Straight-Walled Case Life & How They Fail

[briannmilewis]

I am looking for some real-life experience with 357 Mag, 44 Mag, 460 S&W, 500 S&W, 444 Marlin, 45-70 Govt.

If I load medium pressure, how will these cases finally fail - mouth split, case head separation, primer pocket enlargement? Or are they unlikely to fail loaded to medium pressure?

[Kurt L]

most of the time the mouth will split on them first

[securitysix]

They'll split at the mouth from work hardening due to expanding and crimping.

Low pressure straight-walled rounds like .45 ACP suffer from a different failure.  Failure to find.  I've yet to see a piece of .45 ACP brass live long enough to be unuseable, but I have failed to find a few of them at the range.

[Graybeard]

I've loaded .44 mag cases well over 50 times and would not doubt some went over 100. Same for .357 mag. My shooting partner and I used to have barely enough cases to get us thru practice and the matches we shot so we loaded them each week to shoot on the weekend. We kept that up for years with few failures. We never bothered to sort or count how many times they were loaded. We were loading well below max and the brass just seemed to almost last forever. In fact I still have some of those cases we were loading in the late 70s and early 80s and they still work fine.

[Dances with Geoducks]

I have a batch of about 40 odd 45-70 Ive been using over and over with experimental loads.

I magnify glass each one, and have yet to find a crack, and some of them have had some upper end hot loads in them

Right now a 100 brand new cases are being cleaned for the loads those 40 made.

[tc scout]

Most everything I load is in the medium pressure range, I am sure that extends case life.
Using the least amount of flaring probably extends case life the most.

Like GB stated, I don't keep track of how many times a case has been loaded.
Most of my cases haven't been loaded that many times and have had one that I consider a premature failure.

It was a 357 Max case that split midway in the case, about 3/8" long.
IMO it was a faulty case, (thin wall), I think that one was only on its second reload.

Most cases I use have probably not been loaded more than 5-6 times.
Have had case mouth splits on 2 or 3 22 Hornet brass, but they are very thin walled, would expect that.

[Glanceblamm]

They'll split at the mouth from work hardening due to expanding and crimping.

Agreed, this is not really a problem but I do take it easy with the expanding die, just enough to accept the bullet.

[Jacko]

Agree with the other fella's, my .357 nickel cases which are supposed to be brittle and lesser quality apparantly and are on their 9th reload and going strong. I've had 2 case head seperations and was going to junk all my cases but a critical look at them and I decided they're fine and the case head seperations where crook brass. Only problems I've had with split case necks was when I first started reloading and got a bit hamfisted - just trimmed them to .38 special length and put away for a rainy day.

Up to 4 firings with my .44 mag, going strong also.

regards Jacko

[Badnews Bob]

Split case mouths is the only failure I have every had. I too do not short them and have some cases with maybe 75 reloads don't have a clue for sure. That's for genral shooting I do have some once or twice reloaded cases I use for full house magnums.

[AtlLaw]

Interesting thought and question...  
I never really gave it much consideration since I mostly load rifle cases and the idea of not counting how many times they were fired gives me chills...  
BUT!  This one thread has given me a whole new outlook on pistol cases, and my low level 45/70 loads.
As of right now... this moment... I shall henceforth and forever just load and shoot said brass!    If it works for my ol' cuz Bill'um and all those others, it's good enough for me!  

[mechanic]

I'm still loading some of my Dad's 38 spec. cases.  He passed in 1989.  The boxes have hash marks to show # of times loaded.  One box has 53 marks.  They shoot fine.

[AtlLaw]

see!?     Fired once or one hundred times, what difference do it make!?   
So me beggin for worn out brass in another post was just plain dumb!   
I'll just take me a bunch of that brandy-assed new 45 Colt brass I got and dedicate it to indoor range shootin'!   

[briannmilewis]

Ask, and ye shall receive...wow!!! Real world cartridge life way beyond what I would have expected.

Thanks for the info folks, a perfect example of the value of this forum and the combined knowledge and experience of its members.