Case life

[normmatzen]

I have been shooting a group of 200 Lapua 6BR/6BRX cases for some time now and I got to thinking what the effective life of a quality case is.
I anneal after every firing, full length body size and use a LEE custom collette neck sizer. I follow with setting bullets with an in-line seating die and a small bench press with force indicating.
What do you long tern Long Range BR and F Class guys think?

 

[Richard Coody]

Totally depends on how you load them. Small primer.brass seems to hold.up better to hot.loads. long range benchrest load them hot. In fact it seems like most competition shooters load the hot. You can see what they use in the 6br section of accurate shooter. Compare it.to your loads.

6br barrels and brass will last.a long time with moderate loads.

 

[dstoenner]

I have 10 firings on my set of 6br brass. I got them annealed at 9 firings when i put on a new barrel. Primer pockets are tight. I think i have lost maybe 2 cases out of 300 so far

david

 

[Bob L.]

I usually get 12 reloads with my BRX before the primer pockets get loose. I shoot a fairly hot load and anneal each firing. Lapua 6 BR brass.

 

[BW]

I've been getting 12 to 14 reloads with my BRX. Lapua brass and annealing every firing. Running 105's around 3015.

 

[Twicepop]

Years back Precision Shooting did a brass longevity test with Federal, Lapua, Norma, Remington and Winchester brass. By the twelfth load all of the American brass had given up with splits, case head separations or a combination of the problems. Between load cycle 30-35, the Norma brass had failed also. At 50 loads, the test was called of, the author said that the only problem with the remaining Lapua brass was that it had work hardened. He felt that it could have been annealed and the test continued.

 

[F Class John]

My buddy is somewhere around his 40th load on his lapua 6.5c brass. He’s literally only bought one batch when he first got started shooting years ago and never got another yet. He anneals every time.

edit: I should mention the guy still shoots clean 200s with high X counts nearly every week at 600yds.

 

[whatsupdoc]

Lapua 6.5 creed cases reloaded 35x still going. Anneal every firing.

 

[mike06]

Peterson 308 SRP finally split my first neck at 50 reloads. I anneal after every firing.

 

[D-4297]

I've been rotating thru 600 Lapua SRP for three years now , at a firing rate of about 200 - 250 per month . Moderate F class loads , mostly 185gr bullets at 2650 range . 200's also shot around 2610 - 2640 . Annealed trimmed , and re-sized after every firing . No worries , yet .

 

[jepp2]

What do you long tern Long Range BR and F Class guys think?

In addition to various bolt guns, I enjoy shooting AR's for accuracy. I had read where lots of folks discard their AR fired brass after 5 loadings. So I decided to run a case life test to see how many loadings they would last, and what would be the basic cause of retiring them.

I'll share my worst case scenario test I ran, just to give a perspective. Brass gets beat around pretty good in a gas gun and the shoulder gets set back more.

I started by picking up 20 "range brass" all LC once fired. Probably XM193 fired in hot weather as some of the primer pockets were already loose. Started cycling them though my process, setting the shoulder back around 0.004" so they would fire in any AR I had and since they are gas guns. Annealed every 5'th firing to avoid neck cracks.

First retirement occurred after 24 loadings, last case retired after 37'th loading. I really expected incipient case head separations to be the cause of retirement, due to the amount I was setting back the shoulder. None had this. Almost all were retired due to thru wall cracks in the neck that were due to "gouges" from the brass neck contacting the barrel extension lugs during ejection. This thinned the metal, and a opening would occur. I now stone these two lugs to take the sharp points off for new barrels I install.

For quality brass - Lapua or Peterson that I fire in my bolt guns (6mm and 6.5mm CM's) where I set the shoulder back 0.001" from bolt contact and the neck gets worked much less, I have yet to find a number for expected case life.

Here is what a case that I retired looked like, close up.

 

[Dgd6mm]

Norm, I believe when I researched how many firings that Lapua 6br brass are capable of getting from a well seasoned reloader, Jim O'hara replied in a thread that some of his has over 100 firings. I also want to believe, due to digging in the archives, that 30-40 loadings is possible and achievable.

 

[JMayo]

6bra, moderate load, bench rest only.
I've got 180+ with 30+ firings. I bought new at the direction of another thinking it was the thing to do. I used the older for sighters for a while.
Now I'm seeing that was a waste ... I'll let this new brass catch up in firings then mix em.
The old did harden and they need annealing more often, sooner, than the new to stave off shoulder spring back.
NO notable primer pocket change in seating primers. However, cleaning primer pockets causes thinning and jagged holes.
If anything retires them it will be the flash hole irregularities.

 

[NorCalMikie]

Lapua 6BR brass. All mid range loads, shoulder bumped then body sized if needed. 25 to 30 loads. Maybe annealed once? (just because)

 

[Tempest]

FTR gun. Lapua Palma .308 brass with a 200g Berger. Got 24 loads out of them. Probably could have got more but thought that was enough.

 

[Dgd6mm]

I'm going to try Peterson 6br brass in another rifle and see how it holds up. I like my Lapua brass.

 

[normmatzen]

So nice to hear from competent shooters without snide comments!

I guess with my estimated 10-15 firings I'm good to go.
I have lost 12 cases with most due to failing to pay attention to head space!
My primer pockets are still tight on my Wolf SRM primers.

Thank you all!!!

 

[searcher]

I have 40 one set of Lapua 6BR with 40 loadings. Fairly mild loads on that set and pockets still tight. I anneal every 3 firings or so.

 

[WIB3]

In a Dasher if you are reasonable with the pressure you should be able to get 15 firings.

 

[rwj]

I have 40 one set of Lapua 6BR with 40 loadings. Fairly mild loads on that set and pockets still tight. I anneal every 3 firings or so.

Similar here... I anneal at 4/5 firings based on seating force variation...