How many times can you reuse brass?

[Texas Size 11]

New to reloading and curious to anybody's experience.

[BobCat]

Depends on caliber / pressure you load to. Look for neck cracks and loose primer pockets. On rifle brass, look for a ring near the case head that can signify incipient case head separation.

45 ACP is low pressure, brass will get real ratty before it starts cracking (or you will loose it in the grass). 38 Special is similar; 6-10 loadings is not uncommon or extreme. 9 mm is higher pressure, 357 Mag is higher - but I've loaded both 5-6 times without problems.

My .233 brass is all 5xfired and I'm still loading it. Rule of thumb, when you get more than a few neck cracks toss the batch.

Have fun!

Regards,
Andrew

[longtooth]

completely.
Til it splits.

[Texas Size 11]

I appreciate that...most of my reloads are .40 S&W and .380 auto. I was picking the brass back up and started wondering.

[MoJo]

completely.
Til it splits.

Or, until I loose it or the "Brass Buzzards" get it.

[LTUME1978]

I second what the others have said. I have some 357 brass that I bought in 1974 and it is still going strong. I quit keeping track of the number of times I have loaded those brass at loading number 13 (kind of an odd number to stop on). Don't have any idea how many times after that they have been loaded. The loads have been moderate (8 grains of Unique with a 158 grain lead swc). I have picked up 45 ACP brass that is as old as 1941 (military brass). I did a metallurgy paper in college (mechanical engineering) on the effects of cold working cartridge brass. I took 30-06 brass and sized them down to 270 then expanded them back to 30-06. They went through many more cycles of the expand/resize before failing than either mysef or my professor expected (he was a shooter and reloaded - not something you see very often on campus today). The stuff is pretty tough if it is not run on extremely hot loads full time.

[MeMelYup]

I second what the others have said. I have some 357 brass that I bought in 1974 and it is still going strong. I quit keeping track of the number of times I have loaded those brass at loading number 13 (kind of an odd number to stop on). Don't have any idea how many times after that they have been loaded. The loads have been moderate (8 grains of Unique with a 158 grain lead swc). I have picked up 45 ACP brass that is as old as 1941 (military brass). I did a metallurgy paper in college (mechanical engineering) on the effects of cold working cartridge brass. I took 30-06 brass and sized them down to 270 then expanded them back to 30-06. They went through many more cycles of the expand/resize before failing than either mysef or my professor expected (he was a shooter and reloaded - not something you see very often on campus today). The stuff is pretty tough if it is not run on extremely hot loads full time.

You did that on dies. Would that give you the same results as shooting. Your pressure would not be the same as shooting it. When you shoot the pressure causes the case to expand and compress into itself, causing the case to lenthen and the walls to become thinner. I believe if you take a new case and after it is sized mike the neck, then go and shoot and reload 10 times you will find that when you mike it again it will be thinner.

[LTUME1978]

You are correct that the 30-06 brass was done with dies. I was originally planning to do the test by shooting but could see that I would run out of time so the prof agreed to let me change the method of cold working the brass. While certainly different than shooting, normal shooting would not expand and contract the case (at least the neck area) like repeated cycles between 270 and 30-06. Please remember that this was on the effect of cold working brass. I did not think the brass would hold up to as many cycles as it did. I think I miked the case after each cycle to see the affect but don't remember now. I wish I had kept the paper, it was done in 76. I pitched it a few years ago as I got tired of it taking up space. You are correct about the brass flowing foward on shooting.

[HankB]

Low-pressure (.45 ACP, .38 Special, etc.) rounds will usually fail at the case neck if you roll crimp - but they still ought to last a dozen or more loadings. Switch to a modest taper crimp, and I'd expect the rounds to last for several dozen loadings, especially if fired in a revolver . . . if you shoot it in, say, a 1911, the .45 will usually pick up little dents and nicks on the rim that will render it unusable before the brass splits.

On the other hand. I limit myself to around 4 loadings for .308/.30-06 ammo that I've fired in my M1A, FAL, or Garand. By all accounts these rifles tend to stretch the cases, and I don't want a head separation. (I do check them using the "pointy hook on a paperclip" method described in some loading manuals.)

[sjones]

I reload both 9 and 45 until I see any splits or other damage.Both calibers are straight wall and as long as your not trying to go real hot you should be good for a lot of times.

[Gyrogearhead]

I've been reloading the same 45 acp now for many many years and only have to throw away one or two each reloading session. It just lasts forever it seems.

[sjones]

I don't really know how many times I've reloaded mine but its a lot,acouple of years anyway. sj

[medalguy]

My experience is that I lose pistol brass before it wears out. Rifle brass is different however. Mid range loads will give you more loadings, but generally for semiauto rifles I get 5-6 loadings and then toss the brass without even bothering to check it. It's all milsurp brass and that's cheap enough that I figure about 1 cent per loading and it's scrap.

[Gyrogearhead]

I have a friend who does that too. He saves his scrap brass and trades it to the local metal recycler for buckets of wheel weights from which he casts new bullets. Talk about getting the most bang for the buck!

[CDH]

9mm and 40S&W, 5 reloads. I figure case failure can be severely damaging in high pressure loads like this, so I don't push it...especially since I shoot a lot thorough polymer frame pistols.

38 spl and similar, till the neck splits.

All rifles, till the first neck split occurs then the whole batch (yes I segregate rifle brass by lot...ziplock bags are my friend!) goes in the recycle bucket.