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Making Brass Last Longer

alamo5000

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Minuteman
Jun 18, 2020
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I found this on YouTube a couple of days ago. Posting to see what others think.

His pro tip (from an F Class shooter) that sounded interesting to me says on the first firing don't fire extremely hot rounds. His theory about hardening the brass head does make sense.

 
I've never really had a problem with case life myself but I did find his comments very interesting. The idea of basically wanting to work harden brass was kind of a unique way to approach the conversation. One end of the same piece of brass vs the other have different ways to get polar opposite results.
 
Personally i usually buy factory ammo and plink with it for fireforming and then load what i want after. I have some new cases but the thought of using primers to just throw some lead to fire form right now makes me uncomfortable. This seems to me to only apply to new brass.
I've never really had a problem with case life myself but I did find his comments very interesting. The idea of basically wanting to work harden brass was kind of a unique way to approach the conversation. One end of the same piece of brass vs the other have different ways to get polar opposite results.
 
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I have been happy with my choice to try loads that keep me using less powder save powder and brass still hoping that reusing primers pans out well enough not to need to buy them for a long while .
 
I have been happy with my choice to try loads that keep me using less powder save powder and brass still hoping that reusing primers pans out well enough not to need to buy them for a long while .
What are you reloading your primers with? I bought 5 lbs of primall compound, says its enough to reload 10000 primers. Cost me about 100 bucks but from my testing is super corroasive. Good in a pinch but im not gonna put it thru my guns unless i have to anymore.
 
I have found that the hottest load is almost never my most accurate load. I anneal each firing and load for whats most accurate and i dont have a problem with premature brass failure.
Same. My most accurate loads tend to come in the middle of a given range... If a book shows 5 different loads with MIN being #1 and MAX being #5, my best groups are usually #'s 2 or 3 or somewhere in between... Just what my gun likes.

Velocity doesn't mean squat if the group looks like a shotgun pattern... I'll take cloverleafs all day, even if it means I have to give up 200 fps.

And as a bonus my powder and brass last longer.

Mike
 
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it will be 6.5 creed yea about the same thing I got except I choose to use toy caps and
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I have gotten the mixture to go off and even shoot a bullet . I am just having problems with the mix and amount my es numbers with it are really high still good luck with yours .
 
Personally i usually buy factory ammo and plink with it for fireforming and then load what i want after. I have some new cases but the thought of using primers to just throw some lead to fire form right now makes me uncomfortable. This seems to me to only apply to new brass.
I agree about him referring to new brass but that said with all the talk about annealing going around this seems related to that and very relevant.

I rarely shoot new ammo. I just buy a ton of brass and reload it. Usually by the time I get to the bottom of the bucket I've shot a bit. I bought something like 5000 brand new 223 cases so if I can get 10 loads each on average that's a lot of ammo.

For doing super high end nice ammo where I keep track of the numbers a lot more isn't something I do a lot of. That said I want to get a good bolt gun at some point.

I'm so used to general use ammo I kind of wonder what I can do if I said, " I have 100 pieces of good brass, now let's see what happens".

Usually I just load ammo until my buckets get full. Switching gears to make perfect ammo is a little bit new to me.
 
Same. My most accurate loads tend to come in the middle of a given range... If a book shows 5 different loads with MIN being #1 and MAX being #5, my best groups are usually #'s 2 or 3 or somewhere in between... Just what my gun likes.

Velocity doesn't mean squat if the group looks like a shotgun pattern... I'll take cloverleafs all day, even if it means I have to give up 200 fps.

And as a bonus my powder and brass last longer.

Mike
I'm with you there. I've never gained much of anything by trying to go too hot. I've never understood the mentality of trying to run a load on the edge of disaster.
 
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I'm with you there. I've never gained much of anything by trying to go too hot. I've never understood the mentality of trying to run a load on the edge of disaster.
Hunting with solid copper bullets i can see maybe needing to get that few hundred fps on the longer shots, and the bullets dont break apart so it has its place in my opinion, but even then its excess wear and tear on the rifle. My dad told me once, "burnouts are about abuse" prolific, if your gonna stomp the pedal then your in for the consequences.
 
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I load 9mm just meh, hs6, lee turret press with the disk powder drop. Set it and forget it type. They come out as good or better than factory rounds, even sloppier with my .357, 5cc 9mm powder scoop and 138 grain wad cutter or 148 grain semi wad. But when i make actual accurate ammo i get in my zone. Good attitude is key, pissed off its a no go, in a hurry, no go. Then i do my best kevin costner tin cup poem, annealed in water bath, dried on a towel. Then into the corn cob media for a beer and two smokes. A hint of lanolin outside and in the neck, then sized and back into the cobs for another beer. Check case oal, trim as needed and prep, clean all primer pockets, prime cases, pull out the digital scale and place the first case and tare it, drop powder, seat the bullet and check coal. Rinse and repeat. I dont get fancy or buy the expensive stuff but im the shooter of my group. Its just following the recipe each time. In my worthless opinion.
 
I'm far from Pro but I did recently make a quick video comparing Brass Life vs Accuracy.
Not sure how many quality firings that gentleman was getting out of his cases but those of mine in the video are on #38 now.
Some interesting comparisons in it as well.
Kind of relates to the subject you're posting about.