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Thread: Cracked brass

  1. #41
    Boolit Master 243winxb's Avatar
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    I no longer stock pile ammo.

    I had to pull about 250 rounds years ago. Most was LC brass.

    The Dillon RL-450 shell plate pushed the shoulder back on fl sizing a different amount at each station.

    The worst station was .014" This caused case head separations. Every 4th round was bad.

    This and with the necks coming off, i was afraid to shoot the M16A1 carbine, when it became a high priced collectors item. Sold it.

    Hope you get it figured out. Wheres all the metallurgist when we need one.

  2. #42
    Boolit Master 243winxb's Avatar
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    This is why i would never buy LC once fired brass. Its sold as scrap.

    The approximate shelf life of the ammunition is also tested here. "We place the ammunition in a chemical solution. This process allows for the brass imperfections to be easily identified" said Ojeda. "Any potential defects in the brass will become more apparent due to the reaction of the solution. Theoretically, the test makes it possible to identify flaws in the brass that under normal conditions, could only be noticed after a lengthy period of time."
    https://www.army.mil/article/11859/a...ial_to_success

  3. #43
    Boolit Master

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    Yeah, this is frustrating. I checked a batch of a couple hundred rounds loaded with soft point bullets and Remington brass- all bad. Most of them I can pull with my fingers. At this point the only difference I can think of compared to thousands of rounds I've loaded in years past is: 1. the powder, and 2. wet tumbled brass. I'm thinking it's not the powder, since there's absolutely no sign of any degradation in the powder or corrosion on the brass. Has anyone else ever noticed brass troubles after wet tumbling?

  4. #44
    Boolit Master


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    Oh wow. If this is traced back to wet tumbling (which is sheer speculation on my part) there will be many, many angry people out there.

  5. #45
    Boolit Master

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    The cracks look exactly like a couple different batches of ammo I've seen before, both old reloads I had loaded long ago, that sat for decades. One batch was some 30-06 I loaded in the late '80s. A decade or so ago I dug them out to find that a number of them had cracked. In the early '90s I loaded a hundred rounds of .222 Remington for a friend. He bought the components but never picked them up. They sat for 20 years, and when I looked at them most has cracked right at the neck, exactly like what I'm dealing with now. So, nowadays when I load rounds likely to sit for a while, I anneal the brass.

    This ammo has only sat for a year, but the brass is brittle. I was only able to find one reference online of someone complaining about wet tumbling making their brass brittle. If it was a common thing I'd think there would be plenty of discussion about it. I found plenty of people saying that wet tumbling absolutely does not embrittle brass.

    At this point I don't know. I do know I'm going to pull down maybe 1500 rounds, scrap the brass, and start over. It's a project for a rainy day (or several) when I have time.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check