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Old October 7, 2012, 04:47 PM   #14
Gerry
Senior Member
 
Join Date: December 24, 2010
Location: Canada
Posts: 382
It's very rare that I find pistol range brass with cracked mouths or anything like that - like perhaps 2 for every 5,000 pieces I've picked up, if even that. I don't bother carefully inspecting my 9mm brass but rifle of course would be another story. The very rare times I discover cracked cases has usually been when the case comes around in my Dillon 650 for placing the bullet. I check the powder charge (even with the powder check) and inspect the case mouth at the same time.

I shoot with IPSC guys which means my "new" brass has likely been reloaded many times each by many, many shooters. I'd hate to even think how many times. It's probably in the many dozens. Heck, I even pick up the badly tarnished ones lost from years past when a good rain the day before exposes them in the sand at the range. They clean up like new in my Thumlers Tumbler.

In my experience, the main problem that signals the end of a pistol round's life is loose primer pockets. Some brands are worse that others. When I don't feel that "squishy" resistance feeling during primer seating on my Dillon, the round is marked with a sharpy and put in a different container to be used once for Bill Drills or something like that. Then the spent cases are put into a bag before placing it in the garbage so that it doesn't get put back into circulation. (Even it someone else picks it up, I might eventually end up with it again!) The worse that can happen with worn cases like this is that the primer may fall out after loading, making a "trickler". Very annoying, but far from life-threatening. It's still rare that I find one with loose primer pockets even. I may mark one in 100 to 300 loaded rounds.
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