How many times can you shoot Long Range Bench Rest brass?

[mikegaiz]

I am currently shooting Brass that has been reloaded and annealed 18 times. In the last 4 1000 yd. matches I shoot with this gun it shot 3 - 5in. groups and one 7 in. groups. The primer pockets are still good. I have read you should change brass more often. It not shooting bad, but what if???

 

[mikeeg02]

I shoot them until the primer pockets won't hold anymore. Even then I try. But end up dropping a shot or two because the primer didn't seal lol.

The only other thing you really have to worry about is case-head separation. But if you've made it that far, you're not likely over sizing the brass.

 

[Stan Taylor]

I am currently shooting Brass that has been reloaded and annealed 18 times. In the last 4 1000 yd. matches I shoot with this gun it shot 3 - 5in. groups and one 7 in. groups. The primer pockets are still good. I have read you should change brass more often. It not shooting bad, but what if???

Just load them on up see you at Whitehorse this weekend.

 

[johara1]

I am currently shooting Brass that has been reloaded and annealed 18 times. In the last 4 1000 yd. matches I shoot with this gun it shot 3 - 5in. groups and one 7 in. groups. The primer pockets are still good. I have read you should change brass more often. It not shooting bad, but what if???

Mike, just keep an eye on the neck thickness.... I never had a primer leak and had one separate due to a flaw in the case in a 100 firings in the old Lapua brass. The new stuff I'm not to that point yet but I see necks getting thinner faster.... jim

 

[JFrank]

I’m on 12 reloads without annealing, this batch seems to be holding the primers fine I’ve also only had to trim once. I’ suppose ill take them until the primers fall out on the floor.
Note worthy for me is that the new batch I’m FF tomorrow has considerably tighter pp though.
J

 

[JMayo]

6bra.
Last year's brass are this year's sighters. Probably shot near 20 times.
They are doing fine. I don't aneall much. Seems they require more push to get shoulder in place compared to new brass, maybe thinning of the base, idk. No separation, pockets are normal.

 

[NorCalMikie]

Tight primer pockets? Load and shoot. Any ???? Get new brass. It'll make you feel better.

 

[shoot4fun]

I had always thought brass would give you a visual sign (if not the loose primer pocket demise) that is had passed its best life. Last weekend I, unfortunately, learned that is not always so.
I had Lapua 223 brass on its 14th cycle at a match. I was aware that the pockets were getting loose and decided this would be the last cycle for this brass. Still I annealed and trimmed before I loaded, inspecting the cases at each level of progress. There was no hint of potential case head separation at all so I was surprised when the first one came apart and actually more surprised when it happened again about 6 rounds later. Being out of town for this match with no chance to make a new batch, I was also worried about match day. Sure enough, after making it thru 90% of the rounds required, another failure occurred. Of course, as is Murphy's law, this one did not clear easy enough for me to continue. An inspection showed that there wasn't really what I consider a normal case head separation. The cases all failed much higher up the body (about 1/2 way) but the case wall was much thinner in that area than it needed to be.
I would think you got your money's worth from the brass in question. Why not retire it before it costs you a match?

 

[Dave Berg]

With the 6BR I shoot fifty pieces of brass until the barrel is done, usually around 1,500 rounds. That's about thirty firings on each piece. Never annealed. Never had a loose primer pocket or case separation but the brass doesn't get worked very much when resizing (0.001" shoulder bump). I retire them when the barrel gets replaced but I'm not sure why.....

 

[mikeeg02]

Lol I'd like to have some of your old barrels. At 1500 rounds in a 6br they should be in pretty good shape still.

Edit: Maybe I've just had better luck.

 

[ballisticxlr]

Much of my 7BR brass is over 20 loadings being neck sized only and not annealed. Some of my Coach's 6.5BR brass has had substantially more. We shoot high power metallic silhouette with the BR's. We both see the necks usually splitting before anything else but occasionally we'll get one that will split down the body. We're super not aggressive about working the brass. Tight chambers, zero headspace, mild pressure loads. We'll typically run ram loads on new brass and up to about 10 loadings then we'll move that brass over to the chicken/pig/turkey loads. We have very different needs to Benchrest shooting. Our 6.5BR and 7BR barrels see >5000 rounds of life and we're running heavy for calibre bullets.

 

[theallcineyes]

depends on the rifle too. A good tight chamber always helps!

Annealing brass will extend case life too! With annealing about every 3-4 loads I can load the brass until the primer pockets get loose!

I have been using Winchester primers in my loads and when they start to get loose I switch over to the Wolf primers. They are approx .003-.004" bigger in diameter than the Winchester and CCI's. This will get me 4-6 more loads out of them. Sometimes even more than that depending on how hot my loads are!

This is where not shooting the Max load will pay off! A buddy of mine told me "If it moves you loose!!!". Neck sizing will extend your case life also. However, if your shooting it out of a semi-auto your pretty much stuck FL sizing!

Hope that helps!

 

[Stan Taylor]

We'll I guess you guys convinced him that brass was wore out he never showed up at Whitehorse this weekend.

 

[mike06]

I am currently shooting Brass that has been reloaded and annealed 18 times. In the last 4 1000 yd. matches I shoot with this gun it shot 3 - 5in. groups and one 7 in. groups. The primer pockets are still good. I have read you should change brass more often. It not shooting bad, but what if???

I am at 30 and still counting with Peterson 308 SRP pockets still tight no splits cases. I anneal everytime.