Thread: Fire count on brass matter much?

Hey all I may answer my own question but just wanting some general feedback.

I have a tikka 6.5x55 that is on 4th round of firing of some RWS brass that was from new. I am running it pretty close to pressure about 1.5gr back from where I saw signs. I haven’t annealed it at all.

I was cleaning out and managed to find a box of 30 or so brass that I had reloaded it could be 2x fired or 3x fired I’m not sure.

I could maybe measure length as I haven’t trimmed to see if correlates to some of this 3x I have here.

I haven’t changed any of my load data from 2-3x firing anyway - didn’t change results at all.

Would annealing it all be helpful or does the 1 cycle difference not matter much.?

Lastly how many firings should I expect out of this brass / caliber?

Cheers

All good questions. Annealing will deff lengthen the life of your brass. I usually get around 15 firings before any of my lapua cases get loose primer pockets.

Every cycle you do with no annealing will do 2 things. Increase neck tension strength and it will generally harden the cases more and more. Each case hardness will be extremely irregular after a half dozen firings or so. You'll notice that when you seat projectiles. Some go in easy and others require quite a bit of force.

So, find a person who can run them through an AMP annealer for you for your best results.

Originally Posted by T.FOYE

All good questions. Annealing will deff lengthen the life of your brass. I usually get around 15 firings before any of my lapua cases get loose primer pockets.

Every cycle you do with no annealing will do 2 things. Increase neck tension strength and it will generally harden the cases more and more. Each case hardness will be extremely irregular after a half dozen firings or so. You'll notice that when you seat projectiles. Some go in easy and others require quite a bit of force.

So, find a person who can run them through an AMP annealer for you for your best results.

Got an 18v drill. Easy peasy. Butane flame.

Originally Posted by T.FOYE

All good questions. Annealing will deff lengthen the life of your brass. I usually get around 15 firings before any of my lapua cases get loose primer pockets.

Every cycle you do with no annealing will do 2 things. Increase neck tension strength and it will generally harden the cases more and more. Each case hardness will be extremely irregular after a half dozen firings or so. You'll notice that when you seat projectiles. Some go in easy and others require quite a bit of force.

So, find a person who can run them through an AMP annealer for you for your best results.

If you don't want to do it yourself search for tenpointone on google, Tony is great to deal with and has the latest greatest kit for it

What are you using the rounds for?

Been reloading for decades but still not an expert. I load various cals x55 in 3 rifles. Some of my x55 brass is up to its 8th time. Its highland brass which I think is ppu. It gets annealed every second firing and neck sized. With the occaisional fl if the bolt starts getting hard to close. Certain brass has its quirks, signs of case head seperation is what I mainly look for, federal brass tends to get loose primer pockets after a while, s&b tends to be the hardest Ive worked with. Certain cals have their quirks as well. 22 hornet seems to be more prone to head seperation as the brass is thin, grendel hornady brass seems prone to neck splits, just a few of my observations

Originally Posted by gimp

What are you using the rounds for?

Hunting

And when you say "would annealing help" - with what exactly are you wondering whether it would help?

Three things can go wrong......case head separation, primer pocket expansion, and split necks. Annealing will help avoid split necks only. Nothing can be done about the other two, but you will notice if the primer pockets get loose. The only way to check for pending case head separation is to inspect the case looking for the tell tale ring near the base. Inspect mechanically with a pick or similar.

No need to worry about it yet.....my 7 SAUM is still going strong at 20x loads driving a 180gr at over 3000fps. I think the first problem you will encounter will be loose primer pockets

I can anneal for you if you wanted @Oropi. I don't have the pilot for 6.5x55 though so you'd need to provide that.

Originally Posted by Longranger

Three things can go wrong......case head separation, primer pocket expansion, and split necks. Annealing will help avoid split necks only. Nothing can be done about the other two, but you will notice if the primer pockets get loose. The only way to check for pending case head separation is to inspect the case looking for the tell tale ring near the base. Inspect mechanically with a pick or similar.

No need to worry about it yet.....my 7 SAUM is still going strong at 20x loads driving a 180gr at over 3000fps. I think the first problem you will encounter will be loose primer pockets

You can do minor things for the other 2.

Minimising sizing can delay case head separation. Ie just bump your shoulder.

Don't load hot and using good brass will delay primer pockets expansion.

If you watch the Alpha brass torture test reloading the same peice repeatedly and annealing. IIRC it actually ended up splitting a neck in the around 40 reloads even with annealing.

But like you say annealing significantly delays one cause of brass failure.

Originally Posted by Oropi

Hey all I may answer my own question but just wanting some general feedback.

I have a tikka 6.5x55 that is on 4th round of firing of some RWS brass that was from new. I am running it pretty close to pressure about 1.5gr back from where I saw signs. I haven’t annealed it at all.

I was cleaning out and managed to find a box of 30 or so brass that I had reloaded it could be 2x fired or 3x fired I’m not sure.

I could maybe measure length as I haven’t trimmed to see if correlates to some of this 3x I have here.

I haven’t changed any of my load data from 2-3x firing anyway - didn’t change results at all.

Would annealing it all be helpful or does the 1 cycle difference not matter much.?

Lastly how many firings should I expect out of this brass / caliber?

Cheers

I doubt it would make enough difference if you fired 10 rounds with 2 with your old brass that you could pick which 2 in a hunting rifle. Annealing won't hurt and will help general brass life (maybe even accuracy as a whole to a small amount).