Retire brass?

[Cakes]

Curious when others decide to retire a lot of brass. My .284 with Lapua brass is a lot of 500. I anneal every 3rd firing, Tula primers and the pockets are still tight and ES's still stable and close to single digit. Most are at 12 & 13 firings and @ 1000yds. when I drop a point I know its not the brass but rather me. Shoot them till the pockets loosen up? I hate to prep some new brass when this current lot is shooting so well. Thanks, Eric in DL

 

[CatShooter]

Curious when others decide to retire a lot of brass. My .284 with Lapua brass is a lot of 500. I anneal every 3rd firing, Tula primers and the pockets are still tight and ES's still stable and close to single digit. Most are at 12 & 13 firings and @ 1000yds. when I drop a point I know its not the brass but rather me. Shoot them till the pockets loosen up? I hate to prep some new brass when this current lot is shooting so well. Thanks, Eric in DL

I finely tossed 300+ pieces of Winchester 22-250 brass that been fired ~45 times each...it was still good, but Lapua had just come out with theirs and it was sooooo nice.

If you manage case life well,it can last a looong time.

 

[finnaddict]

I would keep using it if nothing is changing. Those cases that do...use for foulers. My lot is currently on 19 shots and shows no signs of wearing down. This is the advatage of Lapua brass. Also it doesnt hurt to have extra loaded rounds that have say 2-4 firings for backups. Just my two cents.

 

[jonbearman]

What do you do for benchrest competition,do you run them till they die or only shoot 5 or 6 times and go with new brass.I shoot with a guy who I feel is well educated about benchrest however we have a disagreement how long you use the brass providing nothing changes down range.

 

[1shot]

I anneal ever 3rd or 4th firing dependent on the cartridge. I shoot all Lapua brass and I let the brass tell me when its had enough. The first thing I look for is a black ring around the primers. I shoot sling/prone so if I see one of those I put it primer up in my box. If that primer comes out really easy, then a new primer seats with very little force, that round is a fouler and I start to pay real close attention to what is going on the next time that lot of brass is fired. I guess it's all about keeping good notes and watching for signs of fatigue. The hotter you run your brass, the shorter the life span.
I hope this helps,
Lloyd

 

[ShootDots]

I have a short story that may help you out on this one. My first 6.5 x 47 used to shoot everything well. However, it shot 140 Berger L/R Boattails exceptionally well and VERY consistently. I was on "about" (I don't know exactly how many firings / annealings) 14-15 firings when I noticed my groups APPEARED to be opening up consistently.. My "normal" groups were usually right at 3/4 to as high as 1.25inches fairly regularly.. I started noticing they were consistently beginning to group 1.25 on the low side to 1.75 on the high side. This was not terrible shooting BUT it was considerably larger than "normal".. I thought it might be a different lot of powder, bullets etc... Well I decided not to waste too many components on a guessing game, as nothing seemed to change. I talked to a guy who USED to be a very decent Benchrest shooter. He asked me about my brass... I told him just what I stated here. He told me that the BODIES of the brass, under high-pressure loads, can get very hard, causing varying degrees of pressure as they would "expand" at different rates.. So I ordered a new box of brass and it "cured" my "problem" immediately!

So, since there was a very real shift in accuracy, albeit a "relatively" small amount, the "hardened bodies" of the brass was the culprit.. Since that time, if I notice my "X" count going down or my "flyers" increasing, I will go back to my 300 yard targets and shoot 30 rounds and see what is going on with the groups and e.s.'s.. If they are not "up to par" and I know I have quite a few firings on my brass>>out it goes! That little "rule" has worked well for me for several years now..

 

[johara1]

Boy am i glad you told me to dump the brass that quick. I just set a bunch of records with 3 year old brass that was fired close to a hundred times. I anneal every time,and to agg. 3.072 for 6 matches at 1000 yds. kind of sounds like they still work....... jim

 

[CatShooter]

Boy am i glad you told me to dump the brass that quick. I just set a bunch of records with 3 year old brass that was fired close to a hundred times. I anneal every time,and to agg. 3.072 for 6 matches at 1000 yds. kind of sounds like they still work....... jim

Naw... if you would have throwed them away and bought new brass, you would have done much better

 

[CatShooter]

"... He told me that the BODIES of the brass, under high-pressure loads, can get very hard, causing varying degrees of pressure as they would "expand" at different rates."

So I ordered a new box of brass and it "cured" my "problem" immediately!

That is one of the silliest things I have read in a long time.

If the bodies of your cases are expanding that much, that they effect the volume, you are definitely doing something wrong at the sizing stages of your loading.

 

[ShootDots]

Johara, I never told you to get rid of your brass in 14-15 firings... I did say that mine went south at that amount of reloadings... My 6mmBR (now a Dasher) was a different story.. I burned out a 6mmBR barrel using only 200 brass and 50 of those are still being used as my load development brass in my Dasher... I am glad you get a lot of brass life in your competition rifle. I did not in my 6.5 x 47.....

 

[Alexander-M]

What would be the brass life expectation without annealing?

I do not have an annealer, most of my brass has under four reloads, but soon that number will be surpassed. Just wondering whether to consider procuring an annealer in the near future.

Thx!

Nando

 

[johara1]

The same story with barrels and brass in the 6.5 x 47,i only lost brass when it was dropped nicked the case mouth, or over loaded. Never lost a barrel, they still shot small at 1000 yds. when it was sold....... jim

 

[bigedp51]

I don't retire my brass until the rear of the case has a blowout and the front of the case is sucked into a black hole.

Hang fire with surplus Pakistani .303 British ammunition during a mad minute shoot, click................bang!

 

[CatShooter]

I don't retire my brass until the rear of the case has a blowout and the front of the case is sucked into a black hole.

Hang fire with surplus Pakistani .303 British ammunition during a mad minute shoot, click................bang!

Ed... you can fix that case - there is a guy that makes a die especially for cases that expand too much at the base.

 

[ireload2]

I think your Lee-Enfield has a bad chamber.

 

[Outrider27]

What would be the brass life expectation without annealing?

I do not have an annealer, most of my brass has under four reloads, but soon that number will be surpassed. Just wondering whether to consider procuring an annealer in the near future.

Thx!

Nando

I had that problem and got the predecessor to this lead pot: http://leeprecision.com/precision-melter.html

I put about 3 lbs of a fairly high melting point lead alloy in it (probably linotype, it's about 780 degrees), and have been dipping case necks in it to anneal ever since. You can watch the heat effected zone travel up the neck into the shoulder and stop it wherever you wish by removing the case neck from the molten lead. Quick, precise and simple. Been using the same batch of lead alloy in it since about 1984. I dip the case necks in a small container of dry microfine graphite (as some use for lubing the inside of case necks for sizing) as an extra precaution to keep lead from sticking to the case neck, and have never had a problem. Average dip time for the cases I have annealed is 6 to 7 seconds each putting most of the neck in the lead and removing when the heat affected zone gets to the shoulder/case body junction.

 

[rogn]

Years back, I ran a 6X44 w/ Remi URBR formed brass. I ran most of it about 100 firings, and when I quit the groups were getting tighter. I did anneal about every 10 or so firings. Loads were not mild, but never lost one to primer pocket expansion. I did FLR about every 20 firings when loading/extraction was no longer smooth. I think one of the reasons was the chamber was designed around the brass, and was quite fitted.