Brass Mileage

[nickdeannow]

I've seen people post that they only load brass 5 times and then give it away. Well I'll take that brass all day long! I reloaded 60 rounds tonight and realized over 20 of those were being loaded for the 12th time. Some have shrunk more than others but the shortest was 1.684". I think they must stop shrinking about here because I remember seeing that dimension after 6 reloads.
Just saying...This brass is like the energizer bunny. I'll let you know what it looks like after 20 reloads, but I'm optimistic.

[Mort]

How often, if any, are you annealing?

[nickdeannow]

I've never annealed 450 brass.

[Jim in Houston]

I do not anneal. The most times I have reloaded a case is three times. Elsewhere on this board, there are comments anticipating 20 plus reloads as being possible.

There is also advice on how to track the number of times you reload each case. I segregate cases by number of times reloaded, and if I take cases with different cycles to the range, I collect the brass separately, so I keep track of the number of cycles on it for the next time I reload.

Hoot uses a punch just above the rim; others mark the cases in other ways.

Check out http://450bushmaster.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=12867&p=35804&hilit=annealing#p35804.

[Hoot]

I do not anneal. The most times I have reloaded a case is three times. Elsewhere on this board, there are comments anticipating 20 plus reloads as being possible.

There is also advice on how to track the number of times you reload each case. I segregate cases by number of times reloaded, and if I take cases with different cycles to the range, I collect the brass separately, so I keep track of the number of cycles on it for the next time I reload.

Hoot uses a punch just above the rim; others mark the cases in other ways.

Check out http://450bushmaster.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=12867&p=35804&hilit=annealing#p35804.

Micro-Dotting to track number of times a case has been reloaded.

WRT to the annealing thread referenced in Jim's link. I don't recall ever posting the range report for the impact in terms of velocity SD or accuracy impact as a function of annealing. It's been a while, but IIRC, I never posted it because there was no statistical difference between the annealed and the control group, so nothing to be gained there. Still, purists maintain that annealing cases is a good thing to do. In the case of the 450b, no telling how much doing so will increase the brass life expectancy. I am much more religious about annealing my different bottleneck calibers and in the case of my 7.62x40WT, it's a necessity for forming the brass from 5.56 cases. For those of you not familiar with the 7.62x40WT, it's what the 300 BO could have been if it had not been designed primarily for sub-sonic performance.

Hoot