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.
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