Mike,
Great points on quickly destroying brass! For the 43 Mauser: the virgin brass drops right in, is undersized from the chamber cast, so I do run the expander ball through the first time, prime, slightly bell the mouth, powder, dacron, seat the bullet. For seating I start out way long, then slowly turn until I get to max COAL which gets it right close to the rifling, but I don't go crazy on that.

For second and subsequent firings, I universal decap, then run the brass through the neck portion of the die the length of the part of the bullet that's inside the case, about 3/8"+, then bell the mouth, powder, dacron, seat the bullet. For this rifle, once-fired brass goes in even without having to kiss the shoulder in the die.

I've never annealed brass and might give it a whirl to undo the work hardening. Any idea how many firings until annealing becomes something to address?

I have brass from Bertram and Bluffalo Arms, made from 50x110 Starline brass. I'll look for 45-90 and that should give me an excuse to buy a harbor freight lathe finally!