How many loadings are you getting out of your 44 Mag brass?
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fredj338
Member
You should be able to get 10x reloads before neck splits. That depends on brass quality & the amount of flare & crimp. I used to shoot met sil every month. I used the same 100 cases for an entire year before retiring them to practice rds.
muddocktor
Member
That sounds like a reasonable number, fredj. I would say I get around the same myself. But some of my older brass is starting to split in the middle part of the case, not at the mouth. I guess it's just getting too work hardened and since it has been shot a lot in a Desert Eagle, the middle part of the case gets beat on pretty hard during case extraction and ejection.
roundgunner
US Veteran
Wow I don't have a real number but I'm sure some of my brass is OLD and been reloaded many many times. It is only used in revolvers and almost always cleaned and used in loads similar to 235 SWC 20gr 2400 but I'm sure some of it has about 100 uses.
gregintenn
Member
I don't know, but to be honest, I don't recall ever tossing a single 44 mag case.
AveragEd
Member
I think that as long as you don't load your cases with maximum loads, flare the case mouth only as much as needed to get the bullet seating process started and don't crimp them any more than absolutely necessary, straight-walled cases should last almost indefinitely. I have some with over a dozen loadings on them and they look good for another dozen.
Ed
Ed
m657
Member
I've got some 44 mag brass I loaded first time about 30 years ago.
Hard to tell 'how many loads' but it's rare to have one split at the recipes I use.
Had been saving up the batch & loaded nearly 1000 case a few weeks ago. Think I had about 5 discards due to split...and 2 of those were from too much mouth flair, as I was getting the powder die reset after doing 44 special cases.
Don't get much splitting from 44S either.
Hard to tell 'how many loads' but it's rare to have one split at the recipes I use.
Had been saving up the batch & loaded nearly 1000 case a few weeks ago. Think I had about 5 discards due to split...and 2 of those were from too much mouth flair, as I was getting the powder die reset after doing 44 special cases.
Don't get much splitting from 44S either.
Yorkie Man
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I just scrapped several hundred that I got 25 years ago and have loaded about 30 times with very mild loads, 6.0 231 200 rnfp cast. The mouths started to split. I agree that the hot loads shorten case life and those loads never go more than 5-8 loading before mouth splitting.
I have 38 pieces of CIL brass (couldn't find the last 2 pieces) that are range pickups from 1973. I bought my Ruger SBH in Nov 1978. I still have some of that brass that hasn't neck-split. I'd guess 10+ reloads with full power loads, 20 reloads with mild to mid-range loads.
All my 44 mag brass is range pickups because I never bought a box of factory ammo.
All my 44 mag brass is range pickups because I never bought a box of factory ammo.
I get about 6 cycles with Remington Nickel-Plated before the casemouth splits. These are heavily crimped using the Lee FCD. I get about 10 cycles with regular Starline brass. But I'm only loading full-up loads for a S&W329pd now, and I can't get away with mild crimps.
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TAROMAN
US Veteran
Still using cases from 1975 when I purchased a new 29-2.
Brass is still going strong, as is the revolver, though it needed a factory overhaul a few years ago.
Brass is still going strong, as is the revolver, though it needed a factory overhaul a few years ago.
I must have 12 or more Model 29s & 629s as well as some Rugers in .44 Mag, so my brass is "worked" heavily. I have found some neck splits after about 15x on full power loads (23.5gr H110 under a 240gr GC-SWC). Since I use my brass from full to light loads (8.5gr AA5 under a 215grPbSWC), hard to tell, but I inspect the brass after shooting and cannot remember a case that showed signs of stress after shooting a light target load. The latter load is a tack-driver!!!
firebyprolong
Member
I load it till it cracks then trim to spl and load till it cracks again. Before I get any flak thrown my way those are cowboy loads aka 5 grains bullseye not Keith bear and t-Rex killers
I normally don't count reloadings for anything but my Garand brass. But I have some Remington nickel plated .44 magnum brass that I have records of at least 10 reloadings with 265 gr. lead bullets at near max loads of 2400 (my favorite loads for my 20" ,44 Mag. levergun). All the rest of my handgun brass is inspected before each time it's reloaded and "splits" go in the scrap bucket. I never counted...
Buckey08
Member
In a Ruger carbine, Winchester brass, 4 trips down the tube and the brass is toast.
