How many times can I reload it?

[Vodoun daVinci]

200 rounds of Hornady brass. 6.5 Creedmoor, H4350, 147 gr. ELDM. I full length resize, trim, size the necks, and reload to moderate velocities of 2640 fps. Never have annealed.

How many reloads before I toss thus brass and start over? Just a guess...

I'm on 6th round now.

VooDoo

 

[Carlos Danger]

Keep going until you get neck spilts or they stop holding primers. 6-8 loads seemed to be my average.

 

[Vodoun daVinci]

The bulk of my experience reloading/hand loading, before I discovered the wonderful and expensive hobby of Precision Shooting, was in loading handgun rounds. Started on .357/.38 and then 9mm, .380. 32 ACP. Usually the weakest link in handgun brass is the primer pockets - they get too loose to get a good seat.

After the 6th cycle my primer pockets on the 6.5 CM are still tight. I have not perceived any slop yet. If I start annealing, how much life would we guess I'd get?

VooDoo

 

[rustyinbend]

Never anneal? Answer is probably "2 times ago". But you could keep shooting until something goes "Boom" instead of "Bang".

 

[918v]

200 rounds of Hornady brass. 6.5 Creedmoor, H4350, 147 gr. ELDM. I full length resize, trim, size the necks, and reload to moderate velocities of 2640 fps. Never have annealed.

How many reloads before I toss thus brass and start over? Just a guess...

I'm on 6th round now.

VooDoo

147@2640 is not moderate in Hornady brass.

What powder are you using?

How much are the cases growing in length each reloading cycle?

How much are you sizing the case?

How tight are the primer pockets?

 

[Jack's Dad]

I always toss Hornady after 7 firings

 

[Dead Eye Dick]

A real issue. Primer pockets were still tight, neck sized until the shoulder just had to be set back. Set the shoulders back and started getting head separations. Annealed brass when the necks showed splits (around five firings)

So, I would say, when they really get long in the tooth, (approaching ten firings) and neck sizing shows the need to bump back the shoulder, its time to let it go.

Now, I have some handgun brass that goes back to the 70’s but lightly loaded and not so much subject to head separations.

 

[Lunchbox27]

I got to 9 reloads on Hornady brass before primer pockets became too loose. Never a cracked neck. 140eld’s going 2700 fps with a very mild charge of H4350. I did anneal every firing.

 

[918v]

A real issue. Primer pockets were still tight, neck sized until the shoulder just had to be set back. Set the shoulders back and started getting head separations. Annealed brass when the necks showed splits (around five firings)

So, I would say, when they really get long in the tooth, (approaching ten firings) and neck sizing shows the need to bump back the shoulder, its time to let it go.

Now, I have some handgun brass that goes back to the 70’s but lightly loaded and not so much subject to head separations.

Using a Redding body to bump the shoulders .002” and a Lee collet die to size the neck I get 14 firings on Hornady .300WM brass before the case head let’s go.

How much did you bump the shoulders?

 

[XikoPlavi]

I think amp annealing did a video/ article not that long ago where they got up to using a lapua 65 case up to 21 times and it was still going BUT of course they annealed every time

Hornady brass I’m sure would be less than 21 since it’s thinner.

 

[XikoPlavi]

^^^ I can’t remember if that amp article was loading and firing or just doing a case over and over again. So, never mind wrong example probably

 

[wpeach1912]

With hornady brass I get about 4-6 firings without annealing before case head separations and split necks. I do a similar reloading process as you

 

[Ledzep]

I don't know what some of you guys are doing... Well I have an inkling, but that's another subject...

I've done a couple of tests where I'll see how many loads I can get out of a case before it fails. The way I do it, it's always a case head separation...

That said, with Hornady 6.5 Creedmoor it was in the 24-26 firings ballpark. The 6mm ARC (bolt gun) case I did made it to 20x. I've seen pooch-load .222 cases go basically indefinitely with neck size dies.

What I'm doing:
Anneal fired case (AMP)
FL size, bump the shoulder back-- start at .001, may take a little more. whatever it takes to not have a stiff bolt close.
Clean
Trim chamfer and deburr every firing (Giraud)
Prime, charge, seat bullet.

I get 12-30+ firings from every case fired from a bolt gun this way. I bank on 10 when procuring cases for a barrel and everything thereafter is bonus.

Those losing primer pockets in 3-8 firings need to look into that "charge" portion of "Prime, charge, seat bullet". (Loose primer pockets are a sign of excessive pressure).
Those splitting necks need to anneal
Case head separations in less than 10 firings is usually a FL sizing die issue. Set too aggressively, not a great fit with the chamber, etc.

 

[Threadcutter308]

I am self admittedly a Lapua snob, so take this for what it's worth.........

I prep my brass, new out of the box. Granted, it doesn't need much. But, I do it, everything is consistent and I have the confidence in it's consistency. On my 308W, I anneal after every second reloading, clean primer pockets and check overall dimensions. I've never had a failure of any kind, but I stay away from hot loads too.

I retire (I don't throw it away) the brass after 20 reloads. Could I keep going beyond 20 ? Yes, very likely. But, I've gotten more than my money's worth at that point.

 

[acudaowner]

so far 500 pieces of my factory hornady brass are on there 8th reload and still going strong without any annealing yet . best of luck to you with your brass .

 

[Vodoun daVinci]

So for those who are religiously annealing - is that to get optimal neck tension or extend the life of the necks? Or both? I'm pretty much thinking if I get 8X - 10X out of once fired Hornady with the consistency and accuracy I am currently getting I'll be a happy camper and willing to scrap the existing brass and replace it.

Figuring if I get 10X out of a .90 cent case = 9 cents a round I'm not thinking the brass owes me.

VooDoo

 

[straightshooter1]

So for those who are religiously annealing - is that to get optimal neck tension or extend the life of the necks? Or both? I'm pretty much thinking if I get 8X - 10X out of once fired Hornady with the consistency and accuracy I am currently getting I'll be a happy camper and willing to scrap the existing brass and replace it.

Figuring if I get 10X out of a .90 cent case = 9 cents a round I'm not thinking the brass owes me.

VooDoo

I anneal after every firing for all my brass mainly for consistent neck tension and consistent shoulder bumps. . . . and of course, it extends the life of my brass nicely. As a precision reloader, I'm after as much consistency as I can get out of my equipment. My last 100 round lot of Lapa, I got 21 firings and for some once fired Federal brass that I picked up off the range, I got 14 firings (could never understand why people claim one can't get much more than 4 firings from Federal brass, and I often used pretty hot loads). For my 6.5 PRC, I've got some Hornady brass that I've fired 6 times and they still appear to be is real good shape.

If one is not a precision reloader, the benefit is the extended life of the brass and maintaining some level of consistency in groups on paper. . . particularly if the chamber is such that firing and subsequent sizing does a lot of work on the brass. If one minimizes the amount of work on the brass (using custom chambers and custom sizing dies), there's not much benefit to annealing.

 

[Dead Eye Dick]

I don't know what some of you guys are doing... Well I have an inkling, but that's another subject...

I've done a couple of tests where I'll see how many loads I can get out of a case before it fails. The way I do it, it's always a case head separation...


Those losing primer pockets in 3-8 firings need to look into that "charge" portion of "Prime, charge, seat bullet". (Loose primer pockets are a sign of excessive pressure).
Those splitting necks need to anneal
Case head separations in less than 10 firings is usually a FL sizing die issue. Set too aggressively, not a great fit with the chamber, etc.

Would have thought my head separations were the result of too much set back. However, firing cases in the MPA which has a really tight chamber, and a die set for absolute minimum set back still resulted in a separation (1 and only 1) after that, I considered that not one piece of that brass is safe in any chamber. (The brass was dedicated to an RPR)

Note, rounds neck sized for the RPR will not even come close to fitting in the MPA’s chamber. I suspect that my nice, tight primer pockets are from shooting medium loads. More powder means, more powder used, + shorter barrel life = less dollars in my pocket.

 

[Jordan03]

I'm at 9 firing on my 6.5prc hornady brass. Never annealed. I have had to throw some out because of lose primer pockets. Id say around 10 or so out of 100. I full length size every time.

 

[Jayhawkhuntclub]

I have Hndy LPP brass 6.5 CM on loading number 11 and going strong. I anneal the every 3-4 loadings. Primer pockets are fine. But loose primer pockets are fixable anyway. I would just shoot them until the necks crack. This assumes minimal shoulder set back each time (0.002 or less). I don't push my 6.5CM past published loads.

 

[XikoPlavi]

I’ll say one other thing about annealing. AMP machines makes it so easy and quick to anneal every time that there really is no debate about just doing it every time. Do it. Buy one.

Otherwise, there is no point in bringing it up anymore. The answer is like Nike. Just do it!!