Will a heavier case give me more reloads?

[briannmilewis]

Putting some thought into a 223 Remington single shot, one of the benefits of choosing the most popular rifle cartridge is the wide variety of source brass. The 6mmBR website has a great section on the 223 Rem and published this table:



Assuming identical case prep procedures and neck only or X-Die resizing, and moderate loads, will a heavier case give me more reloads for each case? Inquiring minds want to know.

[stimpylu32]

Brian

How about a firm MAYBE , alot depends on the alloy of the brass the case's are made from , working the case's will also affect how long they last , even by neck sizing you are still working the brass , you may not see as much case head seperation but split necks will become an issue .

Also the heavier the case , the less capacity you get to work with , and thus creating a different pressure curve to work with .

stimpy 

[Graybeard]

Case weight alone will have about zero effect on case life. If however you use the same loads in cases of greatly different weight the pressures will be higher in the heavier cases and thus case life is likely to be reduced as a result.

If you are more concerned about case life than any other issue then use light loads and neck size and that will or should give you the maximum number of loads per case.

Or better yet stop worrying about things that in the real world are of no importance and just go shoot some.

[Sweetwater]

GB +1!!

[Bigeasy]

Well, technically, since a heavier case has less powder capacity, it will use slightly less powder to equal the ballistics of a lighter weight case, all else being equal.  You will get more shots per pound of powder that way.  Brass life, though, is a little more complicated, and is dependent on such variables as chamber specs of the rifle in use, sizing techniques, annealing of the neck, etc.  In the end, all else being equal - as was stated above....Maybe, but I doubt to a noticeable extent.

Larry

[Dand]

I think I have had Rem and Federal 223 brass last up to or beyond 10 reloads, possibly over 15. I think I started getting gas cuts on the case mouth. I use a full length size die but don't quite fully resize. I shoot a Ruger #1. Case life of about any good 223 brass in moderate loads should be very good - especially in a non auto where the brass is handled gently.

The long way to repeat what GB said.