What to do with brass you know only has one or to loads left in them ?

[Metal god]

I'm just starting to load for my ARs and I've heard you only get 2 ,3 maybe 4 loadings from there brass .

I'd like to load some rounds and save for a rainy day or SHTF . My thought on this is it would be dumb to use new or once fire brass for loads I may never shoot . My thought was to use the brass that has 2 or 3 loads on them already for these stock pile loads . I should make clear that the brass would not be on it's last leg and most likely would fail next time it's fired . This is assuming the brass will be safe for at least one more firing .

What do you guys do ? I've heard of guys that just crush and or throw brass away after so many firings . If the brass still appears to be good why not load them up one last time and put them away ? You would need to mark them in some way so you know not to use that brass again if you do use them but that should be easy enough .

[Jimro]

I do 4 reloads and chuck it.

My buddy does 3 reloads and saves the 4th reload for a cheap bullet, moderate powder charge, and it becomes his "zombie" ammo.

Do whatever you feel comfortable with.

Jimro

[buck460XVR]

They get thrown in a bucket along with used primers and range pick-up brass I don't use and get taken to the recyclers. I think it's worth about a buck and a half a pound right now.

[TATER]

For .223 and .308 Thats exactly what I have been doing with my "Good Stuff"… What I consider good stuff is, Lapua, Norma, TwinCity and LakeCity..Few others..
After I "Feel" they are reaching the end, I preform One last anneal and trim, I polish them shinny and then load them for storage.

[Sierra280]

Why is the brass somehow bad after x amount of reloads? On the reloading data charts in my book I allowed space for recording brass reload number because I know many people do this. I don't understand it. WE NEED EMPIRICAL DATA!! After all that's what reloading is all about.

What makes this brass so bad? Are you measuring the case heads, and have they grown to an unaccecptable size? Is the brass just above the head thin and pitted inside? Have you been keeping track of how much you have trimmed off and it has reached your maximum? Are there signs of case head seperation?

I've never understood why some folks go by the 'number of reloads' rule for brass. It's fine to do what you feel, but I like numbers and measurements to back it up.

[Hog Buster]

Here’s a chart that someone did concerning brass failure. It may have come from this forum, but I don’t remember for sure. I find it interesting and you might too.......... Oh yeah, this was done with .308 brass. I use mostly Remington rifle brass and dump it after 8 to 10 reloadings. Never split a case.

[Sierra280]

Neat chart. I reload 308 and its in the ballpark of what I've found going off of case wall thinning and interior case 'erosion' down near the head. I've got 8-9 (never got 10) out of plain rem brass, and 13-16 with norma. Never had one split or seperate, but I'd rather not try.

Edit-Those are the only two brands of brass I've reloaded for 308, so that's all I can compare.

[g.willikers]

How about doing it the other way around.
Load your best brass for storage and the worst for range use.
If it's ever needed, the stored brass can be relied on as it becomes necessary.
And the older brass can still be depended on for daily range use.
If it's lost in the grass, or you go to a no pickup match or training session, and have to leave it lay, it's no big deal.

[nemesiss45]

Originally Posted by g.willikers

How about doing it the other way around.
Load your best brass for storage and the worst for range use.
If it's ever needed, the stored brass can be relied on as it becomes necessary.
And the older brass can still be depended on for daily range use.
If it's lost in the grass, or you go to a no pickup match or training session, and have to leave it lay, it's no big deal.

Agreed

I have, as of now, only loaded once fired brass, but I put that first round into my rainy day stockpile, and reload 2+ fired brass for the range. That way, if worst ever comes to worst, I will have brass I can reload multiple time when there is no longer any to buy.

[Damon555]

......

[higgite]

Originally Posted by g.willikers

How about doing it the other way around.
Load your best brass for storage and the worst for range use.

Agreed. Which loads would you rather be more reliable, your plinking/training ammo or your SHTF ammo?

[TATER]

g.willikers, There is much merit to your thought process. I do see your point.. The stuff that I am storing is reliable, I am not talking about
anything where heads are ready to separate or stretched pockets, its not ready to be trashed, just tired..
My thought process is that, If this stuff comes out of storage, I'm not concerned or worried about picking it up, that’s probably the last thing I'll be think'en about. But, I do see your point.

[FrankenMauser]

Here’s a chart that someone did concerning brass failure. It may have come from this forum, but I don’t remember for sure.

That's from a Handloader article (from mid-2008 I believe, and republished in about 2010). It would probably be in your best interest to remove the image, unless you have permission from the author and Wolfe Publishing to be posting it.

[Metal god]

Thanks guys and although I do reload 308 and have 5 loads and one annealing on some WCC and 4 loads on Rem . I'm really want to know how many loads to expect from my 223/AR cases . Right now I'm in the middle of loading a few hundred once fired LC cases . I've been collecting and or buying brass from my local range and have 3 or 4 thousand mixed cases . Most military stuff because the Navy and coastguard both practice out there and they burn through a lot of ammo.

As of yet I have not found any really hot loads I like . Mostly cus I don't go looking . My load of choice for AR right now is 55gr FMJ with 25gr IMR-4895 @ 2800fps ish it's a good little plinking round

[mdmtj]

I pretty much use the same load for practice/training as I use for storage. That makes it easy for me. What I load just goes into storage. When I go to the range I just pull from the oldest in storage and go shoot.

[Sure Shot Mc Gee]

Belonging to a Gun Club all my once fired brass is free for the taking. Nor am I limited to amounts and I'm allowed to select the brands I prefer. My choices are Frontier Federal Winchester in the order.

As for 223. A few years back I bought a new full case of Winchester (over 3000 pcs) from Dexter Automotive now Powder Valley. Still shooting off that same case. I doubt my little model 7 and I will ever see the bottom of that Winchester box together.
Pleased to say I don't have to squeeze as many loadings as I can from any brass. My very first procedure is their Re-Sizing than I trim all to minimum length (one time only never trimmed thereafter) When they grow beyond my Seater die's permanent setting and I start to experience depth or crimp issues. That brass is set aside and later striped of its components than dropped into a junk box. That's how it's done here.

[Rifleman1776]

Why is the brass somehow bad after x amount of reloads?

My thought exactly.
I have never reloaded .223 but have loaded considerable amounts of 30-06 and lesser amounts of .243, plus pistol.
I consider most brass life to be nearly indefinite. I reload unti signs of splitting or separation begin appearing. If several in a lot (I keep them together in boxes of 50) begin failing I'll anneal the rest. Some of my '06 rounds have been reloaded many-many times. BTW, I am a very finnicky inspector of my brass and do not hesitate to discard at the first sign of failure.

[Mike Irwin]

Load it.

When it fails, toss it.

[hodaka]

I'm with Mike on that. I once kept track but now I shoot too much with too many calibers. Now I shoot them till they split. I try to keep my bolt gun brass in groups of 50 then when some start splitting I recycle the batch.

[F. Guffey]

Here’s a chart that someone did concerning brass failure. It may have come from this forum, but I don’t remember for sure. I find it interesting and you might too..........

I find it interesting reloaders find it interesting without asking questions, They buy into it 100% without knowing what rifle, what receiver, they do not ask if the article was written by someone that know how to measure the length of the chamber in thousandths from the shoulder to the bolt face, they have no clue what difference means when dealing with case longevity.

Difference in length between a new over the counter factory loaded ammo and the length of the case after firing, they do not know if the case increased in length .005" or .010" or is considered a 'short chamber'.

Before I can get all giddy about the chart I what to know the difference in length between the chamber and minimum length ammo when measured from the usual places.

F. Guffey

[Jimro]

F. Guffey,

I wanted to find out the authors rifle of choice. Based on the number of firings I suspected a manual action (bolt or falling block), but I couldn't find a copy of the article online to review the methodology.

I do know that Bart B. did the experiment with a bolt rifle and semi-auto chamber to the same headspace with the same chamber reamer and found that the bolt rifle brass would rechamber in either chamber just fine, but the semi-auto brass was blown out too big for either chamber (If I recall correctly what he wrote).

Minimal work on the brass = longer brass life.

Jimro

[FrankenMauser]

I wanted to find out the authors rifle of choice. Based on the number of firings I suspected a manual action (bolt or falling block), but I couldn't find a copy of the article online to review the methodology.

The rifle used was a SAKO TRG-22.

My copy of that issue is MIA at the moment, so I'm shooting from the hip, here. ....But a quick search is pointing me toward Handloader #257 (December 2008), "Developing an Accurate .308 Load: Handloading for Accuracy", by Gary Sciuchetti.
Unfortunately, the online preview of that issue omits the entire article.

[Jimro]

Ah, a TRG-22 is a very good rifle.

I would expect significantly less brass life from an M1A, Garand, or AR-10.

Jimro

[cornbush]

I have some 223 brass that I have reloaded over a dozen times, keep shooting it till it splits, 99.9% of the time the neck will split before any other issues show up.

[jcwit]

I reload .223 used in a Rem. 700 VLS, reloads are loaded for accuracy which happens to be in this rifle in the midrange power wise. I reload the same 5 cases over and over, they now have been reloaded over 70 times with no issues.

I also reload for other rifle calibers, cases are reloaded till they show signs of failure, none of these calibers are loaded at or near max.

Pistol cases? Man some have been reloaded till you can't read the headstamp.

As always YMMV