madmo44mag
New member
Retiring old friends after 30 years.
Yep, I’m retiring my 357 brass after 30 plus years of shooting it.
I remember the day at the gun show I bought 5000 rounds of brand new 357 brass back some time in early 1985.
I was set for a lifetime of shooting my 357 revolvers as far as brass was concerned.
Over the years some was lost to the range, some lost at deer camp, some damaged from stupid re-loading mistakes.
Over the years I added to the brass from various sources but after 30 plus years that 5000 rounds of brass slowly got whittled down to just over 1000 rounds.
In 30 years I only had to trim the brass twice just to clean up the cause mouth so they crimped evenly.
The last two times I loaded 357 ammo I had new primers fall out of some loaded brass when loading a revolver, (yep, insert loaded round and primers fell out and jammed the cylinder) some brass would not even hold a primer and found when boxing the ammo up. Some primers blew back when shot.
I have 250 loaded rounds left to shoot of this old brass and as I shoot it I dump it in the re-cycle brass bin.
So if ya ever wondered how long you can shoot straight wall pistol brass I’d say until the primers fall out - lol!
Last year I started retiring 44 mag brass.
Same time frame 30 plus years on the brass.
Primers never gave me a problem but brass started splitting when shooting full bore magnum loads. So I bought 1000 rounds of new Star-line brass for full bore magnum loads and the old brass is for light plinking loads.
I have no idea how many times this brass has been re-loaded. My best guess is over well 10k times or more. From 1985 - 1995 I would shoot close to a 1k rounds a weekend during the summer and several hundred rounds during the winter months. My two favorite guns at that time to shoot were my Ruger SBH in 357 - 44 mag. Those were the days when re-loading supplies were cheap and plentiful.
Well so long my old friends, the journey finally ends.
To toss ya to the recycle bin to be melted down so ya can start all over again.
Yep, I’m retiring my 357 brass after 30 plus years of shooting it.
I remember the day at the gun show I bought 5000 rounds of brand new 357 brass back some time in early 1985.
I was set for a lifetime of shooting my 357 revolvers as far as brass was concerned.
Over the years some was lost to the range, some lost at deer camp, some damaged from stupid re-loading mistakes.
Over the years I added to the brass from various sources but after 30 plus years that 5000 rounds of brass slowly got whittled down to just over 1000 rounds.
In 30 years I only had to trim the brass twice just to clean up the cause mouth so they crimped evenly.
The last two times I loaded 357 ammo I had new primers fall out of some loaded brass when loading a revolver, (yep, insert loaded round and primers fell out and jammed the cylinder) some brass would not even hold a primer and found when boxing the ammo up. Some primers blew back when shot.
I have 250 loaded rounds left to shoot of this old brass and as I shoot it I dump it in the re-cycle brass bin.
So if ya ever wondered how long you can shoot straight wall pistol brass I’d say until the primers fall out - lol!
Last year I started retiring 44 mag brass.
Same time frame 30 plus years on the brass.
Primers never gave me a problem but brass started splitting when shooting full bore magnum loads. So I bought 1000 rounds of new Star-line brass for full bore magnum loads and the old brass is for light plinking loads.
I have no idea how many times this brass has been re-loaded. My best guess is over well 10k times or more. From 1985 - 1995 I would shoot close to a 1k rounds a weekend during the summer and several hundred rounds during the winter months. My two favorite guns at that time to shoot were my Ruger SBH in 357 - 44 mag. Those were the days when re-loading supplies were cheap and plentiful.
Well so long my old friends, the journey finally ends.
To toss ya to the recycle bin to be melted down so ya can start all over again.