Here are several newbee questions that I've heard many variable and/or similar answers to. Several of the books that I've read make mention to this topic but I guess I'm looking for some rule of thumb. I hope one of you seasoned reloading vets can help me out with these and clear up a few points. Here's the laundry list of "brass" questions mainly concerning handgun brass:

1. I'm curious just how many times can you reload brass under typical conditions? Rifle? Handgun?

2. Should you sort handgun brass carefully? By make, number of times loaded, or both?

3. Do powder charges greatly affect the number of times you can reload handgun brass?

4. And last but not least, what are some of the more "Not So Noticeable" signs that it's time to discard brass?

Some of these questions may seem like mundane questions, but I figure myself and any new hand loader would appreciate some educated thoughts on these. Currently, I carefully inspect each piece before spending the time to load it up again. I stick to the book and have had great results and great ammo to date.

Thanks for your comments.

you will most likely notice the signs right away.deformed mouths,cracks,etc.I have reloaded my brass about 10 times with no noticeable decrease in accuracy,and usually throw them away when they show signs of heavy wear.I dont seperate my loads by headstamp as I have at least 500 cases in each caliber I reload.you'll crush some,lose some etc.its very hard to keep track of how many times they have been reloaded,but you can usually tell their age by the residue,primer pocket condition,and general overall appearence.

Thanks for your comments. From what you said, I believe I'm on the right track. Sounds like good ol' common sense dictates on this one. My SOPs are in their infancy stage at this point and it's a learning process.

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Slow is smooth; smooth is fast.

With handgun brass, I reload it until the case starts to split by the neck. I've been doing alot of shooting with my 480, and out of 200 cases, about a dozen have split. Now, I don't segregate the cases, so I don't know how many loads have gone through them, but some cases have definately seen 20 loads. When I first started loading for the 480, I was using a fair bit of case belling, and a heavy crimp, which caused quite a few splits, but with milder belling and crimping, the cases have lasted longer.

If you're just plinkin, then don't worry about sorting brass, but for full patch loads, and best accuracy, you should work up loads in one makers brass. If you switch brass, then start over the load work up.