I stumbled across an estate sale and picked up brass marked LC MATCH 63. I'm sure it was 1 X as it is in the original MATCH 20 rd. paper containers. So my question is has age effected this brass in any way ??
Does age effect brass ?
- Thread starter Baddog0302
- Start date
CatShooter
Baddog0302 said:
No...
watercam
Silver $$ Contributor
I was given some 300 Weatherby Magnum ammunition from the 50's recently. Fired a few, only made 2500 fps so I pulled the bullets, annealed the necks, loaded them up and went to town. They should be fine. I annealed them just in case there was some kind of age issue.
Lucky you! Hope you got it all at a good price!
Likely nothing's wrong with it if there's no obvious corrosion (kept dry) but you may want to anneal the case necks after decapping & a good cleaning inside & out.
Brass will harden some just sitting around, no point risking hard seating or split necks when annealing's quick & easy to do.
Likely nothing's wrong with it if there's no obvious corrosion (kept dry) but you may want to anneal the case necks after decapping & a good cleaning inside & out.
Brass will harden some just sitting around, no point risking hard seating or split necks when annealing's quick & easy to do.
Thank you all, another item I got was an"annealing tool" A piece of 1/4" copper tubing with one end formed into a circle with holes, and the other rigged to attach to a small propane bottle, looks like a good change to test it.
It definitely can, especially if the brass had residual stresses in it from the original manufacturing process. Done properly, this should be minimal. In extreme cases, it can result in what military ordnance calls "season cracking." Long, longitudinal splits running the length of the body, from extractor groove to shoulder, in really bad examples. I've also seen this same situation occur, both in military production ammo AND handloads, as splits in the case neck. That is, cases loaded normally and then stored for some length of time, only to show very pronounced splits in the case neck when the ammo is pulled for use.
Jim Hull always stated that fired brass that wasn't going to be used for some time, should be left unsized for storage. He recommended sizing it only when you were ready to load it, for this very reason. Sized brass has those residual stresses trapped in the metal, and some degree of work hardening takes place over time as it tries to work its way out. The cracking is the sign we usually see of this phenomenon.
Jim Hull always stated that fired brass that wasn't going to be used for some time, should be left unsized for storage. He recommended sizing it only when you were ready to load it, for this very reason. Sized brass has those residual stresses trapped in the metal, and some degree of work hardening takes place over time as it tries to work its way out. The cracking is the sign we usually see of this phenomenon.
Yes, age will affect brass, it will take quite some time to happen, but it will. Loaded ammo as stated may crack.
SBS
Gold $$ Contributor
Have found that brass not stored in temperature controlled environment does harden from heat expansion and cold weather contraction working the brass. An example was some .225 Win. once fired brass stored in an outside shed for some 10 years. Upon neck sizing the cases, some necks cracked and others cracked later upon firing. Annealing solved this problem, even did okay expanding some of it up to 7mm. At the same time, I had some new unfired brass stored with the above brass (same age and stored together) and it didn't seem to be nearly as affected as did the fired brass. A friend several years ago gave me some loaded .30-06 rounds that had been loaded over 20 years prior, to salvage for the bullets. These were in military cases and had been loaded several times. A large percentage of these already had split necks from the neck tension and they had been stored indoors.
D2x shooter
Gold $$ Contributor
I have a bunch of old brass in various calibers. The outside of the brass was obviously dull. Upon a closer inspection I noticed small round patches of green on the outside of some of the cases. I culled them.
I was still unsure about the brass so I decided to look inside the case with my bore scope. Many had the flaky, green deposits inside the case. I would imagine that sometime in the past the cases were exposed to moisture. I decided to scrap the whole batch as I did not want to take the time to load them and then have the split cases issues previously mentioned.
I cannot say the age of the brass totally. Many of the military cases were dated in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s. Does age effect brass? Not sure but moisture seems to cause corrosion issues (the green stuff).
I was still unsure about the brass so I decided to look inside the case with my bore scope. Many had the flaky, green deposits inside the case. I would imagine that sometime in the past the cases were exposed to moisture. I decided to scrap the whole batch as I did not want to take the time to load them and then have the split cases issues previously mentioned.
I cannot say the age of the brass totally. Many of the military cases were dated in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s. Does age effect brass? Not sure but moisture seems to cause corrosion issues (the green stuff).
Upgrades & Donations
This Forum's expenses are primarily paid by member contributions. You can upgrade your Forum membership in seconds. Gold and Silver members get unlimited FREE classifieds for one year. Gold members can upload custom avatars.
Click Upgrade Membership Button ABOVE to get Gold or Silver Status.
You can also donate any amount, large or small, with the button below. Include your Forum Name in the PayPal Notes field.
To DONATE by CHECK, or make a recurring donation, CLICK HERE to learn how.
Click Upgrade Membership Button ABOVE to get Gold or Silver Status.
You can also donate any amount, large or small, with the button below. Include your Forum Name in the PayPal Notes field.
To DONATE by CHECK, or make a recurring donation, CLICK HERE to learn how.