How many reloads on brass

[Delos]

Like many others, I don't keep track of pistol brass - I just reload it until it splits and, if I ever get one with a loose primer pocket (hasn't happened yet), I'll trash that as well. My first centerfire handgun, purchases back around 1975 - an original Colt Trooper (not Mark III) - came with a couple hundred Super Vel cases that I still have most of and still reload. The nickel plating has mostly worn off, but the cases themselves are fine. Rifle brass - operating at generally much higher pressures much closer to my face - I'm a good bit more fussy with.



Did he really say that? He should have known better - uranium atoms are destroyed in power plants every day, and every star is in the business of destroying lighter atoms to make new heavier ones.

Not to mention the destruction in supercollider's.
Actually he said all our heavy atoms were made in supernovas.
Apparently he assumed (or I did not hear him say) that only hydrogen was made in the big bang (or something like that someone else said).

Yes Carl Sagan said that every atom in our bodies was made in an exploding star. Every atom that ever existed still exists.

Naturally, for my kids, I changed it to "every atom in our bodies has been run through the bowels of dinosaurs millions of times".

 

[Delos]

The Star In You

(When I heard this it was Carl Sagan saying it)
(Obviously this includes the brass in our cartridges)

NOVA | The Star In You

"Our planet, our society, and we ourselves are built of star stuff."—Carl Sagan, Cosmos

The Star In You
By Peter Tyson
Posted 12.02.10
NOVA scienceNOW

(First Paragraph)
Here's an amazing fact for your next cocktail party: Every single atom in your body—the calcium in your bones, the carbon in your genes, the iron in your blood, the gold in your filling—was created in a star billions of years ago. All except atoms of hydrogen and one or two of the next lightest elements. They were formed even earlier, shortly after the Big Bang began 13.7 billion years ago.

 

[Delos]

Carl Sagan Interviews

Carl Sagan did a lot of TV interviews.

I saw him on The Johnnie Carson Show several times.

The quote I recall he might have said:
Every Atom that "now exists", has always existed, since it was made in a star.

 

[FlyFish]

Here's an amazing fact for your next cocktail party: Every single atom in your body—the calcium in your bones, the carbon in your genes, the iron in your blood, the gold in your filling—was created in a star billions of years ago. All except atoms of hydrogen and one or two of the next lightest elements. They were formed even earlier, shortly after the Big Bang began 13.7 billion years ago.

Yes, of course. Normal stars build the atoms in the period table up to the atomic weight of iron; supernovae and who knows what else may be out there have the extra energy to go beyond that. My point was that if, for example, you take two hydrogen atoms and make one helium atom (the basic fusion reaction that powers the sun and other stars), those two hydrogen atoms longer exist, which is what makes Sagan's statement incorrect.

(And with that, I'll acknowledge the patience of the mods in allowing this very off-topic discussion; patience which I will not try further.)

 

[SMSgt]

Great . . . Now I find out I've been recycled.

 

[moxie]

Note that virtually all ammo you find at a range is in fact "once fired." Reloaders tend to pick up their own brass, and any in the area as well! What's left is stuff that's been shot just once by non-reloaders.

 

[Delos]

Where we, and our guns came from

I was trying to establish that anything we do to atoms in our lifetime, in our homes, will not effect them much. Manufacturing brass shells, using, and reusing brass shells is all about accidentally and intentionally hardening and annealing and such.
(So here is the groveling I must now do)

But - But, But, Mr FlyFish I was trying to sound really scientific about atoms. Now I must wiggle a bit and try to recall what Carl Sagan really said.
(deniability) Johnnie Carson show came on late at night an I had just gotten off shift. It was probably my first year of marriage….

But as we explored this subject I realized that me and my Smith & Wesson revolvers are more different than I imagined. At one time I was contemplating being buried with my favorite handgun. (One lady insisted on being buried in her sports car?)

But now I realize that I am recycled food chain molecules and my precious guns are mined from sterile earth minerals.

So now, if I want to start a cottage industry of burying people with their favorite guns I must fine ways to bring my guns into the food chain. Carbon steel would probably enter the food chain atoms better than stainless. We are all made of topsoil, our guns and other metal tools are not. We are closer kin to the wood stocks than the steel parts.

So, the first out of the ocean was vegetation. For millions of years various grasses and bushes lived and died to make the topsoil for us. Then eventually, when the land was fertile our earliest ancestors emerged from the water and became part of the food chain. If only because we ate vegetation and died becoming part of the complex molecules in topsoil.

I carried my S&W revolver all over the Sierra Nevada Mountain trails studying the geology and the downward conveyor belt action of the 8 or 9 miles of erosion, by weather and vegetation (roots have acids that actually disassemble and absorb the calcium and iron and all other mineral atoms in rocks (we were rocks before we were dust). Even in death the vegetation forms carbonic acids that helps digest and recycle rocks). (Atoms are never changed - they just form into other molecules).

(Okay - now we will get bumped out of here and it is your fault for making it more interesting than it needed to be. And we still have not debated how the heavy gold, in the engraving, on really nice guns, got pushed to the surface of the earth). (Think giant meteors miles across busting through the crust of the earth and metals spurting up cracks).
(In California it seems to be old earthquake faults - obvious in the oldest most eroded mountains).

(The story of us and our S&W firearms goes way way back. If only S&W made a Bowie Knife with hollow handle for fishing hooks and string).

 

[Delos]

Gold alloy shells and Water Ouzel engraving

So, some day, in the next 39 years (when I croak at 100) someone will ask my nearest family rep…. why the fired shells all around him.

He is paying for it, and wishes are wishes. Wishes can often be bought. They say he put old guns on his grinder, ground a few of them to dust, and sprinkled them on his flower bed. Those flowers right there are from his garden. They and the topsoil are his guns, and will go where he goes. The shells he wanted left as shells.

He always wanted to mine gold. Read books containing mineral vein maps, earthquake fault maps, plate tectonic maps. At one point wanted to add gold to brass for 38 special shells.

Gold is really tough. It can remain in mountain streams when almost all other minerals have been hammered to dust or oxidized. He wanted to put the gold in the last quarter inch of the 38 special shell, that gets belled out after being sized down. Then crimped down again after bullet inserted.

He was not a geologist but read what he wanted. He said the "black sand" in mountain streams must be nickel iron from meteors. The only thing, other than gold, he felt was tough enough to survive millions of years of mountain erosion.

The Sierra Nevada Mountains are over 200 million years old. One revolution of the Milky Way galaxy. One Milky Way Revolution ago the dinosaurs began. Or so he claimed.

And why did Delos not make a pistol from his beloved black-sand and gold/copper? His wife said he was pretty lazy, unless walking in the mountains or going in some old mine. He loved S&W revolvers and John Muir's Water Ouzel. A water bird that was the only one that could sing happy notes in a freezing Sierra Nevada blizzard.

Delos died still saving his money to have a Water Ouzel engraved on a six inch stainless steel S&W revolver. Lazy bum never finished anything (they will say).

 

[DAB]

I have a batch of 44mag that has been fired 16x. After 6-8, it might need trimming.

 

[chriske]

I only reload handgun ammo.
Some fellow shooters who use factory ammo regularly give me their once-fired brass.
Apart from that I only reload my own brass, of which I know the history.
I reload both 'till they split. In mild loads, such as 148 HBWC .38 Spl stuff, this takes a LOT of time/reloads.

 

[cellllman]

Handgun brass can be loaded until it splits. I have some .38 Special cases that have been reloaded so many times the nickel is worn off in spots. Even my heavy .44 Magnum loads go until the necks will split (I lost count at about 15 or 16 the last time I tried to keep track). I buy a lot of once fired brass in .38, .357, .44 Special and Magnum, 45 ACP and 9mm. I've found range pick-ups of about 1K of .223/5.56 and have no problems if I visually inspect each case...

I totally agree with mikld; as I only load for target practice (light/medium loads) if you just do a good job of inspecting each time you should not have any problems re-using until a crack or other deformity shows up.

 

[InfantryWeaponsOfficer]

I reload brass until it shows signs of fatigue. I only load magnum loads in nickel plated brass and only 6 times before I toss them.

 

[Skunkhome]

I have brass in pistol and straight sided rifle cases that I haven't a clue how many reloadings are on them. On the other hand I had a light loaded .38 special split last week with a case that I am sure was a once fired case.

 

[mike365]

44 rem mag running 19 gr of 2400 I load 8 times then discard.
357 mag running 17 gr of 2400 I load approximately 15 then discard.
45 acp/ar i load until they degrade which is a very long time.
Thanks, Mike

 

[C1gypsy]

are u on ZeroHedge? I notched NWMEN is in OH?

 

[blujax01]

are u on ZeroHedge? I notched NWMEN is in OH?

And I went and left my Universal Translator in my other suit!

 

[Waywatcher]

I don't keep track on .38 or .357 brass, beyond once fired. I like to save once fired for special purposes. Anytime I find a primer seats too easily, I mark the bottom up with a sharpie and discard that case after that firing. I haven't had very many mouth splits, (single digits) but I have only been reloading for about 4 years. They are harmless when they split at the mouth anyways.

For my AR, I only use any one piece of brass 5 times total, including original firing, and then it goes into the recycling bin. It gets full length resized with a small base die every time, so I don't like to take chances.

I haven't quite decided what I will do with my Glock and the .40 brass. I think I will probably do the same regimen as the AR, because the brass gets chewed up by extractors, ejectors, concrete and the Glock bulge. I do use a Redding G-Rx die also.

When it comes to brass, the phrase "penny-wise, pound-foolish" is at the front of my mind. I don't reuse a piece of suspect brass, or use a piece more times, to save a penny if it risks my five hundred dollar or thousand dollar gun.