“To trash or not to trash” is the question…


I’m finding that crimping my 357 rounds is just not holding the bullet in place from the recoil while they are in the cylinders.
They are pulling out
It seems as though the brass has been worked too many times at the mouth, and gone soft.
so is it time to discard them?

Whatta u guys think?

Vg

Too much crimp actually can loosen the cases grip on the bullet. If the die is sizing the case down enough it should hold a bullet almost by neck tension alone. The crimp should just turn the edge of the mouth firmly into the crimp groove.

How many times can you bend a metal coat hanger before it breaks?

I have Star Line brass that has been reloaded 22 times without issue. Brass becomes harder when reloaded, thus used brass is prone to splitting at the mouth. This happens because it's sized, belled, then crimped.

With straight walled pistol casing I normanlly load them until they show a crack depending on the brass load ect that can be once or many many times.

Back in the mid 70's I had some rem 357 cases that cracked on the 2nd reload not even hot ones. Some poor brass Most of the time with mag loads I get over 5 loads out of them with 38spl cases and light target loads I got up to 20.

I scrap pistol cases when they crack or the primer pockets become loose.

For straight wall cases I load until they crack or won't hold a primer and for necked cases I load until the neck splits, the primer pocket is loose or they start to show a separation ring when I feel with a paperclip inside the case.