45 Colt life expectancy?

[Maplicito]

I'm planning to do some stocking up on components, and so I have a rough idea of how many cases to have, I'm wondering what people would consider a reasonable number of reloads to expect from 45 Colt brass?  I'm not loading the brass particularly hot for what it's worth.

Also - in firing some rounds off, I've noticed that my brass is coming back quite carbon fouled down the one side.  My understanding is that this could indicate that the brass isn't fully expanding to seal the chamber?  Is this much of a likliehood?  If so, should I be trying to load the cartridges a little hotter to get more expansion, or is it not a big deal?  I haven't been the one to do the most shooting with it, but it appears to fire fairly consistently.  Considering one has to aim the gun without the benefit of a rear sight, it still seems to be a reasonable threat to gophers out to 50 yeards or so.

[Graybeard]

How big a deal it is really is up to you to decide it's cosmetic only and has no effect on the life of brass. I've loaded some old .44 Magnum cases perhaps 100 or more times and they still seem fine and that's at much higher pressure levels than you are using. I don't believe there is any specific practical useful life for straight walled cases of the sort you have and if loaded mild as you are their life is mostly indefinite. When the case mouth splits which is the most likely first failure you will experience you'll know it's time to retire that case. Folks who keep cases in lots and keep track of such things often retire the entire lot when several of them have failed in such manner I really don't keep track so just toss individual cases as the mouth splits on them.

[Maplicito]

Good to know!  Thanks Graybeard - I still love my .338, but I'm really learning to appreciate the .45 straight walls for economy and ease of reloading!

[Castaway]

A few years ago I did a shoot to destruction test using Winchester brass.  Started with 50 pieces, loaded "Ruger Hot" twice, then started with mild loads.  After 50 reloads, I had 25 pieces left, the rest lost due to split necks.  I tend to bell the mouth fairly generously for cast bullets, you might well surpass my results if you don't bell as much.

[Graybeard]

Excessive belling of the mouth without occasionally annealing the mouth area is likely the single greatest cause of case failure in all straight wall cases. I long ago learned to set my dies to bell the minimum that would allow the bullets to slip in OK and it really makes a difference in case life. But then really if ya got 25 loadings from each case that's a lot of shooting for the money.

[mjbgalt]

i dont even bell mine. i use the chamferer and do the outside and inside and then seat the bullet. no problem. i lost a few cases before i learned to chamfer them. some old guy i bought the dies from forgot to send me the bell die (GB)

And since i got by without it, i learned to do it without.

-Matt

[Kmrere42]

Hi,



I have been using a RCBS 45ACP carbide die set to do my reloading for my Colt brass.  The only die that I have marked for the 45 Colt is a redding profile crimp die that I somehow managed to acquire somewhere.   Before I size the case the base dia is about .482 and after I size the case it is at .468,  This is a movement of 14 thou each time I fire and size.  Do the proper 45 colt dies size bigger than the ACP set???



Paul

[coyotejoe]

Yes, the base diameter of .45 ACP is .476" while .45 Colt is .480" so your dies are under-size even for the ACP round, most carbide dies do overwork the cartridge base. The easy solution is to readjust the dies to not size all the way down to the base. In .45 Colt if you only size the front half of the case that will be sufficient unless you are running really hot loads.