Hey guys, I'm about to start reloading some rifle cartridges, which is a new experience for me. I was thinking while I was going through some shotgun hulls the other day, when do you need to discard brass and replace it with new? I shoot a good many shotgun shells and usually shoot 10-20 flats of new stuff every year, so I load them a few times and throw them away. I know if I loaded them enough, they would start to get holes in them near the crimps, split, get the burn marks, etc., but I'm guessing you don't want to reload metallic cartridges until they split or something of that nature...so when should you start loading new brass?

Rifle brass is more enduring that shots shells.
I honestly can't give you an answer that is tailored to your shooting. But, I just pay attention to the brass, especially as it work hardens during the loading and firing process and anneal it when it needs it. Case necks will thicken with firings too. If a neck splits during firing, I just pitch it, and keep on loading the brass that hasn't split, even though it has the same number of shots with it as the one that split.
I always measure case length after every firing and after sizing the cases. It does grow long with shooting, and sizing; that's why I measure case length AFTER sizing it. It needs to trimmed to length when it is too long.
Go forth, and load!!!

Don

There is no hard and fast rule that bottlenecked rifle brass needs scrapped after X many reloads. It all depends on:

high pressure loads weaken brass faster than milder loads.

full length resizing weakens brass faster than partial full length resizing or just neck resizing.

a big, sloppy chamber will require more resizing (and less case life) than one cut to minimum specs.

some brands of cartridge brass are softer, some are harder than 'normal' which affects case life.

cartridge designs that have a lot of body taper (375 H&H, 22-250 Rem) grow longer on each shot than those with straighter bodies, thus requiring much more frequent trimming to length, which in turn will eventually cause the case head to separate from the body as that area will thin first.

Too many variables to give a blanket response to your question.

I throw metallic brass away when the primer starts to seat a little loose. I clean my primer pockets each load using a primer pocket uniformer (brass flows into the primer pocket each firing). When I feel the primer not seating snugly I pitch that brass.

Read an article once where someone reloaded brass up to 19 times. Much will depend on how hot you load and how much you work your brass. Interestingly, neck sized only brass fared no better than full sized when lubed properly.

When the pockets get loose a drop of nail polish will keep the primers from falling out.
Lyle