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

[Metal god]

So what I'm starting to see here is the necks splitting as being the main failure here . I'll try to keep this on track here . Question here is really about the 5.56/223 in a AR . . When talking about case failure in the AR platform . Are we talking about the same neck cracking issue being the most common failure ? I was thinking I was going to get a lot more case stretching as well and that was the main issue as to why you don't get as many loads from a semi compared to a bolt gun ?

If the neck splitting is ( for the most part ) all I'm going to run in to . If I anneal every 2nd or 3rd loading will that solve the issue . I just started annealing my 308 bolt gun cases and it appears not to be all that hard or time consuming . I say appears because I've only annealed one batch of 150 cases . I have loaded those cases but have not shot them yet so I don't really know how it's worked out yet . The necks are defiantly softer though . I had to use a smaller neck bushing to get the same bullet hold as before .

My point to this thread is that I expect to get 15 maybe 20 reloads from my 308 bolt gun brass . It's my understanding that will never happen when loading for the AR platform . If I'm going to get 10+ loads out of the brass I'm loading in my ARs then this is really a non-issue . That for me would be plenty of loads before I scrap the cases . If I'm only going to get 3 "good" loads from my brass I'd rather load them twice for range/plinking and put away the 3rd loading for later . I plan to put some away no matter what , I guess I'm just looking not to waist the cases . I feel if I stock pile new cases I'm waisting 2 or 3 loadings and that translates to costing more money.

I do want to be clear here . I in NO way want to save money by putting away unsafe or unreliable ammo . This whole thing is based on putting away ammo that I have a reasonable belief it will be safe and reliable and not just to save a buck . That being said , If I can save a buck I want too

[243winxb]

Necks go first. Some on the 1st reload. Bad brass in some brands. Standard dies over work the brass. Bushing dies do not, giving longer case life. On storage- the fired brass must be 100% clean like new brass. On firing, many chemicals are produced. The left over residue must be removed before putting away for 10 years. Military powder may be treated with CaCO3, so that powder does not attack the brass in long term storage. Annealing will not fix brass that has come in contact with ammonia products, cleaning fluids or cleaning agents containing vinegar.

[tangolima]

For bolt guns, I use all the hand loading tricks to prolong brass life. 20 firings or more easily.

But I tend to be more conservative when it comes to certain semis with floating firing pin. The focus will on preventing out-of-battery slam fires, other than brass life. In those rifles a mid-length head separation would be rather undesirable.

New brass will go through my garands first. After 10 firings they will be fed to my 03, 1917, and rem 700 till they fail.

For calibers that I only have semis, HK91 and SKS, I will do 10 firings, take out the lame ones, retire the rest and start another batch when it reaches 15 firings.

I trim and anneal every 5 firings, and inspect before every load.

That's for rifles. I don't even keep track of number of firings for pistols.

Not necessary the neck will go first, especially if you anneal, or there won't be such thing as head separation.

-TL

[44 AMP]

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....

Brass isn't automatically bad after x number of reloads. What people do is keep track, so they can avoid case failures, on average.

And the average is going to be different, for each gun, each load level, and each batch of brass.. lots of factors are involved, including the relationship between your chamber, your sizing die, how you load the brass, the brass itself, etc....

Bottle neck cases stretch, thin, and ultimately fail. Nature of the beast. Many people prefer to toss the brass at a point before they fail. Some use the cases until they fail.

My experience is that bottle necked cases usually fail from head separation, not neck cracking. Straight wall cases usually fail from neck (case mouth) cracking. This is due to the way the brass is worked, both on firing, and reloading. Exceptions do occur, as well.

[Jimro]

My experience is that with a bolt action rifle you'll get split necks before case cracking if you don't anneal the neck/shoulder area.

With a semi-auto, case head separation on extraction, leaving most of the body stuck in the chamber...

Of course every rifle/ammo combination will be a little bit different.

Jimro

[Real Gun]

If this fired 5 times and retired rule has real merit, then buying fired (necked) brass is seriously called into question, and one would need to be double darned sure where the brass came from.

[4runnerman]

I get 15 reloads out of my 308 brass, and 223, not sure how many as I have so much that I never reload the stuff.

[Jimro]

Real Gun,

It's usually not too bad buying surplus 5.56 brass. Lake City with the crimp still in it has only been shot once.

Surplus 7.62 is better if you can buy "pulled" cases as anything run through a machine gun chamber is more work than normal to reload. Still doable, and if you have the time very economical.

As far as pistols go, I wouldn't worry about it, you'll see case splits at the mouth before any sort of case head separation with those pressure levels.

Jimro