will get but so far it seems to be working. Does add an extra step to reloading but beats setting up new brass as often.

I've seen some rifles w/ belted cases not lasting much more than 4 firing before a ring could be felt on the inside of the case w/ a L shapped piece of wire. I've also seen belted cases last for 5-6+ firings. After that, you've gotten your moneys worth . Brass is cheap. I don't feel real confident using brass that has been fired multiple times when loading hunting rounds. Target rounds are diff. on My target loads or load delevlopment/fouler rounds, I just use them until they get the visible pressure ring ahead of the belt.

The sizing process has a good bit to do w/ the longevity as well.

Good Luck

Reloader

With the Lee collet neck sizing die and moderate loads in my .375 H&H, I lost count at 15 loadings per case for both Norma and Win cases.

I have some RWS .375 H&H brass that I've been experimenting with just the hell of it -- 22 loadings and counting (and I got that brass used when I bought the rifle!). Best damn brass I've ever used in any caliber -- low weight variation, very concentric, flash holes drilled so no burrs, etc.

I used to load my 7mm Rem Mag hotter, but I would never use a load that didn't let me have 5 loads per case. The .375 H&H is so much more "oomph" that I load conservatively and it still stomps the hell of the non-African game that I've been able to hunt.

John