How old is your oldest reloadable brass?

[1Shirt]

Last week I shot some old30-06 cast loads that I had loaded in 2000 and 2001. It shot well! When I got to resizing the brass, I got to looking at the mil headstamps on some of them. FA60 Match, and LC62Match. Over 50 years old, and I well remember when I got them in 62 or 63. Have no idea of the exact number of times these cases have been loaded and fired(the largest percentage with cast boolits). I do remember loading them a number of times with H4831 bought at Hogdens for 50 cents a pound and with full jacketed mil surplus blts which were 2 cents apiece. It would be fair to say that I probably loaded them 8-10 times with near full power loads. (oh yah, almost forgot-surplus corrosive primers were $5.00 a thousand back then as well).
Some place in the mid 60's, I started shooting a lot more cast due to economy and the less recoil factor. Between then and now have no idea how many of these cases have been reloaded how many times. Would estimate on the low side probably at or close to 20 times. I have always annealed my brass usually after 4-5 loadings or after I had a neck split. So, I will anneal this brass as I believe that age can harden brass, will trim it as needed, and proceed to keep on shooting it in my Springfield this he!! freezes over or the brass shows that it is wearing out due to old age just like me. So, I am wondering how many are reloading brass over 50 years old?
1Shirt![smilie=l:

[Smoke4320]

I have some 1942 50 BMG that's been loaded at least 4 times

[TenTea]

I fired some FA 98 and FA 99 headstamp ammo (read: Frankford Arsenal 1898-1899) in my old .30-40 Krag rifle around 1999 with no ill effects, except to my target. I reloaded and fired them exactly once without trouble. No longer own either the rifle or brass, but still own the memories.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankford_Arsenal

[DxieLandMan]

I have some .30-06 LC brass made in 1942. Been reloaded a few times.

[Firebricker]

I'm going to guess my oldest reloadable brass is some .357mag and .38spl brass with large primer pockets. I don't know how long ago they quit making it but probably way way before my time. It is factory brass not unaltered I never had any idea they made large primer pockets in .357 till I got these. Anybody have any idea how old they are ? FB

[ShooterAZ]

I have some 38 Special brass that is head stamped WRA CO. I have no idea how old it is, but it's old and is all nice & shiny like new.

[DGV]

Some Twin cities 1944 30-06 brass I have has been loaded 3-4 times

[10mmShooter]

I have 38 brass from my Granddad on my Dad's side, its WWII vingtage, its been reloaded countless times. I also have some .32 SW long from other Granddad thats from the 1920's its be reloaded many times. Unfortunatey my neither of Grandads are around.

I have over the past few years retired all my .38 brass in favour of shooting just .357 brass out of my 686 to avoid the crud ring in the cylinders.

[Kraschenbirn]

I've got a bunch of.30-06 FA54 and FA55 that I snagged onto back in the mid-1980s. Most of it has only been reloaded 3-4 times, though, 'cause I got something like 1600 rounds at the time.

Bill

[Dave C.]

WCC 40, 45 acp brass still used for training. I got them in a bag of mixed brass in 1985.
I know I loaded it at least 25 times.

Dave C.

[texassako]

I have reloaded some pre-WWII .25 and .32 Remington cases that came with partially fired boxes of ammo. If you count converted, I have some berdan primed Kynoch 8x50r Lebel from just after WWI that I made into 10.4x47r Italian and to use 209 shotgun primers.

[Shiloh]

Denver 1942 .30-06, Twin Cities 1953 .30-06, Frankford Arsenal .30-06. FA 37 IIRC,
I have Peters .38 special brass that is older than me as well. Still shooting whats left.

Shiloh

[Larry D.]

I have some WWII vintage 30-06 and some 60's vintage 308 that's been through the press a few times.

[Frank46]

Back when it was still available before the present madness, Hi Tech ammo was selling virgin Lc match 67 brass and regular mil surp brass. And up until recently had some FA 50 7.62 nato brass. I still have some WWII era '06 brass somewhere. And also some LC 7.62 national match and just plain match dating back to the mid '60's.Frank

[pipehand]

Loaded a RA 42 headstamped 45 ACP case recently. Don't have any idea how many times I reloaded it before, but it is probably one of the few I started loading in '86 and somehow didn't manage to lose in the grass.

[MtGun44]

I have a lot of 1902 vintage UMC 7x57 brass. Been loaded multiple times and fired in
my rolling block.

Bill

[Michael J. Spangler]

I believe my oldest is early 1950s 45 acp.
I got some in a trade from 50s 60s 70s and 80s.
All still in the rotation

[No_1]

FA42 marked 45 ACP. Only have about 9000 left in a couple of 5 gallon buckets. :bigsmyl2:

[JeffinNZ]

DIz .303 Brit, vintage, 1942. More reduced loads than I can remember.

[Artful]

1940's - 45 ACP is my oldest

[lars1367]

1918 stamped .45ACP UMC.

[SP5315]

I have a mix of about hundred USCo .45 auto brass from 1913 & 1916. They have been loaded by me at least 5 times. The only ones that I have ever lost have been at the range, in the dirt, and no due to defect. These are loaded but now in honored retirement.

[Cosmiceyes]

I have some UMC boxes of 7X57 from when my Father was born! I am fixing to put to good use. Sometime during the roaring 20's!
My Grandmother,Grandfather,and my Dad! Huntington Lake California before it became a suburb of LA.
76511

[Char-Gar]

FA 6 03 Krag brass.

[jimb16]

I have a lot of WWII brass that I use all the time. I just load light, trimm and periodically anneal. My oldest brass is .30-06 from the late teens. I treat that the same way. Some day it will wear out, but not for a while I think....

[s1120]

I got most of my brass from my dad, and I doupt any of its newer then the late 60's. Im guessing its much older then that.

[ku4hx]

.30-'06 and .357 Magnum brass bought new circa 1967.

[HangFireW8]

Western '06 brass from the 1920's. I know how many times reloaded because I fired the factory loads myself.

HF

[44Vaquero]

Plenty of .45's that date from the 40's, some no longer even show a head stamp, having been reloaded 15 to 20 times or more! Almost all of my .44 Magnum dates pre 1965, my dad bought so much I have not really needed to replace it.

[mpmarty]

And I've got some 45acp ball ammo in ten round paper "boxes" dated 1943.

[zomby woof]

Lc-42

[casca]

just loaded 15 45 colt balloon heads had to dremel a shell holder to make it work, new primers fit 4 grains reddot.
going back to the ol timer who snuck them in with my 45 colt brass I traded him for. Figured it was some kind of test. it was.

casca

[jonp]

I had some 38-55 Brass for a Win 94 Saddle Ring Carbine. Still have the rifle but not the brass. It was around 1900 When my Great Great Grand Father bought the rifle and has been in the family since. The brass was close to 100yrs old when I used it and still worked fine with a very light loading out of respect for the rifle and the brass.
Still, I had no problem hunting whitetail with it. Something about traipsing thru a swamp in the far corner of Vermont during a snowstorm in the November deer season dressed in red plaid wool that will take you back in time for sure.

[dondiego]

.38 special balloon head cases. Don't know the actual age.

[rexherring]

Still reloading some .45 Colt brass I bought in 1970 other than that old military brass from WW2.

[leadman]

I have some berdan primed 43 Mauser brass from 1886 that I have reloaded. I do have a tin of the obsolete berdan primers also.

[High Desert Hunter]

I have 45 Colt brass that has been being reloaded since 1994, out of the original 150 Starline cases I bought, I am still reloading and shooting 62 of them.

[mroliver77]

I had some 30-06 brass from the teens. I cleaned one up and loaded it for my Garand. When fired I was showered by gas and brass particles. The case still in the chamber kinda looked like a sieve!. I don't guess on brass anymore.
J

[cwheel]

Just removed from service, WRA co. 38-55, think it dates pre-WW2. Still looks in good shape, but not willing to trust it anymore because of age.
Chris

[HangFireW8]

I had some 30-06 brass from the teens. I cleaned one up and loaded it for my Garand. When fired I was showered by gas and brass particles. The case still in the chamber kinda looked like a sieve!. I don't guess on brass anymore.
J

That's what the old mercurial primers did to brass (when smokeless is used; BP tends to help remove it upon cleaning.)

[PbSnSb]

45 acp marked FA 41

[WILCO]

No idea exactly what I have. I do know there's some LC Match brass from 1968 floating around in the collection. Most of my stuff is walmart shiny and I always go into a trance when looking at it.

[DRNurse1]

Neat thread but should we discuss rifle versus pistol or high/maximuum SAAMI pressures versus lower pressures?

I am using some .45ACP brass my FiL gave me: commercial called Western and military with FA47 head stamps. You wonderful folks here have changed my use of these cases so I no longer shoot these cases in competition and I mic my long line case mouths to obtain more constant case mouth tension. I still have not improved my long line scores, but the hope springs eternal.

Okay, I looked at a batch of 45ACP brass I use for practice:
RA 64; WCC 61, 66 and 74; FC 16 (I think it is really 76), TZZ 78 and one with a triangle shape and 72. Neat trip down memory lane trying to recall where I found this stuff.

[Texantothecore]

7 year old .45-70 brass. Neck sized only I have a small number of cartridges but it appears to be a lifetime supply.

[NoZombies]

I've got baloonhead .32 S&W brass that dates from before 1900. I use it for BP loads in the old top break guns.

[MT Gianni]

No Idea but it is marked 32 New Police.

[zuke]

45-70 baloon head brass. No marking's on the brass what-so-ever. I use them with Trailboss

[dragonrider]

Damifiknow how old but 25 years ago I was at the range with my first gun, 45, 1911, and I was lamenting to a older fellow I had just met that all I had was fifty rounds to shoot before I had to go home and reload em. As I was leavin he handed me a box with 250 empty cases sayin may next time you can hang around a bit longer. Didn't know what to say but did stammer out some well meant thanks. He was a big help to me in those early days, sadly he passed on some years ago. I miss him still, and I still use those cases on occaision.

[MaineJim]

I have a couple of FA 1917 .45 acp,fired a bunch of times along with a good representation of brass from every decade since the forties.

[evan price]

I have 45 acp cases headstamped 1913. Can't recall for sure but I think they are FA-13 in the cool old font like they used on guage faces and watches back then.

[Walter Laich]

have some rifle brass from the late 50's.

[JohnFM]

I have a bunch of WWII era 30 carbine brass.
I shoot it only in a Ruger BH, good brass and I give it no special attention, just keep using it.

[jonk]

I have a batch of 30-03 and 30-06 brass that someone long ago cut down to 8mm Mauser dated from 1904-1932. With cast loads and neck sizing only, some of it is on 30ish reloads and still going strong.

[SteveUSP]

During pistol quals in the Navy, we used the San Diego police range one time. I got a bucket of .45 from us, and bucket of .38 from them. The RO said pick it up and it's yours. This was around 1986. Even after several years of me and Dad shooting .38 in SASS events, we still have most of it.

[Outpost75]

77090

As long as old brass was not fired with mercuric primers, which embrittle the brass, most straight-wall pistol caliber cases loaded with ordinary chlorate corrosive primers are OK.

In bottlenecked rifle rounds loaded before the 1930s, it is fairly common to experience cracked necks or mouths in brass which was not properly stress relieved. This may be visible in boxed ammunition, particularly in .30-40 Krag and 7mm Mauser ammunition from the Spanish-American war period. In WW1-era .30 caliber ammunition this was less a problem in arsenal ammunition than in commercial contract rounds up until the late 1920s.

If the "season cracking" does not extend past the shoulder, the ammunition is safe to shoot. Cracked-neck cases should be discarded after one "pop." If some cases develop cracks upon firing, but not others, sometimes you can salvage the remaining fired brass of that batch by re-annealing. Cases having incipient cracks will fail upon stress relief, but those which are OK to visual inspection after re-annealing will be OK to use.

Sometimes you may experience old .22 rimfire ammunition which blows a pin hole leak on the edge of the rim near the firing pin indent, which causes gas escape from the breech. These splits are unnerving, but not dangerous as long as you are wearing safety glasses with sideguards.

I'm still using a quantity of FA34 .30-'06 cases which originated from Ball M1 ammunition I got out of the estate of a WW2 vet. After decapping, swaging the primer pockets and tumbling the brass in wet stainless steel media to remove remaining traces of powder and chlorate primer residue, it has been wonderful, with that slightly red hue you used to get in Norma brass imported in the 1960s, and FA brass made prior to about 1968. That stuff lasts almost forever. I have cases which have been reloaded over 100 times with cast bullet loads approximating .30-40 Krag or .30-30 velocities.

US military ammo made after 1930 is usually fine. Earlier ammunition may not have had proper stress relief because they were still working out the metallurgy. If rifle brass shows visible anneal colors in the neck and shoulder area, this means that a final stress relief was done. Most commercial brass after the 1930s also underwent this step, but anneal color may not be visible, because commercial practice was to tumble clean finished cases for marketing appearance purposes, whereas US military specifications for rifle and machinegun ammunition require that the anneal color be visible as proof that final stress relief was done.