I also fls all my 303 before loading. I run too many 303 guns and never know what gun the ammo will be going into next. I take care of the brass (no commercial junk) and it last for 10+
reloads.
my methods are
anneal the shoulder to 1/4" past the shoulder
size and wash the cases
trim for length if needed
prime powder and bullet with crimp
fire.
I did a torture test where I ran the cases out of different guns until they failed. here are the results.
there is alot of variables in case life in my experience and I did a test
I took 10 of each case from what I had and loaded and reloaded them and kept track of them.
The load was 38 grains of 4895 and a 150 FMJ pulled from 7.62x54r
cases were annealed and trimmed every 5 loads
cases listed from worst to best
remington all gone by 4 loads for head seperation
winchester all gone by 5 loads for head seperation
ppu/nny all 10 made it to 9 loads but were all gone by 12 for neck splits
HXP 8 made it to 8 loads by 15 I had 2 left I still have 1 left thats loaded for the 20th time
Iraq (surplus converted to boxer by me) lost one to a reloading mistake but the remaining nine made it to 12 then by 17 I had 2 left. those 2 are loaded for go 20
RG1944 (surplus converted to boxer by me) all 10 made it to 10 then at 15 I had 6 left at 19 there was 5 . I have 3 left that are loaded for number 20
the brass was all full length resized and used in a different gun every time around.
other notes
I boiled the Iraq and RG42 cases in water to get the salts out when I first got them.
All the cases get washed between reloads. They get sized then get a bath in hot water and a bit of yellow ajax then rinsed and dried.
I anneal the top 1/3 of the case
Trim length is 2.22"
they get fired from 7 different guns
All cases get crimped with the lee factory crimp die.
guns used were BREN, Vickers, SMLE's and No4's