I have some cases that are onto their 6th or 7th firing, and show no signs of wear, yet. The are Sako 6PPC and the necks are very neck, you really notice the difference when trimming.

Just beacse they have been fired z number of time, should they be abandoned, will the accurcy suffer?
The primer pockets are as tight as new and there are, like I said no signs of wear.

Use them for plinking? for development?

The 6PPC is a strong case and in most cases will out last brass like Winchester or Federal by many times. As long as they chamber with no problem and the primer pockets remain tight and group well keep using them. Some shooters fire them about twenty times then replace. I have talked to shooters who have fired them up to 100 times.

I see Becnhrest shooters at Kelbly's Super Shoot matches use the same twenty 6PPC cases the entire four days of the match. They fire 5 five shot groups plus sighters in each event 100 LV 200 LV 100 HV 200 HV and unlimited using the same cases. That computes to as many as 125 rounds or more, plus sighters and the warm up match to start the event.

Express..
Benchrest shooters do not use standard chambers, but very tight ones. Their brass will not stretch as much. I fact very little. Some chambers are cut so small, that the case does not need resizing after being fired. The brass simply springs back, after letting the bullet go.

How long will your brass last.. Check it out and see. But check it.
Do you heat/glow it after a while?

Alot depends on the chamber in your rifle,how dramatically you are resizing and how hot your loads are. That said, PPC brass usually outlasts most other cartidges because of the case design and the relative "mildness" of the round.

You should easily get 20 firings if you keep your pressures reasonable and minimize the full length resizing. However, you may want to anneal the necks at some point in the near future.

What is this heating/glowing process?

I just re-size 1/3 of the neck after firing, rarely a do a full unless something is not right.
I have run these "old" cases for the first time full length after 6 or 7 firings. I don't tumble them much either, just give them a wipe and a brushing out inside.

This batch I was going to throw away I tumbled, washed, trimmed, resized and they appear to be as good as the new stuff.

Express,

For a good how to description of case neck annealing go to www.varmintal.com and click on Realoading.

Mike M

When you fire a round, the fired case should slip down over a bullet of the proper calibre. If the case has not grown too long or the neck too thick for this to happen, keep loading 'em and shooting 'em.