Eighty year old brass

[Texas by God]

Digging for 30-06 brass in the lard bucket, I came across 40 or so once fired clean FA 32- 36 headstamp brass. Is their any reason that I can't use these for cast bullet loads only? I've decapped them and they are in the tumbler now. They look good, but I'll inspect them closer.

Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk

[bimus]

I have shot a bunch dated 1942 with cast and no problem some I turned in to 308 or 7mm-08 all of it was factory when I lucked in to it .

[Winger Ed.]

The oldest brass I've shot was some GI .30-06 from the 50s and it did fine,
but I did have a great urge to anneal it first though.

[WinchesterM1]

I shoot FA-15 and FA-18 all the time, just anneal it and load it

[JimB..]

I don’t know, but I contend that neck tension counts as “working” the brass, so the older it is the more likely it is to split. So, as said above, anneal.

[Walks]

I've 5-600 headstamped DM 42, and some SL 53. Use them for Garand loads. 3-4 loadings and anneal. And repeat.

[Outpost75]

I am using FA34, FA37 and FA40 cases in my '03 Springfield and Winchester 54 with no issues. Good brass.

[Markopolo]

Definitely anneal them and clean em up Thomas … I have a whole bag of 45acp ammo that were headstamped from the 30’s.. several hundred… I disassembled everything, and deprimed them, then washed them in a mix of hot water, dawn and baking soda. They are now ready now to be remade as non corrosive ….

[Texas by God]

I figured as much but I wasn't sure if the mercurial priming of back then damaged the brass. I will put them to work, thank you all!

Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk

[Larry Gibson]

I've shot cases, both US '06 and other calibers with headstamps back into the 1917/18 range in pressure testing old loads. I've had some splits, but mostly necks, in milsurp cases. I've tested the FA Match cases from the '30s and '50s and had no problems with them. However, that doesn't mean the cases you have are equal. probably but always a chance they may have been mistreated(?).

It has always, so far, been with commercial old R-P and Peters cases that any serious problems have arisen. That problem was with the case splitting at the head just above the extractor groove. Make sure the action has sufficient gas control ability and wear glasses when testing the cases. Annealing the neck/shoulder area is a good suggestion but there's nothing to do about the case head area.

[NuJudge]

Proceed with caution. I bought some 6.5x54 brass in the 1980s from Midway, and initially it worked fine, but a few years ago I fired some more of it, and there were radial cracks that formed in the extraction groove of all the rounds I fired. Some form of age embrittlement or weakening did happen there.

[GregLaROCHE]

I’ve shot 30.06 rounds my father bought surplus before the Second World War and they worked well. However, that was over fifty years ago.

[Texas by God]

Well, so far so good. Even with the primer crimp chamfered away the new primers seated stiffly but ok. The fired cases look good and I'm planning on annealing them before their Third loading.

Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk

[243winxb]

80 years old beats my WRA69 brass.

[Outpost75]

Work hardening from repeated FL resizing in .45 ACP not at all unusual. As for cal...30 rifle brass, they pretty much had final stress relief figured out by mid 1930s at FA. My experience has been that any '06 military brass in which you can see visible mouth anneal color will be OK. Prior to 1934 more spotty as they were still experimenting. I've used thousands of WW2-era cases which have reloaded fine for use in Garands if decapped and washed to remove chloride residue, then process in the normal way. Use Dillon Auto-Swage on primer pockets.

[15meter]

I figured as much but I wasn't sure if the mercurial priming of back then damaged the brass. I will put them to work, thank you all!

Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk

Semi-thread drift, I aquired a batch of fired 30-40 Krag brass from the teens. First thing I did was polish and anneal the brass. Tried to full length size them and they fractured as if they were as brittle as glass.

I'm assuming mercury bearing primers were used.

Long winded reason for the question, when did they move away from mercury in primers?

[Texas by God]

I've read that .30 Carbine US ammunition has always been non- corrosive and that 30-06 changed to non corrosive in the 1950s before the 7.62 Nato and 5.56 arrived.

Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk

[reddog81]

80 years old beats my WRA69 brass.

I’m not sure old age is the issue. I’ve had 2 year old star line brass look exactly like that after 20+ loads.

[georgerkahn]

Digging for 30-06 brass in the lard bucket, I came across 40 or so once fired clean FA 32- 36 headstamp brass. Is their any reason that I can't use these for cast bullet loads only? I've decapped them and they are in the tumbler now. They look good, but I'll inspect them closer.

Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk

The main issue, imho, is the brass's "condition" (not the right word, but best I can come up with ). I would do a few things, including the decap and tumble which you have astutely accomplished. Then, I'd take three cases and after applying some Ideal lub full length size them. My first "worry" being that the expanded, fired cases will have enough malleability to get formed to a size which will hold the hopefully-to-be-loaded cast bullet. If this turns to be a "go" -- found by the attempted insertion of one of your sized and lubed cast bullets -- this is good. I'd then take a good light and, complemented with a bent paper-clip, check out the cases' interior, paying special attention to the case bottom/flash hole; looking for any thin lines indicating possible case separation; and, general smoothness/condition of inside case neck.
Last, I'd prime the cases with spent primers -- making sure they're a snug fit.
If these all come out OK, I'd pull the bullets with an inertial puller; decap again; and proceed to load. In a worse-case scene my guess is the necks might split after firing (you can anneal, if you have the time/effort/tools to hopefully prevent this) -- but other than this, you should be set to go.
What I'd do...
geo

[Freischütz]

I used 1917 and 1918 cases and had no problems. However I did anneal them before use.

I did have trouble with some Peters 30/06 cases. Supposedly they were made in the early 1920s. Each case developed several small splits (about ¼” long) just in front of the cases’ solid heads.