.30-30 Brass Life

[mr surveyor]

How many re-loads do y'all get out of .30-30 brass loaded at moderate game getter levels? I've got one life long reloading buddy that says he only reloaded his once fired factory brass once or twice, but that was back when the factory ammo wasn't all that expensive. Another says 4-5 cycles are the norm. I think the main issues are the thin brass and case mouth splits and possibility of case head separation (again due to thin brass) .... both of which can be fairly easily recognized (I think).

I only have about 70-80 pieces of brass to work with, which should be sufficient for quite a while. But, I would like to think I could get a bit of use from it.


surv

[pricedo]

How many re-loads do y'all get out of .30-30 brass loaded at moderate game getter levels? I've got one life long reloading buddy that says he only reloaded his once fired factory brass once or twice, but that was back when the factory ammo wasn't all that expensive. Another says 4-5 cycles are the norm. I think the main issues are the thin brass and case mouth splits and possibility of case head separation (again due to thin brass) .... both of which can be fairly easily recognized (I think).

I only have about 70-80 pieces of brass to work with, which should be sufficient for quite a while. But, I would like to think I could get a bit of use from it.


surv

There is not set or standardized number of times each case can be reloaded.
There are too many variables at play to make such a convenient determination possible.
If you are loading weaker "cowboy action" loads your brass can be reloaded several times.
With hunting loads loaded to maximum you might get 1 or 2 reloads out of a case.
You check & inspect each & every one of your brass carefully before committing the cases to another loading cycle.
If you're firing near max or max loads your brass generally won't last as long.
High pressure stretches the cases and causes the brass to "flow" toward the case mouth and make the case longer.
You can get a good idea how much your brass is "flowing" by how much you have to trim off when you're resizing.
Removing brass by cutting back the case mouth in the resizing operation makes the case weaker because the brass that is being removed is "flowing" from the case walls and making them thinner.

[mr surveyor]

given it's head spacing on the rim, would fire forming and neck sizing only be an advantage? Fire formed brass obviously doesn't get "worked" as much as full length resized brass, but would it also reduce the brass "flow" and case thinning to some degree as well?

I generally stick to somewhere in the 3/4 range for my maximum loads. I don't dance too close to the edge on any dance floor. I figure I will last longer by following that rule.


surv

[Ranch Dog]

I can only support what pricedo has already offered, it is tough to tell what you get for case life until the case life has been reached. Inspect your cases well, it never hurts to look into a case with a bore light and magnifying glass if you can or at least, with a length of wire feel the inside of the case from the web up through any shoulder. It should be smooth all the way up and any "bumps" need to be examined even if it means cutting open a case as a sample.

One way to extend case life is to anneal case necks. You must do it right or you will end up hurting the cases. There is plenty of training material available on the internet. Benchrest shooters tend to be really into this and their high powered rifle cases last 30 to 40 cycles I'm told! I'm only shooting two cartridges now with a bottleneck; the 30-30 Win and 35 Rem, but I am concerned with case life on even my straight wall cartridges in that the "necks" are getting worked through the expansion dies. That said, I just retired a specific lot of 444 Marlin brass, 20 cycles, of heavy max loads! Really no reason for the retirement.

The full benefit of annealing comes with the process taking place every time the lot of brass is cycled. To date I have not had the discipline to carry that out. I do keep good records on every lot of brass as to what has been done to it with each life cycle but just need to add the annealing. I have wanted to sell my Lyman 4500 lubesizer and collection of H&I dies then purchase one of the auto annealers as a method of keeping up with the task. With the cost of brass and the volume which I shoot, buying something like the Ballistic Edge Annealer makes sense to me.

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How many re-loads do y'all get out of .30-30 brass loaded at moderate game getter levels?

Back to your base question. My records say that the ammo I reload for my dad's Glenfield 30 have had a seve cycles without any issues. These are max loads with my TLC311-165-RF bullet. I use the Lee Pacesetter dies and full length size each cycle. Don't really see much shaved brass with the Lee case gage/trimmer. So little that the chamfer/deburring tool could keep up with it alone.

[Arroyoshark]

This has been my experience as it relates to shooting a lot of cowboy lever action silhouette matches a number of years ago. The .30-30 is not really a high pressure round, in the sense a .308 Win. is, so brass life is generally pretty good. I have inspected cleaned cases and reloaded them as much as 16-18 times successfully. Case necks are thin and after trimming 3-4 times, I might get a few cracks from work hardening. Brass was so plentiful so I didn't even conceive of annealing the brass. I used primarily Winchester and Remington-Peters brass. Another gauge for me was how loose primer pockets were getting, tho it really didn't prove to be a big problem either w the .30-30. A tip - keep a batch of cases trimmed to same length and go easy on the bullet crimp, it is easy to collapse the case.

When 110 gr. RN soft point bullets, designed for the M1 carbine, were plentiful and cheep, I reloaded a ton of those for softer recoil on the firing line. Was a great jack rabbit round as well.

Other more vocal members may have different opinions or personal experience, but this was mine.

[pricedo]

Just bought 20 x boxes (@20) of Remington 170 grain Core-Lokt ammo (2200 fps) that was on sale for $14.94 a box.
The factory Core-Lokt ammo is as good as premium ammo costing several times the price for muzzle velocities less than 2500 fps.
The 30-30 is a modest (a throw back from earlier times in American history) cartridge for short to medium range hunting.
That 20 boxes of factory 30-30 ammo will last me for years in my 4 x 30-30 rifles.
I was raised at a time when 1 cartridge missing from a box of ammo meant a dead game animal was laying on the ground somewhere close by.
Plinking with center fire firearms was a sport for the more well to do members of that more temperate & pragmatic society.
Not many could afford the heavy (in weight and price) table mounted reloading equipment that was available back then either.
The first Lee Loaders on the market opened the door to recreational target shooting for many.

[44-40 Willy]

My Grandpa swore by Rem Core Lokts in the 30-30. He saw some Winchester Silvertips that I had bought once and said "That bullet won't do anything that the Core Lokt won't do just as good or better". These days, I think he was pretty much right about that. If Remington had ever brought out 44-40 or 357 Mag Core Lokt bullets, I'd have to give those a try as well.

[pricedo]

If you're paying $50 a box for premium ammo with Nosler Partition bullets for the 30-30, 32 WSP, 35 Rem you're wasting your money.
Core-Lokt ammo will do the same job for 1/4 the money.
With the faster calibers pushing projectiles well over 2500 fps such as the 308 Win, 30-06 Sprng, 7mm Rem Mag, 300 Win Mag the NPs, Accubonds and other premium bullets come into their own where cup n'core bullets might blow apart and fail in dense muscle tissue and bone.

[pricedo]

I think there will be a plentiful and varied supply of cheap 30-30 ammo and thus re-loadable brass for years to come.
Every little ma & pa hardware store in Bugtustle, USA or Canada has a box or 2 of "thutty-thutty shells" on the shelf.
Even when I reloaded a lot I'd reload the 30-30s a coupla times then check them cause they were so plentiful and cheap.
I've got a box of Remington-Peters Kleanbore (precursor to the Core-Lokts) 30-30 ammo with $3.95 sticker still on the box.

[MT Gianni]

I found that with the RCBZ X dies I really never do need to trim.