brass life for 38 spcl

I just started reloading for handguns couple of months ago. I am on my 4th run with my first batch of brass for my model 15-2. 2 times with 4.5 grains unique and 2 times with 5 grains. Prepping it for another go I noticed one (1 out of 80) had split length wise. Is it time for new brass or is that just par for the course?

Thanks, Pete

Good question, I wonder what others will say. I buy in bulk, like @ gun shows where I pick up 500 cases of different manufacture at a time. In general, I've found nickled cases too be more brittle??? Also, the .45 ACP cases I load seem to last a lot longer than .38.
All of my loads are in the moderate category.
Chris

Since you don't mention load specifics ( bullet, oal , etc) it's hard to say if you have a load problem but you shouldn't be splitting that much brass. I get 7-8 loads easy on my target rounds.
You might also have brittle brass. ( You didn't sue metal polish/ammonia to clean did you?)
Double check your load data and try new brass if it's OK.

Hmm. A few years back, I discarded some .38 cases that I'd been reloading for 20 years (GECO), out of respect for a job well done more than anything else. In thousands and thousands of .38 handloads (many of them quite hot - I'd say that the majority of my .38 handloads are in +P territory, and quite a few go beyond that) I've done since the mid-'80s, I've probably had fewer than ten case splits. (I just had one with CBC brass after only a few loadings - quite remarkable - BTW, I love the CBC/Magtech brass.)

Anyhow, I wouldn't sweat it, Pete.

You will lose a case now and then. Nickel is more brittle than non plated brass. For matches or self defense, use low mileage cases, but for practice or plinking use them to failure. If you get a lot of splits from a particular brand or lot of cases just don't use them. .38spl brass cases will last a long time, if you don't over work the brass.

I my experience 4 reloads is not anywhere near the end of the brass life in a 38 spl. I have some I have loaded a couple of dozen times. You will get the occasional split near the case mouth, but it is not an indicator of the condition of the rest of the lot. As always, you should inspect each case before each loading and again after sizing. weed out any questionable ones, and keep loading the rest until they show signs of being used up.

Kevin

Maybe you have some hard brass or some large chambers, you should be able to get many many cycles out of 38 brass, I once read of someone who 113 out of one. There are a lot of variables that come into play.

I've got .38 brass in service now that I bought in the late 70's. Some have seen the 5.0 Grn. Unique load you mentioned many, many times as that is one of my standards.

I think that the trick is to not bell size the cases any more than you have to just get the base of the bullet into the case. I've seen guys that turn their brass into funnels needlessly and this works the cases too much in my view. Also, if you chamfer the cases properly it eases bullet seating and takes out stress risers in the case mouth that could lead to cracks.

Good luck!

Drew

Years ago one of the gun mags reloaded some 38 branch numerous times to see how long it would last. I think they quit between 40 and 50 times and most of the brass was still going strong.

Pete,

In my experience, the frequency of lengthwise side splits in revolver cases is primarily a function of the difference in diameter between your resizing die and chambers.

My 1st .44 mag. carbide die set in 1974 fit my Super Blackhawk and 29-2 so well that I had virtually no case side splits in either .44 mag. or .44spl. I kept the cases from my first 100 Win. .44 special factory loads in their boxes and relabeled the boxes with each reload until I tired of keeping track and eventually dumped them into a large container of .44 spl. brass. At that point they had been reloaded somewhere between 50 and 100 times with only 2 or 3 lost to small splits at their case mouths from being over belled before bullet seating. None had split down the sides. Later, when I used the same Hollywood sizer with a different Ruger revolver the sides of 2 or 3 cases out of 50 split on every reloading which is about the rate at which that .44 split the cases of factory .44 mag. loads. I returned that .44 to Ruger and they said its chambers were within tolerance.

I've had too many .38s and .357s to ever want to keep track of batchs of new cases in specific revolvers like I did with my first .44 spl. cases but generally .38 brass lasts through many reloadings, falling somewhere in between the best and worst examples I described with .44s. Losing 2-3 out of 50 on each reloading is too many. I wouldn't worry about loosing 1 out of 80 on the 4th reload but the fix to extend case life is to return your resizing die to its manufacturer along with cases from factory cartridges. Over the years RCBS happily replaced 3 rifle resizing dies with dies that were custom made or hand selected for my chambers for free. Lyman and Lee also went out of their way to make thier tools work well for me when there were problems.

I'll add a little story for you to ponder. I used to live close enough to a large police force's range that I joked about almost being able to coast down hill to shoot their .38 WC reloads without starting my engine. They sold 50 in a brown paper bag for $3 and we returned the empties for reloading again with automatic reloading machines. Initially I didn't fire their reloads that were assembled in cases with side splits. After I had been exchanging them for good looking cartridges for a while, one of the rangemasters gave me a can of the reloads that I'd returned and said "Gil, I want you to fire these as carfully as you can and tell me if you see any difference in the accuracy of them versus the good looking reloads." I couldn't. .38 HBWCs over 2.7 gr. of bullseye grouped under 2" at 25 yds. in multiple .38s, the same as in good brass. So throw out your split cases but not the whole lot and don't loose sleep over it.

Thanks for reading my little stories.

Best Regards,
Gil

I think case life depends on the case, the load of course, etc. Some of the cases I noticed don't last very long, I have a batch of old 3-D brass that I am going to scrap the entire lot of because quite a few have developed cracks despite my loads being pretty light. I have reloaded the same cases time and time again but my loads for standard .38 Special are pretty light. All my heavy loads end up in +P cases.

When I first stared reloading about 30 years ago I would keep track (on the back of the box) of how many times the cases have been used. After 4 or 5 reloading cycles, I stopped doing that and now I just reload them over and over. I probably get about 2 split cases per 500 rounds, and simply discard them after firing, unless they are too badly split to fire through a gun safely. If I notice that they are split before they go into the press, I simply discard them. If I had to guess on how many times some of the older ones have been reloaded, I would say around 8 - 10. I do find that the nickel plated cases do not hold up as well as the brass ones, but I do like the way they look.

I also find that in general, the 38's hold up better than the 45acp cases do.

95 percent of my 38's and 45's are loaded on the mild side as they are used to punch holes in paper and that may contribute to why they hold up so long. I do load some to service velocities, but since I do not segregate that brass, I can not say for sure that they are the ones splitting sooner. Basically, unless a case is visibly split, creased or mis-shaped, I see no reason to throw it out prematurely.

chief38

I got some surplus Air Force .38s back in the late 1970s. My first .38
Special reloads used those brass and a Lee Loader which scratched the cases. Recently I found one of them still in the collection of .38 brass I was loading. It may have been reloaded 20 times and is still going.

over crimping

beagleye said:

I just started reloading for handguns couple of months ago. I am on my 4th run with my first batch of brass for my model 15-2. 2 times with 4.5 grains unique and 2 times with 5 grains. Prepping it for another go I noticed one (1 out of 80) had split length wise. Is it time for new brass or is that just par for the course?

Thanks, Pete

Click to expand...

I use unique also, and I think my problem is with a over zealous roll crimp. I like a good tight roll crimp. I can usually get 5 or 6 reloads out of my brass. If I go easy on the roll crimp, I can get a lot more.

augy

I've split a few .44 magnums in my day. The load was well below maximum, but the cases had been fired many times.

I've split only one .38 Special. I did it about 2 weeks ago, and it was Remington factory ammo (virgin ammo straight from Walmart)

Unless you are going to load it HOT - run till they split. Done so for the last thirdy years .

Great advice!

Thank's a whole bunch.


Pete

I've been loading the same 1200 pieces of Remington .38 Special brass for just about 6 years now and none have failed. I know a reloader who has used his .38 Special brass so long the head stamp is gone on most of them!!

My wife and I have a few thousand .38 brass that I reload for CAS. The only time new or once-fired brass gets added to the mix is when I use better brass to load big match ammo and then throw it into the .38 bin after the match. 3.2 grains of Bullseye and a 158gr. RNFP seated out to an O.A.L. of 1.51" has probably made up 98% of our 38 loads since 1998. I use a pretty good roll crimp on all our loads because a good number of them will be used in tube-fed lever rifles, and there's not much in the cowboy world worse than having a bullet push down into the case (therby fouling the rifle's action) either because of a cracked case mouth or a lack of crimp.

The above dictates that I search our brass, mostly for cracked case mouths, before each loading, and I'll usually discard a dozen or so per thousand. Although I've never kept records, I think I can safely say that of the discarded dozen, more than half will always be nickel and my most durable 38 brass seems to bear the Star-line marking or one of several Winchester headstamps.

Seems like the American Rifleman did a test on this back in the 60's or early '70's and it seems like they quit after 75 or so loadings of the same casing as it was still going strong. I think that they did the same with a 30-06 casing as well with the same sort of result.
Randy