Lee Loader

Hi Guys.
Went to the range today with my Marlin 336 30-30.
Next to last round, which actually became the last round, came apart while firing.
The bullet went down range but the case split around the shoulder. Rifle ejected the head and the balance of the cart. remained in the barrel. I was able to remove it at home.
Question is how many times can a rifle cartridge be reloaded? The ones I have are about 5X
Thanks

For my 336C 30-30, I've reloaded RP cases 10X+. Bullets are cast (RD) & jacketed 165g & 170g, respectively, pushed by a maximum (published) charge of H4895. I full length size cases with every loading and anneal necks after 4-5 loadings.

Dan

Poppop wrote:Hi Guys.
Went to the range today with my Marlin 336 30-30.
Next to last round, which actually became the last round, came apart while firing.
The bullet went down range but the case split around the shoulder. Rifle ejected the head and the balance of the cart. remained in the barrel. I was able to remove it at home.
Question is how many times can a rifle cartridge be reloaded? The ones I have are about 5X
Thanks

Do you anneal your brass?

I wont anneal brass so if the old 336 I just bought requires it, I know where you can buy a sweet .30WCF set up.

I have over 10 cycles on some 06' and 7-8 on some 308 .
I have some 9mm that all but has the headstamp nearly gone and some 45 Colts north of 20x .
As for 30-30 I don't know yet . I only have about 50-60 rounds through it in 1x .
I don't run full tilt in anything except 45 Colts which for hunting loads are Ruger start loads .
Cast lets me get all I'm going to get under 40kpsi and generally under 35 . So my results may not be of much help .

I anneal every 3-5 cycles for the high pressure stuff and every 15 for the expensive pistol brass . 9mm and 38s are just run it till it blows brass .

In review I have some converted 32 Rem from 30-30 that have probably 20 cycles on them I annealed them after the 3rd firing before sizing and then only as much as absolutely necessary .

GasGuzzler wrote:I wont anneal brass so if the old 336 I just bought requires it, I know where you can buy a sweet .30WCF set up.

Just buy brass when you need it. New 30-30 brass will run you about 42¢/ea, so five reloads has it down to 8¢/ea. It is hard to justify the time to anneal it or the purchase of any annealer to run it any longer. Even the purchase of a Collet Die to avoid the hardening issue altogether is tough to justify. Those of us that do any of the previous just enjoy it.

For some of my brass, it is required to maximize its life; 300 Sav, 32 Win Spl, & 35 Rem are some examples. You never know when you will be handling the last piece of brass left in this world.

Somewhere on this forum, I started a topic where I was going only resize a given lot of 30-30 Win brass with a Collet die to see how long it would run. If I got to a point that I would need to full-length size to fit, I would anneal it first. This is where I started going to the custom EZ X Expanders and Collet Mandrels to minimize the sizing of the neck and then expanding it for a cast bullet. The brass has cycled into the teens with no problems. I think, without looking at the card I keep with the brass, I've only resized it with the Pacesetter Die (full-length) once.

I have Redding full length and neck sizers as well as the .310-.314 NOE expander you sent. 311165 RD mold in its way.

It's just possible you're "over-sizing" the brass, pushing the shoulder back just a teens y bit and lever guns being what they are the brass is stretching on firing and you get early separations. I don't own a 30/30 but I've had the problem with the 6.5-06, a 270 and a 22-250. Careful adjustment of the sizing die on once fired cases fixed the problem. Still don't get the best life out of the 22/250 but the rifle is a Rem 788 and that's another story all by itself.

Make smoke,

I don't anneal brass.
I think I'm going to take the advise of RD and buy new brass in 50pc bags as needed. I only shoot 20 rds per outing.
I don't know about the stretching. After lubing and sizing I trim and very very little is taken off.
I think the age of the brass also is a concern. Half are about 50 yrs old and some other half only 10 yrs old.
Good part is that it didn't hurt the rifle.
Thanks for you help all

Put new battery in calculator. 300 reloads divided by 30 cases = 10 reloads per case. I guess something was going to happen soon.