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I know it varies, but how many loadings can you expect to get out of brass before it needs to be tossed? Is there danger of a catastrophic type failure (case head separation, etc) that could happen due to work hardness that wouldn't show up when inspecting brass between loads? I haven't gotten into annealing, but some of my brass is getting to the 6 or 7 load range. My understanding is annealing will help with neck tension uniformity, is it also necessary to help massive failure by softening the brass? I know that lower pressure rounds should get more life out of cases than higher ones. Right now my concerns are with brass in 223, 22-250, 243 and 300 winny. | ||
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The only one I would check is the 300WM bend a piece of stiff wire run it into the case and feel for a ring just above the belt. If there is time tie for different brass. Mine seem to develop this ring after 5 or so loadings. One can get more case life by next sizing them only. 10 or so loadings on the rest should be fairly common with some trimming. | |||
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Let's see, with my -06 I started with 250 pieces of brass, now after burning out 2 barrels with some 8000 rounds of "light mag" loadings, I'm still using 240 of the original 250 pieces. You do the math. The trick is to do the minimum amount of sizing required to get reliable feeding. Head separation is caused by the stretching of the case due to the datum to bolt face clearance. Minimize this clearance on your reloads, and you maximize the case life. Annealing is to soften the case mouth/shoulder ONLY. You WANT the case head area to be as hard as possible. On your 300 WM, this means sizing them to use the shoulder, not the belt, to control the clearance *Note I don't use the word "headspace" as this is a physical distance in the chamber itself, NOT a cartridge to chamber clearance measurement. | |||
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Good advice above. I FL size all of my rifle brass for the hunting rifles. I set the FL die to feel the case in the rifles chamber when I close the bolt. I put the M70 type safety on so that it holds the firing pin back so that I can feel how much I have sized that first case. I made a feeler wire long ago that I use in every case. Cut a length of wire from a coat hanger and bend one end of it into a tiny 90 degree hook. File the end of the hook to a gentle rounded edge so that it can find an incipient head separation. Get the 'power' or optic that your eye likes instead of what someone else says. When we go to the doctor they ask us what lens we like! Do that with your optics. | |||
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Lot's of good advice. On the belted magnum cartridges I like to size them so they headspace off the shoulders instead of the belt. I feel it's a more consistent method. Like mentioned if the shoulder is pushed back too far the belt will anchor the case head in the chamber and the case will and can stretch because the shoulder is too far back from the chamber shoulder. Then you can get case head separation. Cases are made with a specific hardness number. You don't want the head area as hard as possible and you don't want it soft either. Often when the whole cartridge is hard it will split down the whole side. Annealing is a touchy thing. When you fully anneal the case neck and shoulder area you lose your bullet tension which is important to accuracy. They you have to fire them and reload them to work harden the necks again to regain decent bullet tension. This may all sound like voodoo to you at first but it's not really that hard. Once you have reloaded for a while and get the hang of it you'll understand that. | |||
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I have been loading for hunting purposes for awhile, now getting into "shooting" more so it will take a toll on brass. I should be able to use my fl dies for neck sizing and slight shoulder adjust, correct? Ive been setting the dies to not quite "swallow" the whole case, but haven't been too scientific on how much, as long as it feeds. I've heard different views on that, like I MUST have a neck sizer for that. Is the tool for checking shoulder length cartridge specific or is there a universal type? What is a budget conscious model to try? I will do the wire test method, is it fairly easy to feel if there is a problem? What I need to do is hook up with an old sage and have a couple sessions with him!  | |||
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You can adjust FL dies to just kiss the shoulder and what some folks call partial sizing. One thing I've noticed with just neck sizing with certain cartridges that after a number for reloads they start to fit the chamber tighter. You can feel it's harder to lock the bolt down. What I do then is FL size them to bring them back. | |||
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I've never had too much luck with the bent pin feeler gauge. I just select a case and cut it in two length wise. I am a born again believer in Partial Full Length resizing for accuracy and longevity. In all the time I've been reloading, I can only remember 1 case separation. I'm not quite sure what you mean by catastrophic failure so I guess I've never had one. Aim for the exit hole | |||
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I've heard that case head separation can cause bad injury to the shooter and destroy a rifle, that's what I meant. Maybe that's a little overblown? (No pun intended ). I guess I don't want to find out, trying to take the necessary precautions. | |||
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I have had many case head, and near case head separations with a Lee Enfield due to the chamber and brass mis-match on those rifles. The Lee Enfield normall has a chamber dia at the rear of .460. US made SAAMI brass is about .450. Not too good. The Lee Enfield had never leaked any gas with a separation but I would not really want to have that happen. I have had partial separations with Norma factory ammo in an old Mauser that turned out to have grossly excessive headspace. Hornady markets the tool that is used to check the cases when you set your FL sizer. It is a simple gadget that is attached to a dial caliper with a thumbscrew. You can use it to set your FL die to FL size to an exact fit for your chamber. Some people call this partial FL sizing. A better term might be exact or zero clearance FL sizing. In any event if your rounds chamber with slight contact but no real drag the rifle functions well and the brass will last for more than 20 reloads unless you run the pressure too high.
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Most that reload for the SMLE's adjust their dies to take up for the excessive clearance in head space if they can't locate the correct bolt head to fix it. If you take a length of scotch tape that is 1/8 inch wide and long enough that wraps of it directly in front of the rim that will just let the case chamber it will allow the too small cases expand evenly around the case. Then adjust your FL sizer accordingly or just neck size. This is what I do to 30-06 cases converted to 6.5x55 Swede. The Swede is a much fatter case then the 06, but I use the 06 to get the thicker necks. Yes head separation can be a very bad and dangerous thing. Any kind of gas leakage from the case is bad. Another is a blow primer. I would say .010 difference on those 303 cases is pretty bad and would look for foreign manufacture where some of them make the correct size. It's hard for me to find 6.5 Swede cases that are correct. I would get rid of a SMLE if I couldn't correct that problem and I would definitely tell the buyer of the problem if I sold it. | |||
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I'm onto my ninth loading with 50 mixed headstamp .270 cases & they show no signs of failing. I guess this is partly down to neck sizing only, though I'm surprised they haven't required at least one FL sizing to chamber easily. | |||
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I have over 40 loading right now but I use a 30 BR tight neck chamber so the brass does not get squeezed a lot. Normal for us guys is to toss the brass after the barrel is shot out. | |||
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I shoot my brass until the primer pockets get too loose. Simple as that. The only easy day is yesterday! | |||
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The old single shot match shooters did the same thing..... they reported case life of between 2,000 to 2,800 shots before the primer pocket got too loose. Minimal sizing with cases fire formed to the chamber without initial damage will get you a lot of shots from the case also. Fitted cases will get you more though. I've shot fitted cases well over 250 shots with the case looking like it has been fired a few times. I expect to loose them from a worn out primer pocket than any other cause. | |||
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That's a loaded question!  Depends on if you clean your brass, if you neck size or full length resize, if you anneal your brass, How big your chamber is or isn't, how hot you load, just a ton of varibles involved so I wouldn't be to keen on most answers to that question..Example: my 6x45 has a zero tolerance bench rest chamber, I can reload it without resizing cases, I think I could reload it without the use of any reloading tools if I had too..I have been shooting the same cases since about 1980 even with some max loads, not sure how many times they have been reloaded but its a bunch, I just lost track over the years and look for split necks and use primer feel, and ocasionally I toss one. What you should probably do is shoot a trio of rounds, over and over with a given load and see for yourself how many times you can reload it under "your" circumstances, that is what I do and I'm looking for at least 10 reloads and about two trim jobs for my max loads without annealing. At any time I slip a primer in a case that has no feel, I will toss that case and then continue very carefully, if another slips then I know I'm probably needing to back off a grain and start over...Thats just one approach and you must be looking for clues to pressure as you go, such things as flat primers, indentions on case head, expansion beyond .005 and I require .002 as enough expansion for my purposes, tight bolt lift, Some will tell you these pressure signs are of no sugnificance but I disagree, they may not be 100% accurate but they ARE cause for concern and a pretty damn good warning that something is cooking..  Ray Atkinson Atkinson Hunting Adventures 10 Ward Lane, Filer, Idaho, 83328 208-731-4120 rayatkinsonhunting@gmail.com | |||
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