If you don't know what the reload/firing count on cases is, does it matter if they all pass inspection, are annealed and sorted by weight?

Not really. If they've passed your inspection, I'd just use them until the necks start splitting or the primer pockets get loose.

Some guys really anal re accuracy and minimising variation would probably not use such a batch but for hunting ammo they could / should be useable, moreso post your inspection, annealing, weight sorting. If you make up a good load that shoots well, then carry on. As Craigster says use 'em until signs of use-by date appear.

uneven neck tension can cause you all sorts of headaches if your working up a load.
if you just want to shoot and don't care about 2" groups then use what you got.
you could try to get them all in the ball park and improve things then sort out the cases by how the primers seat and how the bullets seat and see what you end up with.
or you could just shoot them all and sort out the cases that threw flyers.
or? pick a process.. meh.

quote:

Lamar
posted 11 May 2020 15:17
uneven neck tension can cause you all sorts of headaches if your working up a load.
if you just want to shoot and don't care about 2" groups then use what you got.

I have a .308W in which I shoot reloads in Winchester brass. The brass is from different batches, of mixed firings varying from roughly 1 shot to more than 10 shots. None are annealed or weight sorted. All are trimmed, chamfered / deburred, primer pockets cleaned between loading. I shoot a couple of mild loads with either 150 or 165 gn bullets. This rifle is only used for practise, not hunting. It shoots under 2 inches at 100 yds. Not sure how accurate it is at longer ranges.

For general purposes, I guess they're OK until they're not OK. Apart from split necks and loose primer pockets, you could check inside for signs of incipient head separations.

This can be done with a piece of wire bent slightly near the end and maybe folded at the tip to prevent scratching, inserted to the solid head then scraped back towards the mouth; if you feel a groove near the web, excess headspace may have thinned the brass there.

I shoot them until they show some sign of failure.

On common brass that is easy to come by they get toss into the salvage bucket as soon as I think they should.

I am not very picky about brass.

I use a felt-tip marker. After 5 firings it's practice ammo - might load till failure.

If .308, it's fodder for a HK91. So I don't scour the next county for empties.

Unless you anneal them and start over, Id just toss them and buy new brass..Brass is normally your cheapest component it seems..If your dealing with a wildcat in which case brass is a problem anyway you look at it, or at least a couple of more steps in the process, then anneal is a must I suspect..

On calibers like the 06 or 270 whatever, I keep count and reload 10 or more times then just toss it and buy some more like PPU at $54.00 per hundred, keeps life simple and it takes a long time for me to shoot use up a 100 rounds loaded 10 to 14 times..

For all my hunting, I use new brass

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
... For all my hunting, I use new brass

I wonder if you could explain this outlook in detail, Ray?

Your experience is exponentially greater than mine and that statement suggests you really don't trust reloading at all.

I form 404 brass into 375/404.

I use them for all our hunting, many hunt with them every year.

No idea how many times each has been fired.

Once I see cracks in the shoulder or neck, I replace these.

The rest carry on.

I do know for a fact that they have been reloaded at 12-15 times.

Never worried about anything.

Thanks Saeed,
that's kind of my outlook, too, and since cases often get lost when hunting, I'd rather they were older ones.

But what say you, Ray?

Unless its something that I am worried about for extreme accuracy, I don't bother weight sorting, or really separating out by headstamp. Even with the unsorted stuff in .308 or .223 most of my rifles get under 1" at 100 with mixed brass and reloads.

If it has a loose primer pocket, it gets marked and that's a throw away case.

I can't verify how many times the non hunting ammo has been shot, to be honest, other than generalities. But it gets closely inspected while being processed and any neck splits, incipient separations, or over long cases get looked at closely and more often than not, if its been trimmed a couple times is junked. When I kept careful track, the hot hunting loads made usually 2-3 reloads before being put in the plinking pile. The stuff that was range fodder made it 10 or so times before I junked it- usually by using it as lost brass at that point.

For low pressure hunting rounds, like my African guns, I tend to put them in the practice pile after 5 or so loadings.

Long winded way of saying that unless you are trying for match grade accuracy, shoot your range pick ups until you find it failing your inspection.

if you put together a 100 count batch of brand new cases just for hunting your in effect using factory ammo.
I'm betting Ray's outlook is one of a little less accuracy and one of 100% operation.

I tend to fire form and work my hunting cases over just a bit before putting them on the shelf.
they have a slight bit better chamber fit, have all been squared and cut etc. but are still like new.
the biggest difference is they now have a little wax inside the neck to prevent the bonding between the bullet and the case over time.

Sambarman,
Function and reliability primarily and I use new brass as Im more comfortable with it and don't mind spending a tad more for ammo on an expensive hunt..just a quirk and is it a must, not really, just a precaution I take..I still run all the overseas stuff through my gun..If Im hunting locally, like behind my house, I will use about anything or any caliber, handloaded or factory as long as its accurate and sighted in..I don't care to anneal and I do not mind tossing all the brass when the necks or bases show cracks, just toss the lott and spend $54.for another 100 or 2 for some new PPU. I feel likw new brass can prevent problems with a hot load or other problems, but all this is just me, many get by without any precaution or planning and so have I on occasions.

In my case Id off that load of old brass that I had no knowledge of its history, don't need the agrivation or the time spent with a face lift on the old stuff..By the same token im not too hot on factory so I trim the necks, then round them out in the die, pressure load my primers and be sure they are flush, do my best to prepare my overseas ammo as best I possible can and I willuse a portion of that ammo for testing and the larger portion for the hunt.I usually load my ammo in boxes of 4 (20 rounds per box) one for test(20 rounds) an sight in and 3 boxes(60 rounds) for the hunt. There are a ton of options to what I do along these lines and none are wrong it seems..