How many firings before shoulder bump?

[Mordamer]

I am specifically wondering how many times you guys fire .223 brass and neck size only before you have problems chambering the brass and need to full length size?

I have some Remington brass that I have fired 5 times now and after neck sizing only the brass still chambers fine. This is in a Remington 700 factory chamber. I am running the loads at fairly high pressure, but the brass looks fine and I have had no problems yet.

I'm also wondering what the average life is on .223 brass? I have reloaded about 1500 rounds now and have never had any brass split or fail. Only 5 firings on my brass though.

 

[Victor N TN]

Re: How many firings before shoulder bump?

I full length size and bump every time. But that's just me.

 

[bjordan]

Re: How many firings before shoulder bump?

I wait til there is a little resistance when chambering.

 

[MitchAlsup]

Re: How many firings before shoulder bump?

On one batch of Winchester brass: 6,5,5,4,4,3,3 so far between when shoulders needed bumped as measured with RCBS case micrometer.

I think the lower numbers late in life are indicative that the brass is getting near the end of its useful life. On reload cycle 29 I lost 4 cases, 2 with body cracks, and 2 with incipient case head separation. If I loose another couple in the next couple of reload cycles, I will scrap the brass.

 

[Casey Simpson]

Re: How many firings before shoulder bump?

I bump .002" on bolt gun brass each time.

 

[vman]

Re: How many firings before shoulder bump?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: MitchAlsup</div><div class="ubbcode-body">On one batch of Winchester brass: 6,5,5,4,4,3,3 so far between when shoulders needed bumped as measured with RCBS case micrometer.

I think the lower numbers late in life are indicative that the brass is getting near the end of its useful life. On reload cycle 29 I lost 4 cases, 2 with body cracks, and 2 with incipient case head separation. If I loose another couple in the next couple of reload cycles, I will scrap the brass. </div></div>

I know I do a lot of reading on here buddy, but I cant remember if you annealed or not?

Brass has a wonderful trait in that it expands to the chamber and then immediately as pressure falls springs back down a tiny amount.

Brass hardens as your would know, so im just wondering if perhaps a lack of annealing is the cause for your figures.

 

[MitchAlsup]

Re: How many firings before shoulder bump?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: vman</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: MitchAlsup</div><div class="ubbcode-body">On one batch of Winchester brass: 6,5,5,4,4,3,3 so far between when shoulders needed bumped as measured with RCBS case micrometer.

I think the lower numbers late in life are indicative that the brass is getting near the end of its useful life. On reload cycle 29 I lost 4 cases, 2 with body cracks, and 2 with incipient case head separation. If I loose another couple in the next couple of reload cycles, I will scrap the brass. </div></div>

I know I do a lot of reading on here buddy, but I cant remember if you annealed or not? <span style="color: #FF0000">This set of cases has not been annealed</span>

Brass has a wonderful trait in that it expands to the chamber and then immediately as pressure falls springs back down a tiny amount. <span style="color: #FF0000">As long as the pressures are not too high</span>

Brass hardens as you<span style="text-decoration: line-through">r</span> would know, so im just wondering if perhaps a lack of annealing is the cause for your figures. </div></div>

Lack of annealing might be in play, here.

 

[Mordamer]

Re: How many firings before shoulder bump?

29 reloadings without annealing! I hope I can get that many with my brass. Nice work.

 

[BigMahi]

Re: How many firings before shoulder bump?

Lapua brass, 175 SMK, 43.5 grains RL-15 (average load).

With Lapua brass, known for consistency, each batch in its entirety requires resizing at or about the 5, 6, or 7th reload. I anneal every 3rd load and neck size rest of the time.

Each batch consists of 50 casings. Usually for about a dozen pieces, you can feel slight resistance locking the bolt handle down on the 5th load. They can still be reloaded for the 6th time or 7th time. After that pretty much 40+ cases need sizing and they're all resized together.

 

[Mordamer]

Re: How many firings before shoulder bump?

Thanks for the responses guys. Sounds like I am right on track with you guys. I can feel just a tad bit of resistance after the 5th firing, but not enough to make me want to full length resize yet (I hate trimming and re-chamfering the case mouths).

 

[supratt96]

Re: How many firings before shoulder bump?

I was on my 4th loading with my 6mm Remington (Remington brass) and had only neck sized with no problems; till I shot a 22 round string in as many minutes (F-class match). Everything was fine till about the 15th round when the cases started to stick in the chamber after firing. Really had to wrestle with the bolt to get it open.

Moral of the story, what works well when the barrel/chamber are reasonably cool may not when they get hot. I will be bumping the shoulders at least .002 for now on.

 

[DamnDave]

Re: How many firings before shoulder bump?

I FL size on my bolt gun after every firing

 

[YAOG]

Re: How many firings before shoulder bump?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: AlliedArmory</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I FL size on my bolt gun after every firing </div></div>


This is working for me too though I may be doing it a bit differently than some. I use a Redding Competition bushing die first pass to rough size the neck to within 0.005" followed by a Redding Type S Match FL bushing die on the second pass to bump the shoulder, body size and final neck size. Each case shoulder height or bullet ogive can easily be checked using a Redding Instant Indicator. The Redding Competition bushing die, Redding Type S Match FL/bushing die, Redding Competition bullet seater and Redding dial comparator are kept loaded in my early 80's vintage Dillon RL550B. Using the RL550B one round at a time works great and is reasonably fast to use even when checking every round for shoulder and ogive height. There is too much flex in the Dillon to get accurate shoulder sizing if all stations are used at once so I just run one case through at a time.

Here is a photo of my current setup: