Prepped Brass Life for Military Rifles

[15meter]

Just don't anneal the rounds with powder still in the case <Yep I'm being silly today!>

Or live primers on take down cases��

[15meter]

U.S. military .30-06 made prior to 1953 would have originally been loaded with corrosive priming compounds, which could render the brass brittle over time. Anything later, and of course your .308 and 5.56, won't have that problem.

Storing non-corrosive era brass in a cool dry place? You're good for eons. If you live so long that you have to worry about the atomic decay rate of brass, you're either drinking blood, running around with a sword saying things like "There can be only one!", or in posession of a portrait that keeps getting uglier.

I think the mercuric primers that caused brass enbrittlement were out of use by the 1920's.

[TCLouis]

Some of my 5.5X257 brass is old 30-06 milsurp . . . OLD crimped primer (MG) brass.
I likely has several firings on it and is fine.
Need to anneal it if I shoot it any more, but mostly shoot reformed 257 now.

[tbx-4]

A cool dry location is more essential to brass life or for that matter even life of steel. Desiccants in the bag with your brass is not a bad idea but plastic is permeable. So even in a mildly damp environment moisture can get through the plastic, the desiccant can saturate leaving the brass unprotected. So again, the most essential element to brass life is a cool dry location even if it's just stored in old coffee cans.

I remember a story a few years ago of a group of guys riding their motorcycles across the states. They decided to head north to Canada but one rider was packing a revolver. Anyway, they were in Nevada in the middle of the desert when they decided to head north. So the guy wrapped the gun in a few plastic zip lock bags then one heavy plastic bag, taped it all good and tight then buried it in the desert just off the road by a mile marker sign. So they headed north. It took about 5 years before he could get back to where he buried the revolver and when he dug it up it was totally rusted with bad pitting. I found that interesting... especially when I hear of preppers burying guns for TEOTWAWKI.

I know that's not what the OP is doing but it's to illustrate the point, don't count on plastic to keep the moisture out forever.

[17nut]

The oldest i reload and use on a regular basis is from 1896 and 1897. I think i lost 1% due to splits the first reloading and none from there (@200 pcs).
The worst is old fired (non cleaned) brass which used corrosive primers, the mercury tend to make brass brittle.