Never saw pinholes in brass before.

[joshb]

Bought some lightly used 6ppc brass. Turned it down to .0085 . Tumbled it, then annealed and one piece got pulled during inspection. I have never seen this before in any brass, let alone Lapua. Two pinholes in the neck. Theories?

 

[MagnumManiac]

Could've been from the drawing process, or porosity in the brass sheet used to punch the cups from. I worked in a plant making 5.56 and 7.62 brass here in Australia, seen much worse than that slip through QC, such as pleated necks and shoulders.
Just feel lucky you found it before firing them.

Cheers.

 

[243winxb]

http://benchrest.com/showthread.php?91769-6PPC-cracked-necks

 

[Webster]

Bought some lightly used 6ppc brass. Turned it down to .0085 . Tumbled it, then annealed and one piece got pulled during inspection. I have never seen this before in any brass, let alone Lapua. Two pinholes in the neck. Theories?

Very strange defect. I did metallurgical failure analysis for 45 years. Not familiar with this kind of defect but I have a couple of comments, no answers. I would polish the rest of the case necks lightly with 0000 steel wool and look for neck defects before reloading. If the defect appears after shooting get rid of all of the cases. Don't continue shooting to get rid of the cases after the first appearance of the defect. Pull the bullets and dump the powder on any remaining reloads.

1. The disc used to form the case has extreme deformation.
2. Only one defect on each case and it's mid length of the neck and both the same diameter. Why would a round defect only appear mid-length of the neck?
3. Both pin holes are the same size and very round. The swagging process should elongate any defect like porosity or a metal oxide. How could it stay round?
4. If the defect was in the original metal disc it should look like an elongated streak after swagging.
5. Does the hole go all the way thru?
6. Billions of cartridge cases, this seems to be the first occurrence mentioned by reloaders?

 

[joshb]

I bought these used. They had been turned before, to "various thicknesses". They were very cheap, so I grabbed them. This is my first 6ppc, so they are slated as "learning brass". I used steel wool on them after turning. Some were a little under my target thickness and turned out like this one, with the grooves from the previous turning.
It baffled me because I have never heard or read about it occurring. The holes are only in one piece, out of 150. They go thru the neck on opposite sides but not opposing locations. Just weird. I looked over the others again and this is the only one with this issue.

 

[jlow]

Very strange defect. I did metallurgical failure analysis for 45 years. Not familiar with this kind of defect but I have a couple of comments, no answers. I would polish the rest of the case necks lightly with 0000 steel wool and look for neck defects before reloading. If the defect appears after shooting get rid of all of the cases. Don't continue shooting to get rid of the cases after the first appearance of the defect. Pull the bullets and dump the powder on any remaining reloads.

1. The disc used to form the case has extreme deformation.
2. Only one defect on each case and it's mid length of the neck and both the same diameter. Why would a round defect only appear mid-length of the neck?
3. Both pin holes are the same size and very round. The swagging process should elongate any defect like porosity or a metal oxide. How could it stay round?
4. If the defect was in the original metal disc it should look like an elongated streak after swagging.
5. Does the hole go all the way thru?
6. Billions of cartridge cases, this seems to be the first occurrence mentioned by reloaders?

I agree with Webster - from a metallurgical standpoint, round holes does not make sense. I would guess the previous owner drilled them....

 

[ireload2]

Round holes sound like there was a non-metallic inclusion there that was removed in the post forming cleaning process.
Look at it under a microscope.
I think I can remember see a few of those in some foreign military brass. That was nearly 50 years ago. I don't think you will run into it again.

You can certainly get some stuff embedded in brass if you fire a round in a dirty cruddy chamber.
I have seen a lot of 45-70 brass with powder grains and golf ball dimples ironed into to it.
The 45-70 loads were very low pressure and left a lot of powder grains in the bore and in the case. During loading some of the powder kernels migrated into the chamber. When fired the 45-70 brass compressed the powder grains leaving dimples in the cases and sometime embedded kernels.

 

[RonAKA]

Out of 200 6BR Lapua brass in a gold box I had one that had a longitudinal inclusion that looked like a crack. I think it was in a shoulder. Lapua brass is good, but perhaps not perfect...

 

[243winxb]

Pin holes turn into elongated cracks after firing.
Just bad brass.

 

[John Russell]

[...] "... seen much worse than that slip through QC, such as pleated necks and shoulders.
Just feel lucky you found it before firing them."

Cheers.

A factory cartridge straight from the box.

 

[MrBottleneck]

I could not imagine this occured during the pulling of the case during manufacture.

My guess would be the case was just overworked then work hardened then as it was stretched/flowed during later forming/firing it developed this problem. You might have been the only the second to anneal it aside from the factory.
I would give every case from that batch a thorough inspection and ditch any case that I fealt was suspect.

Thats one of the problems with buying unknown second hand used brass you really do not know its history.

John Russel, is that one you actually got out of a factory box? That is crazy bad QC
What manufacturer was it?

 

[John Russell]

I could not imagine this occured during the pulling of the case during manufacture.

My guess would be the case was just overworked then work hardened then as it was stretched/flowed during later forming/firing it developed this problem. You might have been the only the second to anneal it aside from the factory.
I would give every case from that batch a thorough inspection and ditch any case that I fealt was suspect.

That's one of the problems with buying unknown second hand used brass you really do not know its history.

John Russel, is that one you actually got out of a factory box? That is crazy bad QC
What manufacturer was it?

I did not anneal it or reload it - that's how it came out of the box (new from one of the BIG three manufacturers).

 

[foxguy]

Out of 200 6BR Lapua brass in a gold box I had one that had a longitudinal inclusion that looked like a crack. I think it was in a shoulder. Lapua brass is good, but perhaps not perfect...

Hi Ron,

I have one of these from a new Blue Box 6mm BR. It almost looks like a crack, but I don't believe it goes all the way thru. I was going to Load it with about 31.5 grns of N135 and a 68 gr berger and use it as a sighter and then have a look at the Neck to see if it had changed. I planned on Marking this Brass and using it once or twice and then retiring it ( re-using it - Neck sizing it, and then trimming it down in length appx .150 and using it for a Chamber Length Guage. Are the longitudinal inclusion cases still safe to shoot if the inclusion doesn't go all the way thru the shoulder/neck area? Guess I had better have a second Look with a Magnifying Glass.

I just re- Inspected this Case with a Magnifying glass and good light, and upon closer inspection the Inclusion runs from the Shoulder up into the Neck. It almost looks like a very fine crack that goes up about 3/4 the way up into the neck. I will not be loading this case!! But will just modify as needed for the Chamber length Guage .

I'm Glad I saw this thread and had another look at it.( I may of anyway before loading it as I tend to try and error on the side of Caution.

 

[MrBottleneck]

I did not anneal it or reload it - that's how it came out of the box

Yea John only the part after your name was addressed to you. The portion above was addressed to the OP.
Just wanted to clarify as I know someone who reloads would not load that one and didnt want you to think thats what I was implying.
I was just curious what manufacturer let that get past QC.

 

[John Russell]

Yea John only the part after your name was addressed to you.

I was just curious what manufacturer let that get past QC.

It wouldn't be fair to name them... it was 4 or 5 years ago.

 

[rogn]

How about if at some point someone(?) size that piece of brass with a bit of "grit" stuck to it and it went thru the die without wiping or scratching, rather it imbedded and left behind a negative impression defect. If the debris crumbled and fell out or if itjust fell out you would have a potentially round artifact that might or might not go completely through the neck. ??