Case life expectancy

[PigBoy Crabshaw]

I'm going to start reloading in the near future. What's the average
that a case can be reused? I'm trying to gauge my savings.
I'm guessing that a Hot 22-250 would only last a few times, But what can I expect a
good target or medium hunting load that one could run through a Handi in lets say
30-30 , 35Rem, 308, 45-70 before reloading becomes unsafe?
I guessing that the higher pressure (CUP) loads could not be reloaded many times
compared to a plinker/target round.
How many are you guys getting fer what you load and whats your most economical?
Thanks -g

[McLernon]

I shoot a 22-250 bolt gun and have reloaded(hot) many times with only neck resizing required. If you FL resize it's a different story. I am sure others will chime in.

Mc

[Fred M]

Allright I hope you are taking about the Handi rifle and not some kind of bolt gun.

The Handi is in most cases not friendly to neck sizing. The reason is, the Handi has a springy action, most have a small gap. This adds up to case lenghtening.
It is very important that the case is sized to make sure it is not too long.
Neck sizing does not address setting the shoulder back so the case fits in the chamber without sticking out.

I has been my experience that nine uses is max in most rimless calibers. The trim lenght needs to be checked and corrected each time you load the cases.

[trotterlg]

Fred has it right.  If you can't put the fired case back in the rifle and close the action you will have short case life.  Handi's do not have very stiff actions so they allow the case to expand, and worse yet it lets the case expand more on top than on the bottom, so you end up with a case head that is not at right angles to the body.  This ends up hardning the middle of the case which will lead to the case seperating part way up.  This is really OK, because it still leaves the bottom part to seal the breach, so you probably won't get a face full of hot gas, but you still have to get the broken half out which will ruin your hunt or trip to the range.  Load the 22-250 up about 4 times and dump the cases, brass is cheap for them.  Larry

[PigBoy Crabshaw]

I indeed ask about reloading for a Handi.
Would I be able to get more brass life out of a 30-30 than say a 45-70
with similar streangth loads? Would a straight walled case apposed to
a tapered neck have a longer life? Thanks again for the replys. -g

[greg916]

full length resized cases in my Handi 30-30 last for about 3-4 firings.  neck sized only, they will get about twice that.  30-30 rifles headspace on the rim, but you can headspace on the shoulder to increase case life, and in my experience accuracy also. trim oftem 30-30 cases will stretch!

[Ranger J]

In my experience the straight sided cases, such as .44 mag. and the 45/70 last much longer than a bottle shaped case.  In my old .308 the cases lasted about 4 or 5 reloads before they split while in the many thousand of 44 rounds I have had only 2 failures.  One was a split and the other was my fault when I tried to force a bullet in the case and buckled it.  While I haven’t shot the 45/70 cases that many times yet I have had no problems with them.
RJ