Brass Death

[Richard Coody]

just a question. when your brass reaches the end of life is it from cracked necks or loose primer pockets.

for me it is loose primer pockets but i am curious what others experience.

 

[spclark]

for me it is loose primer pockets but i am curious what others experience.

Same with me (pocket stretch ~ 90%, cracked necks maybe 5-6%) but anything else I think compromses safety or accuracy - like a hint of case stretch ring above the web - gets cases tipped into recycling bucket. Neck cracks obviously headed there.

 

[dstoenner]

What I have found with LC brass is that yes the primer pockets get a little looser but not so as to loose primers firing in an AR15. But what I see is that the necks get hardened and when I FL size my brass, the brass that is ready to be recycled is the brass that has no resistance to the button being brought back through the neck. Since I have used that as my gauge as to when to chuck a piece of brass, I no longer have incept case head separations.

I did a test of my brass that had good resistance vs no resistance and shot 2 5 shot groups. The good brass had an average of a little under .5 inch and the bad brass was .8 inches.

David

 

[JASmith]

Brass failing from loose primer pockets suggests near or above maximum loads, depending on the cartridge and rifle.

Loose pockets after five six loads might be acceptable. Loose pockets after the first or second, however, suggest that the brass is on the edge of failure. The odd soft piece could then lead to catastrophic failure.

 

[searcher]

Mostly pockets - as long as I keep up with annealing the necks