Good article for you guys who handload!

http://www.massreloading.com/loading45ACP.html


My intentions here were to help those who may not have experienced these things as they start into their own handloading adventure or if someone who doesn't handload can draw from this information as they gain knowledge about what they might see.   

I always thought that the brass got longer, not shorter.

The base of the 45 looks the same as my brass. That is why I don't reload a semi-auto piston case more than 10 times.

interesting read. I have had .45 acp cases split plenty of times though. I wonder how many times they were loaded? when I get time I am going to measure some of my cases. I have some ancient ones!

Well with any luck these will be available in .45 ACP and(please, please, please) 10mm soon.


http://www.ammoland.com/2016/11/316605/#axzz4OwdjL0TP

I couldn't tell from that link what material the cases are made of.

Quote from: my_old_glock on November 02 2016 10:46:37 PM MDT

I always thought that the brass got longer, not shorter.

It is worth noting for any novice loaders, that generally it is accepted that brass gets longer, and case length should be checked regularly.

That said, many straightwall cases do actually shrink over time.  Bottleneck cases always grow.

Quote from: blaster on November 03 2016 05:23:27 AM MDT
interesting read. I have had .45 acp cases split plenty of times though. I wonder how many times they were loaded? when I get time I am going to measure some of my cases. I have some ancient ones!

Will annealing help to keep cases from splitting?

Quote from: Mike_Fontenot on November 03 2016 06:46:12 AM MDT
I couldn't tell from that link what material the cases are made of.

Whatever they are made of it's magnetic.

The casing in his testing were Brass as made by Starline (they are made and alloyed to be reloaders brass casings). By that I mean the alloy is somewhat softer more malleable with the finished product.  This is what allows you to resize and reuse them over and over, but as handloaders we need to be aware of work hardening issues, when the alloy starts to get stiffer and not hold it's resized shape, it can spring back open after it comes out the sizing die.  That can lead to bullets being loose and setback issues, like some 10mm reloaded PPU brass Intercooler had issues with.

While these were straight walled cases and they were found to shrink as they were being slammed and hammered back against the breech face.  After so many times the shrinkage was found in the extractor groove area.

Those of us who reload bottleneck rifle stuff understand they stretch with reuse.  This occurs as the fired cartridge stretches out to the full chamber size.  That stretch pulls the walls thinner at the area where the inside taper starts above the web. 



When we resize most are full length resized especially for semi auto use, this makes casings smaller than the actual chamber and when fired they have plenty room to expand and fill that space.  Bolt action shooters utilize neck sizing only to help this very situation, that brass is dedicated to that particular firearm to minimize stretching and preserve uniformity of each and every shot and reduce overworking!

My intentions here were to help those who may not have experienced these things as they start into their own handloading adventure or if someone who doesn't handload can draw from this information as they gain knowledge about what they might see.

On 45 acp brass, haven't tracked individual cases so specific # of reloads not certain, yet I have a certain mass of "X000s number" that gets shot & reloaded regularly....over the years there have been replacements mostly via random range brass.

Have at times added fresh never loaded 'new brass' and despite efforts never managed to keep them separate for long. 

On my 'most often used' practice brass loads I may lose something on the order of 1% per loading of batch of 500.

On my 'good match brass' loads, nearly never lose a case to brass failure.  After some unspecified # of reload cycles, it is demoted to 'practice brass' status.