Hi Marcus,

If you are neck sizing, you should be able to 'feel' how hard the brass is by the force needed to run the die over the neck, and especially dragging the expander plug back out.

The looser the chamber neck size, then the more the brass gets worked. Check how sloppy a projectile fits in the fired brass neck, those old military chambers were made pretty loose !

Generally, I full length size & anneal about every 5-6 mild reloads when the bolt is starting to close with a bit of 'drag' which will upset a single bolt lug accuracy.

More importantly for safety is checking the inside near the case head to see if separation is starting. Thinning and cracking happens inside there long before you see any hint on the outside. This happens faster with full length sizing and with hot loads for the action.

I attached a photo of a small tool made from a piece of car aerial, bent and ground to chisel edge to act as a 'stylus'. A mere pointed end tends to rotate sideways and loose any 'feel'.

Run this up the inside of the case about 1/4 inch infront of the rim feeling for cracks (which catch the tip) or inside grooves (which you can feel as 'dips') indicating that the case is going to separate soon. Rotate the case a 1/4 turn each time because separation does not occur symmetrically.

Out of a batch of 20 cases, typically I will throw a couple away after several shots, whilst the rest can last into the dozens of reloads depending on the load and the action.

At my military rifle club shoots, there is always a cheapskate using brass which you can see from the outside as 'stretched and granular' just where the case head thins to the wall. He often gets case head separations, fortunately he uses a K98 Mauser so a bad on just blew the magazine floor plate out and scattered brass fragments over the concrete. I don't think a Krag would handle that too well. I make sure I shoot in a different detail to him.

Cheers,

Rob

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