GI Brass from the 50's, 60's & 70's - anneal before loading it again?

[Randy in Arizona]

GI Brass from the 50's, 60's & 70's - anneal before loading it again?

I have a fair amount of once fired GI brass. I never had any problems with it when staying with the same caliber, IE: .30-'06 shoot, reload and shoot again, some as many as 15 to 20 times. 7.62X51 & 5.56X45, same story.

But I took some (at the time) ten year old LC63 Match .30-'06 brass and formed it to 243 Super Rockchucker. Just size or neck size in a 270 WCF die, then full length size in the RCBS Custom dies made to fit the 3 fired cases sent to them.
Only $30 at the time, now $151.95!
Outside turn the necks, load and ready to shoot.
Now the problem; loaded two sets of 20 at the time.
Fired one set, fireformed perfectly. Fired about 6 of the second set, just fine.
Committed matrimony (twice, ten years apart) and had little time over the next 30 years to work with the rifle until last year.
Went to fire the rest of the second box and most of them split in the forward body and shoulder area. These are not loads just semi mild fireforming loads.

I got some new Winchester 25-'06 brass to work with for the next go 'round.

But I am wondering if I need to start annealing my older, more experienced brass to avoid more splits.

Best way to do it without spending big bucks on an annealer?

I have propane torches & industrial electric heatguns that will melt 60/40 solder fairly rapidly.

81

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Sounds like annealing would be worth a shot. It should cure the problem. Tempilaq is a company that makes a temperature indicating "paste" you can put on case necks to know exactly when your prass has been heated and annealed, and not over-annealed. I put it on the inside and outside of the cased neck. When the paste reaches the 750 degree mark it turns clear. When I see the paste on both the inside and outside turn clear I know the case neck has been annealed. It can then be dropped in water or simply air cooled. A lot of annealers use the cheap Lee case trimmer (threaded shellholder type) to hold the case and then chuck it up in a cordless drill to spin it in the flame.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/476992/lee-case-trimmer-cutter-and-lock-stud?cm_vc=ProductFinding (you will need this PLUS the shellholder for the particular cartridge you are annealing). So for 30-06 cases or those cartridges using this as a parent case, you would need this: http://www.midwayusa.com/product/459337/lee-case-length-gage-and-shellholder-30-06-springfield?cm_vc=ProductFinding

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/988733/tempilaq-temperature-indicator-750-degree-2-oz

Your propane torch will do just fine. Remember to keep the flame aimed between the case mouth and beginning of the shoulder. The paste is good to get your bearings. After doing a few you will know how long to keep it in the flame and wont need to use the paste on every case.

[Artful]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgD5D0Wzu-c

[Motor]

I make 22-6mm AI brass from 6mm Remington. I found even with new brass that if I don't anneal them before fire forming I'll split like 2-3 out of 10. Like you my FF load is mild. IIRC I use 12gr Unique and a 55gr fmj to fire form. Funny thing is the FF load shoots very near MOA.

I used to make .280s from GI 06' I never had problems with them. I would only anneal them after splits would start to show up and that was after 3 to 5 loads. This was all neck only sizing though. I gave a bunch of brass to my friend a couple years back that I had necked down to .280 but never used. He took them down to 25-06. He has never said anything about having neck splits. This was mostly 1950s head stamp.

There is a chance probably a good chance that your brass age hardened. It can happen. A lot has to do with how it was stored.

BTW: Don't anneal before a caliber reducing re-sizing. I'm glad I only did a couple of the 6mms. When I tried to size them down it turned the neck inside out.

Motor