What kind of case life are you getting with your belted magnums?

[CatShooter]

A friend who has been shooting a 308 long range match rifle asked me for advice on a bigger bang, and I suggested a 300 Winchester Magnum, or a 7mm Remington Magnum.

He said that he read in his Lyman loading manual that belted magnums can only be loaded 2 or 3 times... when I stopped laughing, I told him I get a hellova lot more loads on my 300 WM and 264 WM cases. He didn't believe me.

SO, the question of the day is... how many loads are you guys getting on your belted magnums, and what is your procedure and die setup?

I am shooting 190 SMKs at 2950, and I am using Redding Comp dies and anneal every 3 or 4 loadings.

 

[ridgeway]

Why not go with a WSM? Short, fat case with no belts to deal with.

 

[CatShooter]

Why not go with a WSM? Short, fat case with no belts to deal with.

PLEASE... that is NOT the question.

The question is about the case life of belted magnums... not other calibres.

 

[BoydAllen]

Catshooter,
I am a bit surprised. Surely you know why some only get a few loadings from belted cases. Why not just tell the guy? I guess your question is to discover how many there are out there who are making the same mistake, so that you can teach them how to avoid the problem, a laudable goal. For those who are not up to speed on this, the problem lies in following the typical die makers instructions to run their FL dies down till they touch the shell holder. FL dies for belted cases should be set to bump case shoulders in the same manner as for rimless cases. If they are, case life will be the same.
Boyd

 

[Gillie Dog]

I am on 11 firings with 300WBY mag and have seen no thinning or other issues yet. It is the Norma/WBY head stamp brass pushing 180gr at about 3090. I anneal every firing and neck size only. To date have not had a head space problem requiring shoulder bump but like all good things that will come also I believe.

GD

 

[ridgeway]

Why not go with a WSM? Short, fat case with no belts to deal with.

PLEASE... that is NOT the question.

The question is about the case life of belted magnums... not other calibres.

I know. . Match shooting...silly to run belted mags.

What I do with my belted mag:
I simply set up my sizer off the chamber. I remove the firing pin assembly and adjust my die till my case chambers. I just have a sporter...so it only gets shot when I see fur through the optics. I get 6-8 loadings on Win cases and 3-4 from rem cases.

 

[CatShooter]

Catshooter,
I am a bit surprised. Surely you know why some only get a few loadings from belted cases. Why not just tell the guy? I guess your question is to discover how many there are out there who are making the same mistake, so that you can teach them how to avoid the problem, a laudable goal. For those who are not up to speed on this, the problem lies in following the typical die makers instructions to run their FL dies down till they touch the shell holder. FL dies for belted cases should be set to bump case shoulders in the same manner as for rimless cases. If they are, case life will be the same.
Boyd

Boyd... I am a bit surprised that you can't understand the question... it is not about other cases - it is about the comment made by Lyman - why is that so hard to understand - myopia perhaps?

 

[BoydAllen]

My mistake. I was skimming, and after slowing down a bit, see that you are after. You want some help convincing your friend that the manual is wrong. Perhaps this will help. I have a number of friends and acquaintances that reload for belted cases. To a man, the only ones who have had the kind of case life issues that your friend's Lyman manual describes are those who followed the die makers' instructions to set their FL dies to touch the shell holder. Those who use some sort of tool to set their dies in the same manner that they would for a rimless case, have the same sort of case life that they get from rimless cases. If I were the editor of the Lyman manual, I would have explained the source of the problem, and how to avoid it. Some people are so impressed with something being in print, that they resist doing any evaluation of what they have read.

 

[CatShooter]

My mistake. I was skimming, and after slowing down a bit, see that you are after. You want some help convincing your friend that the manual is wrong. Perhaps this will help. I have a number of friends and acquaintances that reload for belted cases. To a man, the only ones who have had the kind of case life issues that your friend's Lyman manual describes are those who followed the die makers' instructions to set their FL dies to touch the shell holder. Those who use some sort of tool to set their dies in the same manner that they would for a rimless case, have the same sort of case life that they get from rimless cases. If I were the editor of the Lyman manual, I would have explained the source of the problem, and how to avoid it. Some people are so impressed with something being in print, that they resist doing any evaluation of what they have read.

Thank you.. as he also doesn't want to anneal his cases, for the same reason - his manual said not to.

 

[7stubby]

I had a factory Remmy 700 in 300 Win Mag and I used Winchester brass. On the 100 pieces I had for the rifle I was up to 14 firings on the brass before the barrel went south on me. I used the rifle to cut my teeth on long range shooting. Brass primer pockets were still good. My loads weren't mild either. I annealed every 3-4 firings and used a Lee collet neck sizer to size necks between annealing and a Hornady full length sizer after I annealed.
My load was 208gr Amax and H4831.

 

[people]

If the chamber is finished properly and the loads are proper the brass will last. Having a huge chamber, over work the brass, and try to make your load be more than it can be and you will be lucky to get 3 loadings.

 

[Chappy]

I quit counting the number of firings on my 8mm RM brass after 15. Headspace off the shoulders and anneal every 5 firings. This brass will last the whole rest of the barrel's life.

 

[M-61]

At the minimum 12 reloads on some of my .257 Weatherby cases.. Stopped only because the barrel is done.

 

[Road_Clam]

Very encouraging reading. I just got into the .300WM reloading game a few months ago, and CatShooter was a great advisor for me. I have been generating fire formed cases (R-P currently) , I FL size and verify i'm off the shoulder using Larry Willis shoulder height gage, and I also use Larry's collet die to keep the base near the belt in spec. I'm on my 4th reload and cases look mint and chamber (and un-chamber) perfectly.

 

[CaptainMal]

Both my 338Win Mag and 7mm Rem mag have cases loaded upward of 10 times.

Pockets on the 7MM seem to loosen a bit quicker but I run that one a bit hot. To me, their brass life is no different than larger cases without the belt.

 

[fourpower]

if gun will take it I set up dies on shoulder for zero head space! I sorted 150 pieces of brass by weight and necked turned 1 time and anneal every 3 firings. they have been loaded 15 times and brass is still going strong! I am going to replace the barrel and will see how long brass can still go. I do use larry willis die to keep eye on brass down by belt.

 

[FeMan]

I get five to seven reloadings out of my STW before the primer pockets get too loose for my liking. If I dropped it down to the next lower node I could probably go a LOT longer.

 

[M14AMU]

Obvious conclusion?

Cases last longer than barrels!!

 

[wnc-coyote]

Catshooter,
I am a bit surprised. Surely you know why some only get a few loadings from belted cases. Why not just tell the guy? I guess your question is to discover how many there are out there who are making the same mistake, so that you can teach them how to avoid the problem, a laudable goal. For those who are not up to speed on this, the problem lies in following the typical die makers instructions to run their FL dies down till they touch the shell holder. FL dies for belted cases should be set to bump case shoulders in the same manner as for rimless cases. If they are, case life will be the same.
Boyd

Boyd, I would be very interested in how you would suggest setting up for maximum case. I have just recently started loading for a belted mag for the first time. 7mm rem mag. I am using win brass.
I would appreciate any help.
Jesse

 

[Dgd6mm]

Obvious conclusion?

Cases last longer than barrels!!

lol, I believe I will be taking the .300 WM plunge, so I find this topic interesting, for I will be reloading for it.