Marking brass

[tsigmon]

I have been reloading .243 and 7mm-08 for my sons and have had a hard time finding  umprimed brass to reload. As of now I have bought two boxes of factory loads just to get the brass which has been the only choice for brass  thus far. I have loaded this stuff 4-5 times  at the lower end of the manual specs and am getting worried about case failures . I had a .243 head sperate and had a heck of a time getting the rest of the case removed. I guess I am at the end of the useful life of this set of brass. When I get some new brass is there any good way of marking it each time it is loaded  to help keep up how many times it has been loaded?

[SHOOTALL]

load in batches and keep in same box. Each loading mark the box as to times loaded. To check for seperation cut a length of wire , bend a small "L" on one end small enough it fits thru the case mouth. Cut it so the end is sharpe and place it inside the case run the point up and down in the case feeling for a grove where the case is starting to seperate. When I shot IMHSA I used cases until they split or showed signs of seperation. A good tool to remove seperated cases is an easy out welded to a length of rod , you must be careful not to hit the chamber though. Kept one in my shooting box .

[Hairy Chest]

You just want to bump the shoulder so it chambers.  That way you maximize case life.  But what about my neck, you say?  Any neck sizer can handle all or some of the neck.  So you need two things, a bump die and neck sizer.  Redding carries both. 

[wncchester]

In nearly 50 years of reloading I've never had a head seperation.  I now have several boxes of .243 and .308 that have been FL sized, loaded quite hot and has been cycled 8-10 times with no signs of a head seperation.  I do carefully measure the 'headspace' of my fired cases and restore the shoulders to the same length each time so there's very little case stretching room available.  Excessive shoulder set back when FL sizing is what causes head seperations, not pressure as such.
 
Necks will work harden and split about the same time if they're FL or neck sized unless they're annealed.  I spend a good deal of time preparing my good rifle cases so I want that stuff to last!  All of my cases get neck annealed every 5 times so they won't split.  I have some 22-250 stuff that has been loaded - hot - over 20 times and are still going strong.  It's all in how we resize and proper annealing.

[Hairy Chest]

In nearly 50 years of reloading I've never had a head seperation.  I now have several boxes of .243 and .308 that have been FL sized, loaded quite hot and has been cycled 8-10 times with no signs of a head seperation.  I do carefully measure the 'headspace' of my fired cases and restore the shoulders to the same length each time so there's very little case stretching room available.  Excessive shoulder set back when FL sizing is what causes head seperations, not pressure as such.
 
Necks will work harden and split about the same time if they're FL or neck sized unless they're annealed.  I spend a good deal of time preparing my good rifle cases so I want that stuff to last!  All of my cases get neck annealed every 5 times so they won't split.  I have some 22-250 stuff that has been loaded - hot - over 20 times and are still going strong.  It's all in how we resize and proper annealing.

How do you anneal?  I want the best and fastest way. 

[Lloyd Smale]

necking down 308 brass is going to be your cheapest route. It can be found alot easier then the others. For the 7-08 you should be fine just runing it in your 7-08 die and loading it. For the 243 you may need to inside or outside trim your necks. As to marking how many firings. I just mark it on the ammo box. Most loading lables have a spot on them for times fired. If you dont use loading labels just mark it on the box with a felt marker.

[LaOtto222]

1. How do you know how many times you have reloaded a case....I keep mine in batches, same head stamp, same life. I store them in 50 round ammo boxes. I have load labels that have 1 thru 15 printed on them and I just cross off the last one I loaded. So, if 1 thru 5 is crossed off, I know I have loaded them 6 times. The load labels have other important info on them as well, such as what bullet, what powder and how much, what primer and OAL.

2. There is many, many ways to anneal cases. I have found the Hornady Kit is easy to use and do. I anneal with a Hornady Anneal Kit #041220. They come with 3 spinners (for different size cases), Temperature Indicating Liquid (TIL) and instructions. I use the TIL to indicate the correct temperature. Once I learn what the case looks like when it reaches the correct temperature, I do not need the TIL. I bought a inexpensive Black and Decker battery powered screw driver to run the spinners with. They recommend 180 RPM and the screw driver runs at 200 RPM...close enough. The spinners have a hex drive shaft that fits right into the driver socket. Once the case gets up to the correct temperature, I simply tip down the spinner and drop it into room temperature water to cool them off quickly.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/360902/hornady-annealing-system

It is not cheap, but will pay for itself as soon as you save 200 cases or so by annealing them.

Good Luck and Good Shooting

[Hairy Chest]

1. How do you know how many times you have reloaded a case....I keep mine in batches, same head stamp, same life. I store them in 50 round ammo boxes. I have load labels that have 1 thru 15 printed on them and I just cross off the last one I loaded. So, if 1 thru 5 is crossed off, I know I have loaded them 6 times. The load labels have other important info on them as well, such as what bullet, what powder and how much, what primer and OAL.

2. There is many, many ways to anneal cases. I have found the Hornady Kit is easy to use and do. I anneal with a Hornady Anneal Kit #041220. They come with 3 spinners (for different size cases), Temperature Indicating Liquid (TIL) and instructions. I use the TIL to indicate the correct temperature. Once I learn what the case looks like when it reaches the correct temperature, I do not need the TIL. I bought a inexpensive Black and Decker battery powered screw driver to run the spinners with. They recommend 180 RPM and the screw driver runs at 200 RPM...close enough. The spinners have a hex drive shaft that fits right into the driver socket. Once the case gets up to the correct temperature, I simply tip down the spinner and drop it into room temperature water to cool them off quickly.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/360902/hornady-annealing-system

It is not cheap, but will pay for itself as soon as you save 200 cases or so by annealing them.

Good Luck and Good Shooting

Thanks.  I don't like to even think about marking brass or annealing.  If it groups 1/2 moa then don' t mess with it.  There gets to be a point when it's too much.  Forget the accounting!  Concentrate on making the simple things work.  People will do 10 things to fix a problem and skip the 1 thing that fixes it.  Marking brass or annealing never made a big difference.  Or does it?  Show us. 

[Land_Owner]

Go over to the GBO Reloading Classified Ads and ask to purchase (WTB) 243 and 7-08 brass.  There are those that salvage range pick up who sell cases for considerably less than new.  If a few necks split, OK.  Fired cases are in the range of $0.10 to $0.15 each depending on caliber (not certain about price for your two calibers though).

Your gun may have a head space problem if more cases separate.  In that instance I have no opinion...

[helotaxi]

Your gun may have a head space problem if more cases separate.

Or he's creating a headspace problem by moving the shoulder back too much with each sizing.

[Hairy Chest]

Your gun may have a head space problem if more cases separate.

Or he's creating a headspace problem by moving the shoulder back too much with each sizing.

Right.  And if he starts with 'once-fired' he'll get two more firings and those will be no good. 

[D Fischer]

Sounds to me like the one separating case heads has a bit to much headspace. Guess I should have read all the reply's first! I think someone did suggest just bumping the shoulder. I think a better way is to neck size with a full length die stopping just short of bumping the shoulder. after a couple firings the case will no longer chamber. When that happens start screwing the die down about 1/8 th turn at a time till the case chambers freely. Make sure the case does chamber freely or you'll be having cases not chamber again very soon. If your closing the bolt with some little resistance, your not there, no resistance. Any resistance you can see should show on the bolt face as a rub on the case.

Once you get there, you'll have your die properly set to full length size for that chamber.

[LaOtto222]

1. How do you know how many times you have reloaded a case....I keep mine in batches, same head stamp, same life. I store them in 50 round ammo boxes. I have load labels that have 1 thru 15 printed on them and I just cross off the last one I loaded. So, if 1 thru 5 is crossed off, I know I have loaded them 6 times. The load labels have other important info on them as well, such as what bullet, what powder and how much, what primer and OAL.

2. There is many, many ways to anneal cases. I have found the Hornady Kit is easy to use and do. I anneal with a Hornady Anneal Kit #041220. They come with 3 spinners (for different size cases), Temperature Indicating Liquid (TIL) and instructions. I use the TIL to indicate the correct temperature. Once I learn what the case looks like when it reaches the correct temperature, I do not need the TIL. I bought a inexpensive Black and Decker battery powered screw driver to run the spinners with. They recommend 180 RPM and the screw driver runs at 200 RPM...close enough. The spinners have a hex drive shaft that fits right into the driver socket. Once the case gets up to the correct temperature, I simply tip down the spinner and drop it into room temperature water to cool them off quickly.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/360902/hornady-annealing-system

It is not cheap, but will pay for itself as soon as you save 200 cases or so by annealing them.

Good Luck and Good Shooting

Thanks.  I don't like to even think about marking brass or annealing.  If it groups 1/2 moa then don' t mess with it.  There gets to be a point when it's too much.  Forget the accounting!  Concentrate on making the simple things work.  People will do 10 things to fix a problem and skip the 1 thing that fixes it.  Marking brass or annealing never made a big difference.  Or does it?  Show us. 

Annealing does not make for a more accurate round, it does extend the life of a case's neck. If you have spent many hours preparing a batch of cases or cases are formed or not easy to get then extending their life makes a lot of sense. If you are shooting military cases and do not spend any time prepping them, then annealing does not make much sense. New or once fired cases are cheap and easy to get you can just toss them when they start splitting. You will want to know when a case is starting to go bad too, but does not really matter to the guy that does not worry about the life of a case. Knowing the life of a case or extending a cases life, does not have a thing to do with accuracy. If you are spending a $1 each or more for cases, then stretching it's life also makes sense. You can wait until the cases actually start to split or through preventative/predictive measures anneal before they go bad, you will need to know how many times the cases have been loaded.  I believe the original question was how to extend the life of the cases he has. Annealing and knowing how many times they have been loaded are two ways of doing just that. Head separations are due to one of two things either hot loads or over stretching the brass. Neck sizing alone will help case stretching a lot. If you do not load hot and only neck size the head separations should disappear, but you will still work harden the case mouth/neck.

Good Luck and Good Shooting

[Hairy Chest]

1. How do you know how many times you have reloaded a case....I keep mine in batches, same head stamp, same life. I store them in 50 round ammo boxes. I have load labels that have 1 thru 15 printed on them and I just cross off the last one I loaded. So, if 1 thru 5 is crossed off, I know I have loaded them 6 times. The load labels have other important info on them as well, such as what bullet, what powder and how much, what primer and OAL.

2. There is many, many ways to anneal cases. I have found the Hornady Kit is easy to use and do. I anneal with a Hornady Anneal Kit #041220. They come with 3 spinners (for different size cases), Temperature Indicating Liquid (TIL) and instructions. I use the TIL to indicate the correct temperature. Once I learn what the case looks like when it reaches the correct temperature, I do not need the TIL. I bought a inexpensive Black and Decker battery powered screw driver to run the spinners with. They recommend 180 RPM and the screw driver runs at 200 RPM...close enough. The spinners have a hex drive shaft that fits right into the driver socket. Once the case gets up to the correct temperature, I simply tip down the spinner and drop it into room temperature water to cool them off quickly.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/360902/hornady-annealing-system

It is not cheap, but will pay for itself as soon as you save 200 cases or so by annealing them.

Good Luck and Good Shooting

Thanks.  I don't like to even think about marking brass or annealing.  If it groups 1/2 moa then don' t mess with it.  There gets to be a point when it's too much.  Forget the accounting!  Concentrate on making the simple things work.  People will do 10 things to fix a problem and skip the 1 thing that fixes it.  Marking brass or annealing never made a big difference.  Or does it?  Show us. 

Annealing does not make for a more accurate round, it does extend the life of a case's neck. If you have spent many hours preparing a batch of cases or cases are formed or not easy to get then extending their life makes a lot of sense. If you are shooting military cases and do not spend any time prepping them, then annealing does not make much sense. New or once fired cases are cheap and easy to get you can just toss them when they start splitting. You will want to know when a case is starting to go bad too, but does not really matter to the guy that does not worry about the life of a case. Knowing the life of a case or extending a cases life, does not have a thing to do with accuracy. If you are spending a $1 each or more for cases, then stretching it's life also makes sense. You can wait until the cases actually start to split or through preventative/predictive measures anneal before they go bad, you will need to know how many times the cases have been loaded.  I believe the original question was how to extend the life of the cases he has. Annealing and knowing how many times they have been loaded are two ways of doing just that. Head separations are due to one of two things either hot loads or over stretching the brass. Neck sizing alone will help case stretching a lot. If you do not load hot and only neck size the head separations should disappear, but you will still work harden the case mouth/neck.

Good Luck and Good Shooting

That's funny.  I thought annealing was also done to increase accuracy.  Where did I get that nutty idea from?   

[tsigmon]

Thanks for all of the replies. Seperate boxes for each batch and detailed lables   will be the new norm  when I get new brass.   Although I have reloaded for a while and  understand the basic mechanics of the operation  very  well I am far from an expert. I don't experiment with  with non published loads .... I only use loads from the manuals I have and  don't go to the max then. I haven't had to go the max  to get the accuracy or preformance I want. Like a lot of things that seem simple at first, the more I read and learn, the more I realize how much I don't know. Just a note , I checked  lots of sites for brass and  all were out of stock but  finally found Remington  brass at Bass Pro Shop and should be here by mid week. Thanks again for the suggestions.

[SHOOTALL]

case guard boxes comes with labels for 10 loadings and you can order more. might be the set up for you.

[helotaxi]

Sounds to me like the one separating case heads has a bit to much headspace. Guess I should have read all the reply's first! I think someone did suggest just bumping the shoulder. I think a better way is to neck size with a full length die stopping just short of bumping the shoulder. after a couple firings the case will no longer chamber. When that happens start screwing the die down about 1/8 th turn at a time till the case chambers freely. Make sure the case does chamber freely or you'll be having cases not chamber again very soon. If your closing the bolt with some little resistance, your not there, no resistance. Any resistance you can see should show on the bolt face as a rub on the case.

Once you get there, you'll have your die properly set to full length size for that chamber.

depending on the rifle it might not chamber as soon as you touch it with a full length die. As the die squeezes the body of the case back to min size, it pushes the shoulder forward. If you want to neck size get a neck die.

[D Garfield]

Midway sells most any brass you need, and reasonable.

[SHOOTALL]

in a bolt action if the cases will not chamber in the same gun you may need to trim to correct length . I have necked sized many times not bumping the shoulder with FL dies and there is a noticable ring where the sizing stopped and they would chamber if trim length was correct.