Your record on brass - Brag On...

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lgbloader

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LGB
This ought to be funny...

What was your record number of refills on 1 lot of brass and what caliber was it?

I have a couple of lots of brass that I am almost embarrassed to admit how many times I loaded them up. It's not that I am cheap, I think I'm just a Brass Junkie.

According to my records, Lot #3 of my 38 spcl brass has been loaded 17 times but I think that it is actually closer to 25 because there was a time when I said "F*ck it" and just refilled. This is Remington Brass. I inspected this brass this weekend and it still looks good and I still have not had to trim yet.

As for rifle brass, I used to automatically pitch them at 10 refills if they made it that far but not no more.

My record high for bottle neck is 14 (hoping to get at least 20) with 30-30 Win. These have been fired single shot style and have been carefully ejected from the firearm and have only been loaded with light Trail Boss 7.8gr charges. Still looking good.

My record low was Remington 300 WBY MAG Brass. Only 5 refills. The Darn Belted Mag brass had trouble chambering even after FL sizing :banghead: But I really loaded these hot :evil: Now I use a secret weapon that has easily doubled and damn near tripled my brass use.

Cheers all around...

LGB
 
I never actually recorderd how many times I reloaded them, but I still use brass from the very first two batches of .38 Spl factory ammo I ever bought about 22 years ago.
The first are Hirtenberger (Austrian I believe) and the second Prvi Partizan (Serbian, but back then still Yugoslavian) . The latter have smaller primer flash holes than any other brand I know of, so I had to thin down a decapper pin in order to load them, but haven't caused any other problems.
 
When I started loading in 1971, I aquired a couple of thousand .45ACP cases headstamped WCC68. I've loaded those cases dozens of times. I still have several hundred of them.
 
Well I got 17 reloads 18 firings on one lot of 308 Lapua. I have 45ACP brass that the headstamp is unreadable. I have brass that has been loaded since the late 80's.... heck I got some RA42 brass that looks pretty darn good...
 
When I first starting reloading, I acquired my 38 special brass by buying reloads from the gun store and turning the empties back in. I acquired 200 cases that way.

I reloaded and shot at least 50 rounds a week for about 18 months while going to school. That would average about 19 reloads per case, if they all got reloaded an equal amount. And they were already reloads when I got them.

I continued to reload and shoot those same cases for a couple more years, but acquired more along the way, range pickup mostly. I would guess many of them have 30 or 40 reloads in them, and they are still going strong, although by now (almost 30 years later) I have a lot more than 200 empties, so those old ones don't get shot much. I don't sort them by how many times they have been fired, and over the years I have only tossed a few dozen that had split necks.

But I mostly shoot target loads, and I expect they will pretty much last forever shooting them that way.
 
Remington-Peters nickel plated .357 magnum that I've been reloading sense 1966. Have to admit...They are the only nickel plated cases that have lasted this long.
 
My first centerfire handgun was a Colt Trooper (not MK III, an original Trooper) that I bought used about 35 years ago. It came with a couple hundred nickel Super Vel .357 cases that had clearly been reloaded previously - no idea how many times. I no longer have the gun, but I've been reloading those cases for all that time, admittedly with the equivalent of .38 Special loads, but who knows how many dozens, perhaps hundreds, of reloads with no problems whatsoever. They've been tumbled and vibrated so many times that the nickel plating is just about worn off.
 
No clue.

I shoot it until it fails if it is pistol brass, and until it fails the internal check for case head seperation or has a split neck if it is rifle brass.
 
I don’t keep count but I would bet it’s some 357 brass I’ve been loading for over 22 years. They are from when I was a kid and I shot almost exclusively on our farm, so I couldn’t pick up range brass. Also, revolver brass is always much easier to find, so more come back home. I have no doubt some have been loaded over 20 times and I still have about 300 rounds that have yet to crack. The loads I use/d where light (even for a 38spl).

Now if you want to know the record on how many reloads I’ve made it to the other way that’s easy. One.
 
Back about 1980 or so Guns and Ammo mag ran a test using 1 38 Special case fired from the same chamber in a Smith revolver. They loaded and fired that case approx. 160 times if memory serves. I suppose the magazine archives could be searched. I have loaded 38's over 30 times before I quit counting.
 
My father in law gets new Lapua .220 russian brass every January for fire forming into each of his his 6mm PPC benchrest guns. He throws them all away in December after 1 season. He reloads these same cartridges (specific for each gun) at least 25 times over the span of a year.

Did I mention that the benchrest crowd has major OCD problems....
 
lgb
I've heard of Gold Records.

I've heard of vinyl records.

But Brass Records????????? Wouln't they break the needle? Sound scratchy?

Wait! Wait! I've got it. You should record everyones favorite "Cowboy Bob sings Love Ballads to his Horse!" and of course feature his all time hit "Sand Paper Kisses From my Horse"
 
*noob alert*

Does anyone anneal their brass? I just finished reading the ABC's. In one section they recommend annealing cases about every 6 loadings.
 
Starline .38 Specials loaded with 148 HBWCs and 2.7 Bullseye. Lost track after 20 reloadings, and that was five years ago. Figure they'll go forever.

The benchresters often get startling case life because they often use "fitted" cases: case necks and bullet diameters that so closely match the chamber/neck in the rifle that the brass never changes dimension from being fired. No work hardening = long case life. And a lot of those folks are using loads that would make the reloading manual authors turn green.

I can't imagine annealing handgun brass. I just haven't got the time or patience to spend a day holding a couple of thousand cases over a flame. I did once anneal all rifle cases, but gave up on that after seeing no difference in anything at all. The only cases I now anneal are for .416 Rigby, as those cases have a reputation for neck/shoulder splits and it's happened to me. Carefully loading up 20 "dangerous game approved" loads takes several painstaking hours, and those cases are two bucks a throw. Finding half of them with neck splits a month after loading them is disheartening!
 
Blind Bat
Yes! Lots of members of this forum do anneal rifle brass. I don't think pistol brass is either economical or practical to anneal.

Do a search as there are several good threads on the subject.
 
I remember the article on the 38 brass from Guns and Ammo,it was 156 times. I have some brass that's 38 years old in 44 mag IIRC.
 
Formed brass, benchrest chamber, tightnecked,6X44 remington BR, with neck aneal at some point. No documentation but these cases have been fired in excess of 120 times. Primer pockets are still tight and only a few have been lost due to split necks, hence the anealing. Tis bras is worked negligibly in firing and has little reason to wear out.
 
I shoot NRA PPC; many-many .38spl wadcutters at 2.6gr of Bullseye. (or 158gr SWC w/3.2gr of Bullseye).

I frequently get over 100 loadings on Remington match .38spl cases. They often start cracking where the two cannulures are rolled on the case body. But, as often as not, the neck will start splitting. I then just toss them in the "scrap bucket". Scrap brass has been going for about $2lb, you know!
The Winchester brass w/o the cannulure seem to last even longer. the 156X figure sounds reasonable.

I've seen my neckturned .300RUM split after 2-3 loadings however.
 
I have a buddy with an RCBS Rockchucker mounted on a stand, and we took it to his backyard (338 acres) firing range. I took a single .45 ACP case and loaded it over and over again to see how long it would last. After loading and shooting it (WW brass, 200 SWC with Bullseye) 19 times without any signs of wearing it out, I gave up. I was impresssed to say the least.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr
 
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