How reloadings will the brass take?

[offthepaper]

I know this is sort of a dumb question, But here goes.
How many times can I expect to be able to reload my brass in the calibers I've recently began loading?
The reloads are for:
1) 30-06 for my Garands (mostly using HXP brass) w/ 150 grain fmjbt's
2) 223 for my AR'S (mostly remington brass) w/55 grain fmjbt's
3) 9mm (mostly Blazer and UMC brass) w/ 115 gr, 124gr, 148 gr fmj's

I'm not loading any of these very hot, just plinking ammo. Most are loaded at the lower half recommended load charts.

 

[rcmodel]

The 9mm can be reloaded until you lose them in the weeds, or the neck cracks.
Could be 1, or it could be 10 -15 or more.

The rifle cases have many variables that determine the life span.

Excess FL sizing (creating excess headspace), how hot they are loaded, etc. will determine how much stretching is going on.

The only way to tell is to bend an L on the end of a wire or paper-clip, and feel down inside the case for a stretch ring.

When you can feel it, the brass is getting very close to a casehead separation and should be retired.

I personally limit my semi-auto rifle brass to perhaps five loadings at full pressure.

rc

 

[Mark whiz]

rcmodel has some good advice there.

Pistol cases will last virtually forever, but you will get mouth cracks from time to time after a lot of reloads, those get tossed.

Semi-auto rifles are much harder on brass than bolt guns, but with care you can still get quite a few loads out of them. I had some federal brass that I reloaded about 24 times before I retired them and that was only because the primer pokets were worn out and primers didn't seat firmly. I anneal my M1A brass after every 3 or 4 loadings and I think that helps a lot to increase their longevity. The paper-clip test for impending head seperation is a VERY good practice and I highly recommend it when loading for semi-auto rifles.

 

[gdcpony]

In a bolt gun I have been known to get 15 out of a lot of brass necksizing. I threw them out after that. FL sizing I got 8-10, but I checked for stretch every firing. Not to mention AR's have a habit of dinging the shoulder of the case. This could pose a problem, though I never experienced one.

 

[Ol` Joe]

How long a case lasts depends a lot on how much it is worked dureing the fireing/resizeing cycle. Neck sizeing can make for very good case life as can proper FL resizeing with bottleneck brass. I normally toss bottle neck cases at 10 or so reloadings, depending on the gun they were fired from. My 25-06 has a slightly large chamber neck and brass is worked more then normal in my other rifles. I get around 8-9 loads and necks split. I toss these cases at 6X loads, weather they appear good or not. My 223 gets a dozen loads easily, but are tossed before that just for my peace of mind.
Semi-autos have a slightly sloppy chamber most of the time and don`t offer the case life a bolt or single shot will. This isn`t cut in stone and can vary somewhat. Hot loads will stretch primer pockets also, making brass unusable. This can be avoided though with a little care.
A tight chambered custom barrel will offer the most case life, and if you take care how many loads you can get is anyones guess. I`ve seen reference to 30-40 loads from tight chambered varmit rifles with neck sized brass more then a few times. These are with normal pressure for the cartridge loadings, not low psi loadings either.
Straight walled pistol such as 45 acp or 9mm are as stated earlier by RC almost always lost before they are wore out. I would check old brass for mouth splits and toss if I found any but would not worry much about them.
My dad loaded the same 200 or so 357 brass for years with no problems and he never found a split case I`m aware of. He did however toss a few with the nickle plating flaking from the mouths and a crack appearing there. Heavy roll crimps are hard on brass.....

 

[dave from mesa]

I may be mistaken here (it has happened once) but I thought that Blazer is made out of Aluminum and berdan primed and not brass. Haven't used any in years so not sure.
If this is the case it is not reloadable or at least I wouldn't do it.

 

[bullseye308]

Blazer now also comes in brass, as well as aluminum.

 

[dave from mesa]

Ok I stand corrected. Damn that's twice.