Guys,

Got a rather stern warning from a knowledgable person not to use cases more than 2 to 3 reloads because of potential nead separation.

What are you all seeing in terms of case life in this caliber?

thanks,

mstarling
Case life for double rifles depends on a variety of factors, quality of cases, chamber dimensions, how much they are resized, pressure of your loads, and what phase the moon was in when the "brass ore" was dug out of the ground.
Norma cases for my 9.3 double will seperate on the third firing, I have some Bertram cases [@about 50] that have been fired 18 to 20 times each in my 450 No2. Just shoot them until you see the a distinct line start to develop above the base and/or you can feel a split beginning inside the case with a dental tool or a bent paper clip.
Based on how long they last you know how many times to reload them for plinking and lesser big game hunting.
For Dangerous Game or faraway hunting trips I only use new or once fired cases. Even when I am at the deer lease I always have at least 20 rounds of reloads in new or once fired cases as a back up.
At the first sign of head seperation I would "pull" all remaining loads and re-cycle the powder and bullets.
So the real answer is that case life depends......

Just buy some quality cases like B.E.L.L. from
Mast Technologies
then like 450 said, just keep an eye on them.

Rusty
We band of brothers!

mstarling

Check out the NO NO Norma Thread on BigBores from a few months ago.

Mickey1,

Found the thread in Medium Bores. Took a while.

Still not a replacement for the question on life of 470 brass.

I do note with interest that manyh seem to feel that Bell makes very good brass for the 470 NE.

I usually only reload my 470 NE. cases 4-5 times with full power loads, then use them for cast bullet practice. Cases last 10-12 reloads this way! I use Norma brass mostly.-Rob