Ball park figure how many reloads can I get out of .45 acp brass

[m&p45acp10+1]

I am purchasing a relading set up to start reloading ammo for my 45 auto. I just need to know roughly how many reloads i can get out of the brass to know how much to order. I plan on loading lead and going fairly cold for the loads. I know that brass can only be reloaded so many time before the pressure warps the case so badly it can not be reused. I would just like a decent ball park figure. Also how many average relaods could i possibly get out of 30-06 brass i may start to reload it as well as ammo has started to become so scarce theese days.
Thanks for any info
Nate

[Steviewonder1]

Till the cases split or fall apart. The 45ACP will work long and hard. You do want to pick up your fired cases, clean the cases and then do the reload. I have some that have been thru 6 cycles. It is hard to count the cycles at public ranges. Just a bit of QC on the brass will keep you going and going as the bunny says.....

[Walther22lr]

I can only speak on the .45 auto question. I will leave it to the rifle experts to comment on the 30-06.

Most of my brass is range pick up. Some of it is well over 40 years old and some of it is one week old. I do not segregate them. I also reload using the lead 230 gr RN bullet.

I have been reloading for about 30 years now. With the .45 acp, I just keep using them until they develop a split and then toss them out. This does not happen very often.

My loads are not mild, they only duplicate factory spec ammo. So to answer your question of roughly how many reloads i can get out of the brass to know how much to order is kind of hard to do.

One big variable however, is how much you bell the case mouth prior to seating the bullet. This will have an affect on how long your brass will last. Probably more so than any other factor.

[Sevens]

Of all the calibers out there, I doubt there is any caliber as easy on brass as non-hot lead bullet reloads in .45 Auto. I would guess that you can run most of the brass 20 times easy, and some of it even more.

When I first started .45, I tried to keep a count of how many times I was using the same brass. Got to be way too confusing to try and keep track, so I quit. That was '92. I haven't tossed any .45 brass in that time. I don't go through the stuff like an IPSC or IDPA shooter does, but it's the longest lasting of any caliber that I use. I really wish I had an accurate count of how many times I've loaded some of mine... truth is, I know which pieces of my brass are the ones I've run the most times... I just have no clue how many times I've run 'em. Gotta be more than 10, I'm thinking.

It's a low pressure round. They are big, so you don't lose many. There's no roll crimp, so the mouths don't get beat up as quickly. I don't over flare them, and they seem to be lasting with no signs of giving up.
I know that brass can only be reloaded so many time before the pressure warps the case so badly it can not be reused
I've not heard of anything like this. OVER pressure can mess up brass. Brass gets weak and cracks, usually at the mouth. Rifle brass stretches nearly every time you fire it and sometimes thins quickly on the inside near the case head, but simply reloading a low pressure round many times doesn't warp anything that I know of.

.30-06 is an entirely different animal. Can't give a ballpark on this because there are too many factors. Suffice to say, if you can get a piece of .30-06 to last as long as your WORST piece of .45, you are living a charmed life.

I should think that if you rifle slaughters the .30-06, your loads are h-o-t, your methods of case prep are lazy, and your brass is cheap to begin with, you'll still get 3 or 4 reloads out of most of them before they go completely to hell.

[Tex S]

You get alot of reloads with 45 auto.

So many its not really an issue. Odds are it will become lost before it wears out.

[darkgael]

Yep, til it splits.
I have some cases that I know have been reloaded 40 times. Target loads only.
Pete

[WESHOOT2]

The reloading process directly affects case life, so while my process may allow me to reuse cases well over 50 times, your process may limit or extend your case life.

There is an awful lot of life in the cases I repeatedly reload....

[m&p45acp10+1]

I greatly apreciate the helpful insight, and look forward to starting to reload ammo. It has gotten beyond the point of reduculous in trying to get ammo for just about any handgun caliber mad, that I have come to the conclusion that I am going to have to start rolling my own in order to be able to get any range time at all. I have found a supplier with prefired brass unpolished with fired primers still in.
Is $87.00 per 1000 cases plus $11 for shipping too much to pay. It is the only place I have found any that is still available. So that may actualy awnser my question. If you have a link for any that is cheaper. Please let me know.
Nate

[Sevens]

You can get brass cheaper, but it'll be once fired or multiple times fired and used and mixed headstamp brass. In your position, and loading for .45, I'd go that route.

However... you are about to find out what shouldn't surprise you any, but it'll be certain to cheese you off! Right now, tools and components for reloading is getting as tough as ammo. Obviously... it's all connected. Press and tools, not too bad. Dies are tough, especially in obvious and popular calibers. Brass is do-able, primers are nearly impossible to get and powder seems to be going the same route.

So turning to reloading as an alternative to buying expensive ammo that you can't even get was a good idea, back before the elections. Now, it's yet another frustrating and possibly dead-end road.

Hey, don't kill the messenger! ;)

Point your favorite web search tool to "once fired brass" and you should be able to find some .45 brass for cheaper than $87/1M, but you might not find primers almost anywhere. :mad:

[m&p45acp10+1]

Thanks for the reply, and the info on the brass. I have already found a Lee Classic Turret kit and have paid down to lay it away till payday. Also the store I have gone to has a ready supply of powder and primers(thankfuly). As far as ammo being scarce, I can find a good bit around here it is just expensive as can be. Like well over $30 for 50 rounds of fmj range ammo. I guess that is why the stores still have it in stock.LOL. Bullet molds I have found a few that are readily available. They are Lee molds. Lead I have plenty of. My roomie works at a tire shop and I have 8 buckets full, I also have a clamp and 2 pieces of L iron that I will use to make ingots with. The hardest thing to find so far has been bullets. It probably will get worse before it gets better.
President Obama has been the best thing to happpen to firearms sales since Sam Colt, or Oliver Winchester. Sales are going so well the demand has exceded the supply.

[howlnmad]

As for the 30-06 question... depends on how you treat the casings. Anneal the necks. Are you firing them from the same rifle and not sharing? If so, you can neck size instead of full length sizing, this creates less stress but should only be used in the rifle they were fire formed in. Don't go overboard on charges and don't use magnum primers either. Inspect them thoroughly each time. Wath for head seperation and neck splitting. Take care of them and you can reload them numerous times. I know of people that discard after five or six rounds... that's a waste :(. Be nice to your casings and they'll be nice to you ;).

[DEDON45]

The way mine are holding up, I figure they'll be good until I lose them at the range.

[GeauxTide]

Get 500 Remington or Midway cases and expect 6-8 cycles.

[ilbob]

Depends on the load and just how you do your relaoding but my guess is many of them can be reloaded at least a dozen times, maybe several dozen times.

[Death from Afar]

Just keep an eye on them, Brass is cheap, and if it looks a bit tired, just biff it. Better than a jammed up gun in the middle of a "man i wish this worked" situation.

[rwilson452]

For .45 ACP It depends on the brass. A-Merc brass you can usually get 0-1 reloads. I have some Milsurp brass I picked up 30 years ago. I'm still testing. I seem to lose it before it quits. I have some of it I have reloaded so many times I can barely read the head stamp. It just keeps ticking. Most of the loads have been light target loads with a 200gr SWC.

For 30-06 Maybe 10 again it depends on the brass and if your shooting competition and looking for those 200 yard bug hole groups.

[James R. Burke]

For regular brass I like winchester. But for my hunting rifle 30-06 and my wifes .243win I started using lapua. There all pretty good but alot less prep work with the lapua and they seem to be holding up well. I have about seven strong hunting rounds thru the 30-06 and they still look great. I guess they are suppost to last for a min of 10. I am still not sure if they are worth the extra bucks or not. I guess time will tell on that. I have never annealed the necks before but I am going to try it with this. I guess there are many factors on how many reloads you will get. The type of brass, what you are using it for, and how hot your loading it all come into play. I think most brass is pretty good if you do your part. I never done any reloading for the .45. I will keep you posted on how the 30-06 lapua holds up.

[madmo44mag]

Straight wall pistol brass can be reloaded till it fails - split case, primers fall out, etc...
The 45acp round is a low psi round and I have lost count of how many reloads I have on some brass.

As for necked rifle cases, this depends on the method of re-sizing, case/ cartridge and load.
I have seen 30 06 reload over 25 times with only 2 trimmings.
these were light loads for small white tail deer.
I've seen the same round loaded where 3 reloads was max.
Rifle brass stretches each time it is fired unlike pistol brass.
I load very little rife rounds any more and when I did it was never more than 100 rounds at any one time.
I'm a pistol guy.
Just my 2 cents:D

[Tex S]

A-Merc brass you can usually get 0-1 reloads


Thats funny!

I guess I have never seen any of this A Merc stuff, but I hear it is terrible.

What makes it so bad?

The only 45 brass that I have had trouble with is S&B. It seems like some of the primer pockets are too small to efficently prime with my RCBS Universal Hand Prime. I have about 500 pieces that I am saving for "ranch brass". I will take it to the ranch and not have to worry about bringing it back!!!

[Sevens]

Imagine, if you will, a piece of pistol brass. Think about the different things that could be crappy about it. When you've exhausted all your ideas, add 5 more and now you are approaching A-Merc brass.

I had resized, primed and loaded some .44 Magnum rounds with A-Merc brass quite some time ago, and had the handgun down in the cave as I often do when I'm working with a new caliber or load. In this case, my .44 Mag is a 10" barrel on a Contender. So it's a fine chamber, not a loose one.

My loaded round would chamber in the tight Contender chamber, but the pistol wouldn't lock closed. So of course, I'm thinking bullet length? But I know the length is within spec. So I pull the bullet anyway, so I can run it through the sizing die again to see where I've apparently missed something, right?

Turns out, with this particular piece of A-Merc brass, the case head is too thick. When was the last time anyone was held up by a problem with the thickness of a case head?

Just because this was the only thing it could have been, I grinded the case head down with sandpaper, nearly removing the head stamp on the brass. Eventually, with some elbow grease, the damn empty piece of sized brass chambered and allowed the Contender to lock closed.

Most of the other ones chambered. I popped the primers from the rest of the brass and gathered up all the A-Merc I could find in every caliber that I own. I didn't throw them out, I keep them in a little box that I call "test brass" that helps me to set up dies with different bullets and what-not.

I'm frugal, but the work that brass does is just too important to trust it to A-Merc. If it's safe and contains the blast, that's good... but given all the poor dimensions... the fact that the flash holes look like they were made with a pair of scissors, and even the half-way round flash holes are so far off center that you do a double-take when you see them, I just won't use them at all under any circumstances.

Process of elimination says that eventually, SOMETHING has to be the worst out of everything. Good news is that the leg work has already been done: It's A-Merc, the worst brass on the face of the earth.

[A/C Guy]

If you anneal your cases every 4 or 5 reloads, then they will last indefinitely. I know a guy that is currently reloading the same 100 cases for their 70th time.

Annealing works.

[Lost Sheep]

Nate, welcome to your new obsession.

Most of my brass (handguns, I don't shoot bottlenecked cartridges of any kind...too complicated for me yet) is brass I bought as loaded cartridges, mostly on sale.

Up until this past year, I don't think I ever bought empty brass of any kind.

I bought a couple cartons of 45ACP from Wal-Mart 16 months ago because they were on sale at a price that was only a few cents more that the cost of components. That brass will last me for a long time.

I don't think I have ever had to discard a 45ACP case for wear in 30 years. However, if you load them too light the case mouth may get dented when it is ejected. "Working" the brass (either rounding out the dents or excessively belling the case mouths during reloading) will make it brittle and the mouths will start to split.

I did wear out one box of 38 Specials (the only box of 38s I have ever owned) because of high pressure. At the range for practice and general plinking I generally shoot 357 magnum cases with 38 special loads in them, but a charge that produces 38 special pressure levels in the larger 357 cases apparantly produces a lot higher pressure in the slightly smaller 38 cases. The cases started to split after 3 loading cycles. And this was in a Dan Wesson (which has chamber dimensions on the tight side).

http://www.handloads.com/calc/loadingCosts.asp

or just do an internet search on the phrase "Cost of reloading" or "reloading cost" or phrases like that. There is even one that has a downloadable EXCEL spreadsheet you can use offline.

Good luck, good shooting, wear eye protection, especially when handling primers and don't pinch your fingers in your press.

Lost Sheep

Remember, only believe half of what you see and one quarter of what you hear. That goes double for what you get from the internet. Even this post.

Do your own independent, confirming research when ANYONE gives you new facts on the web.