Failure(s) of Old Brass?

[Kraschenbirn]

Last week, I shot a couple boxes of "vintage" (Green & White Box w/ $5.98 K-Mart stickers) Rem. 8x57 that I'd picked up on an estate sale. Brought the empties home, deprimed and tossed 'em in the tumbler. Yesterday, I was prepping cases for working up some CB loads and the rims pulled off about one in four of these during resizing.

Remainder of the cases in the batch, fired in the same VZ24, were W-W and some Canadian mfg milsurp with a 1944 headstamp. Same case lube, same sizer die, same shellholder, but didn't lose a single W-W or MM case.

Am I looking at a, possible, bad lot of brass and, maybe, should chuck the rest into the recycle bucket? Anyone else ever encountered something like this? I've been reloading for almost 50 years and, other than some "extra hard" Winchester .243s that cracked around the case necks on initial firing, I've never seen anything similar.

Bill

[leftiye]

Sounds like soft brass to me. This is a bit scary, as it entails that the rest of the case might be weak too. Unless it is too thin in the rim, or brittle that is - and is breaking off. In that case (brittle) you would probly have gotten neck cracking too, or head separations. I'd be some afraid of using it.

[AllanD]

Years ago my brother picked up a bunch of OLD (red & Green box)
Remington 270Win ammo (REM-UMC headstamps) I was spotting for him as he burned it up as "sight in" ammo when I noticed a puff of smoke.


The case had split lengtwise at three seperate points all within 90degrees or so
the split ran half the body length of the case and one of the splits was through
the extractor groove aacross the case head and into the primer pocket.

One of the other cracks made into the extractor groove.

On closer examination six of the seven previously fired cases showed
some crack or another.

Smacking the uncracked case with a hammer caused thecase to shatter
like it was made from hard plastic.

I still have 60-odd rounds of that ammo if anyone has a 270win rifle they want to blow up

I am still convinced that if his rifle was any model other than a Rem700
he'd have lost an eye or worse.

AD

[NVcurmudgeon]

Last week, I shot a couple boxes of "vintage" (Green & White Box w/ $5.98 K-Mart stickers) Rem. 8x57 that I'd picked up on an estate sale. Brought the empties home, deprimed and tossed 'em in the tumbler. Yesterday, I was prepping cases for working up some CB loads and the rims pulled off about one in four of these during resizing.

Remainder of the cases in the batch, fired in the same VZ24, were W-W and some Canadian mfg milsurp with a 1944 headstamp. Same case lube, same sizer die, same shellholder, but didn't lose a single W-W or MM case.

Am I looking at a, possible, bad lot of brass and, maybe, should chuck the rest into the recycle bucket? Anyone else ever encountered something like this? I've been reloading for almost 50 years and, other than some "extra hard" Winchester .243s that cracked around the case necks on initial firing, I've never seen anything similar.

Bill

Bill, dump that aged Remington brass, something is wrong. Be kind to your rifle and valuable body parts. I never saw that particular problem, but wth old stuff all bets are off. I mostly stick with FC, RP, Starline, Speer, and WW brass with no troubles, but avoid really old stuff.

[Kraschenbirn]

Bill, dump that aged Remington brass, something is wrong. Be kind to your rifle and valuable body parts. I never saw that particular problem, but wth old stuff all bets are off. I mostly stick with FC, RP, Starline, Speer, and WW brass with no troubles, but avoid really old stuff.

Yeah, everyone's conclusion seems 'bout the same as mine. After I posted this morning, I dug a couple discarded cases out out my recycle bucket and took a good look at them under the 6X bench magnifier. Rims did not shear away cleanly like you might expect from soft metal but, instead, the fracture lines were ragged and the interior of the breaks appeared porous...more symptomatic of work-hardening than a pressure shear.

Sorted the remaining 33 cases out of my "in-process" bin and chucked those into the recycle bucket as well. Got too much work invested in resurrecting that old Mauser to mess around with questionable brass.

Bill

[AZ-Stew]

I don't know whether this is relevant, but...

When I bought one of my S&W M16-4s (.32 H&R Mag.), it came with 2 boxes of Federal JHP cartridges. I think they were probably bought when the gun was purchased new, putting them in the mid-80s vintage. I fired one box and they all split, save a handfull, some lengthwise with the origin at the seated bullet base, others in line with the base of the bullet, as seated in the fresh cartridge, others split lengthwise, as well as parallel to the bullet base. I e-mailed Federal about it, but never heard a word from them. I've e-mailed them a couple of times about the .32 Mag, but have never received answers. To me, this is bad customer relations. One thing I can say positively about them is that they strongly support hunter education. When I was teaching for the Arizona Game and Fish department, they sent some sectioned shotshells that I used in my training so students could see the insides of a shotshell.

Anyway, I'd really like to know what caused the case splits. Without some contact beforehand, I'm hesitant to simply return the remaining ammo for exchange. I'm afraid they'll just keep them with no fair exchange.

I've never seen this with any other factory ammo.

Regards,

Stew

[jhalcott]

Man what a coincidence! Just 2 weeks ago I was resizing some 280 Remington brass. After a dozen or so cases were done ,one of the rims pulled off. Trying to remove the case I bent the rod that ho;ds the expander button. This is not new brass. I've had it several years and don't push it to max. The loads this time were with cast bullets. I've had rims come off 6mm rem brass also in the past. I don't have the records handy, but I can't remember any other brand of brass that has lost a rim while resizing.