As you will soon figure out, I'm new. Many of you have helped me buy equipment and get ready to start handloading. I cleaned some cases and have familiarized myself with all of my equipment to the point I'm ready to start.

THE PROBLEM:

I chose the .270 WIN for my first loads thinking that info is readily available. My Speer manual says that these cases should measure 2.54". My cases are factory brass that has been fired once. I've collected them over the years in anticipation of reloading. I have not measured all of them yet, but none of them are too long yet??? I either do not know how to use my caliper or my cases did not stretch that much? How often do you trim your cases?

I know there are many variables and that cases must be inspected for damage, but typically speaking, how many times do you fire your brass before disgarding alltogether.

A lot of it depends on how hot you reload and how much you resize the case when you reload them. Once fired cases in a normal chamber should not need any trimming. A lot of time I will trim cases just to get them all to a uniform length but normal pressure loads can go over a dozen reloads before you need to trim them.

If you full length rezize them and push the shoulder back a lot everytime you reload, you might have to trim them every third reload and your case life will be very short.

If you load them to push the pressure limits all of the time your primer pockets will get loose and you'll have to replace the case also.



I have 308 win cases that have been reloaded at least 20 times and are still fine (neck sized, only full length resize 2-3 times) but some of my magnums are only lasting me about 6 reloads before the primer pocket loosen so much that I replace them.

It's not abnormal to have what you're describing. I only trim the cases when they're too long. I have some guns where the cases almost never get too long and thus never have to be trimmed, then I have other guns where the cases have to be trimmed every 2 or 3 firings. I'll fire my cases until the web gets this. This takes longer in some guns than it does in others, and the way to tell if they're getting thin is to get a feeler gauge. Read over some of the other posts regarding case head separations. It has been discussed in detail. I have a piece of coat hanger that is perfectly straight except for the tip and it works perfect. Some folks use dental picks, some use paper clips in a pinch etc. There's no hard and fast rule.

As for the calipers, you probably ARE using them correctly. There's not much too it. Close them up and zero them, and then open them up and close them back down on the case. Nothing to it.