Re: .260 BRASS
My approach is usually to employ Win .243 and somewhat less often, Win 7-08, based solely on local shelf availability. 7-8 reloads is not a particularly short case lifespan, but I'm guessing your loads are on the hotter side, pressure-wise, and find personally that careful pressure management can stretch case life to the 10-12 load range.
When my cases get iffy, I switch them to my varmint load which is 47.0gr of H4350 and the HDY 95gr V-Max, and is Hodgdon's min published load with that bullet. Still shoots like a laser, but pressures are so minimal I have yet to find the limit for load repetitions.
My barrel is 28" long, which allows me to attain the same higher velocities at lesser pressures, and is a key strategy in my efforts to increase throat and case lifespans.
Yes, I could drive them faster, but the bullets themselves can suffer from higher bore transit velocities, can also generate more copper fouling; and in the end, allowing the system to step down a bit to more cruise-like performance seems to make the whole process more reasonable overall.
Greg
