How many reloads on 44 mag brass

[sluggo]

How many reloads do you, on average, get with 44 mag brass before the brass has had enough? I'm not talking max pressure loads but medium pressure loads. I've got a Redhawk if that matters.

 

[c.r.]

i have 12 firings on 150 pieces of brass shooting relatively warm loads.. I have noticed the primer pockets don't feel nearly as tight when seating the primers as they use to, but no cracked brass. I'll probably get rocks thrown at me, but most of the re-loads on this brass has been with 24 +/- grains of h-110.

I actually plan on loading up a few of this brass and some once fired brass, using the same loads, to shoot across the chrony to see if there is a difference in performance. I suspect there will be. Then I'm going to continue the test with lighter loads and see if there is a difference and possibly retire them to light duty.

I'm right there with you though........ when is enough.....enough.

 

[sluggo]

Have you had to do much trimming of the brass over those 12 reloadings?

 

[Sonnytoo]

The brass "failures" that I've seen are usually cracks appearing in the area of the crimp, or sloppy primer pockets, as previously mentioned. With the lighter loads that you talked about, you may be able to lighten up on the crimp a bit and thus lengthen their lifetime.
I bought 500 Starline brass for heavy-duty .45 Colt...and I still have some brass that hasn't been loaded yet. Of course, some of them have seen a lot of reloading action.
So good brass, as in brand-name, is also important, IMHO.
I personally like Federal, Starline, Hornady if I'm going to buy new brass.
Sonnytoo

 

[SAJohn]

I usually start seeing cracks at about 15 reloads. I just trim them down to .44 special length. Primer pockets grow a bit but I firmly seat the primers and have never had any problems.

John

 

[COR]

I usually start seeing cracks at about 15 reloads. I just trim them down to .44 special length. Primer pockets grow a bit but I firmly seat the primers and have never had any problems.

John

I have to agree with John...I just toss a few in the 44Spl pile now and then but I've shot 12-15 reloads thru most of them. I don't trim revolver brass unless I am making a 44Spl. I notcied the primer pocket "growing" on some but it doesn't seem to be problematic.

 

[revhigh]

How many reloads do you, on average, get with 44 mag brass before the brass has had enough?

Reload 'em until they split ... never trimmed a straight wall pistol cartridge in my life, and that's well over 200,000 pistol rounds/reloads ... in various calibers of course.

 

[I_Like_Pie]

I do usually trim virgin brass one time to make sure they are consistent, but that is it...I have some .44 mag brass that has been loaded 20 times. Then it goes down to .44 special length for quite a few more.

Have some .38 brass I have been using since the 80's. Only difference between them and the .44 is light crimp and easy loads...no telling how many times they have been reloaded

 

[c.r.]

Have you had to do much trimming of the brass over those 12 reloadings?

I started with once fired brass. I know I trimmed it before beginning reloading it.

Before each loading I will measure the greater of 10% of the brass or 10 pieces of that batch. i honestly don't recall any of the brass having exceeded the max length per my manuals, but I have trimmed it when my sample showed pieces longer than what i wanted..... just to keep them uniform.

sorry. that didn't exactly answer your question did it? Baically other than the first trimming, all other trimmings were done out of being anal rather than out of necessity.

 

[Lee Martin]

I've got some Starline that's past 20 reloads. They were light though (8.0 of Unique, 240 cast). The pockets just started to loosen, so they're getting retired.

 

[Pal Val]

I trim once-fired brass to length. I then measure for "growth" after each 5 reloads. Some of my .44 mag brass has gone 15 reloads without needing another trim. I find that caliber particularly durable. By 15 reloads, I usually have the .357 mag brass getting splits and letting loose the primers. The result of a loose primer pocket is easy to see - a flattened primer with a black ring around it.

Worse for splits? Nickeled brass. I've had some go bad by the 5th reload.

I started reloading bottlenecked brass (.30-06, .308, .243) only a couple years ago. So far, the most reloading I've done with a batch of brass is 3. I full-length resized the .30-06 once (PIA). I now only neck- size. So far, so good.

 

[Lee Martin]

Worse for splits? Nickeled brass. I've had some go bad by the 5th reload.

I agree. Except for CCW loads, I gave-up on nickeled brass years ago.

 

[Ruger1441]

I have some brass that I have been reloading for 40 years. Life depends on allot of varibles such as how heavy a crimp and how hot the load etc. A friend finally through away a bunch of balloon head 44 special brass that he and his dad had been reloading for over 60 years. He threw it away because he didn't want to get it mixed up with a bunch of modern 44 special brass he bought. 8)

 

[EarlFH]

I have some military 45ACP brass, with a 1942 date on it, that has been reloaded endless times, over the years. Every once in a while, i'll find one with a split neck, that I weed out. I don't load them over military spec pressures. Unless you're a recoil junkie, most modern brass will last a long time.

EarlFH

 

[WARD]

Back when I bought my first M29 (around 1970) I purchased a 20 round box of Winchester Super-x ammo and started reloading them. That 29 left and others have come and gone along with some Rugers but I've kept the brass together and kept on loading them. Last loading was #46 and the box of 20 is down to 15 due to splits and such. I've never trimmed them. While I haven't kept track of the loading details, there were plenty of heavy loads along with moderate and light loads.

Ward

 

[maxpress]

from what i can tell alot depends on your chamber size. i just reload .44 till it splits on the end.

my .38 stuff if i shoot it out of my speed six then i dont get near the life from a case as i do my new vaquero. my new vaquero has tight chambers though and if a cartridge has any deffect especially that little bulge around the base it wont go in. but it will fit the speed six just fine.

 

[CraigC]

A lot and don't judge all nickeled brass as the same. I've got a batch of Speer nickeled .44 cases that have been used so many times that the nickel has been polished off by the tumbler. At least 20 loadings and I don't remember more than one or two splitting.

 

[maxpress]

you can also anneal your brass so it dosnt split. i think it takes more time than its worth but then again the price of brass keeps going up