Case life in FA revolvers

[Humbo]

Hi, can I expect longer case life when fired only in FA revolvers? I only size the cases enough to get proper bullet tension, and was thinking that due to the tight tolerances and uniform chambers on FA revolvers, cases might live longer than in other guns. From now on I'm going to use the same 100 pieces of 454 brass and see how many times I can reload them before they start splitting. I guess I already loaded them 4-5 times.

[Bigeasy]

Maybe in theory, but I doubt it in real life application.
 
On its first firing, a straight walled case will expand to the size of the chamber of the gun you are firing it in.  Unless the chambers of a given revolver are grossly too large, there will be no adverse effect to the brass on subsequent firings.  Most case failures with straight walled revolver casings come from working the brass in the area of the case mouth (seating bullets, flaring case mouths, crimping)  My experience when only partially resizing revolver cases is that eventually there is enough case expansion in the case webb area to make chambering difficult, especially with warm loads, unless the case is fully re-sized.
 
Larry

[Lloyd Smale]

I agree and disagree with larry. I think its more then theroy. A tight chamber does help brass life but overflaring of your brass will send it to the trash can pretty fast.

[benny123]

I know Lloyd Smale is in a veteran in these circles, and I don't have a non FA source for comparison, but I think the gap in cartridge to the chambers is negligible whether it be in a FA or other revolver. If it weren't I'd think there'd be more serious problems than having brass with a dim. life.

I learned that easing on flaring the mouth of the case reduced splits, as Larry said.  But the OP said he sizes minimally. I'm certain in both the 454(Starline) and the 500WE(FA's proprietary) I have loaded at least 10 times with safe low-end H110 charges. Once I'm near 8 or 10X I just go ahead and recycle 'em as I don't see a real savings by trying to stretch it. I have had WE brass just plain fail, where cases have split along the length of the side, but that's been rare and also resolved pretty quickly by FA

For me,  strong crimps reduce case life. If you're shooting mild or moderate loads w/o heavy bullets you'll probably increase your case life a bit. I still got a sealed bag of Starline 454 brass (100ct) because the brass from the first bag looks fine.  I don't bother to measure them apart from a visual inspection before and after they go in the tumbler