Does old brass go bad?

I have some factory ammo that is old (some from the 1940's). I have been told that the brass gets brittle with age. Is this true?

I've heard from some guys who say that they've been shooting ammo that is over 40 years old and that it works just fine.

What about the brass. I plan on reloading it?

Brass work hardens. The more you size it and expand it, it will fatigue crack. Some people anneal case necks to prevent this. I think I am up to 20 reloads on some pistol brass. If the neck cracks I toss the case. I took 308 rifle brass 22 reloads. I got neck cracks and body splits on some cases. I tossed them. The pockets got large so I retired the brass.

Exposure to Ammonia will cause “season cracking”. The British experienced this in India during the wet seasons. Horse manure (solid and liquid) got into the soil, ammonia compounds got into the air, and their cases cracked. Seasonally. (See the connection with the name?)

I have a failure analysis book. Bird poop has caused brass boat propellers to shed prop blades.

Old gun powder gone bad will cause case neck cracks. Happened to me. Old gun powder will out gas nitric acid gas, and that will ruin brass.

Some of that really old brass had mercuric primers. That will ruin brass, first shot. Also corrosive primers leave a salt residue. That stuff will cause surface corrosion.

I never had a problem shooting good old 40's brass. I have a 2 gallon bucket full of the stuff.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v479/SlamFire/Reloading/150Sierra47-1.jpg

In the absence of external evil compounds, brass will last a very long time.

Thankyou kindly for your information.

Does old brass go bad?
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I have some factory ammo that is old (some from the 1940's). I have been told that the brass gets brittle with age. Is this true?

Maybe. It "can" but doesn't necessarily, happen merely due to age. The metallurgy can differ among manufacturers, batches, country of origin, etc. and much depends on the manner it was stored and any contaminants it came into contact with. I've seen decades old brass that was essentially as good as the day it was made and others, not nearly as old, badly deteriorated. My rule of thumb is, if it looks good visually, it probably is. If it has badly darkened splotches, corrosion (including, around the primer pocket) or other obvious signs of deterioration I dump it.

I have some factory ammo that is old (some from the 1940's). I have been told that the brass gets brittle with age. Is this true?
have fired some 1944&45 Winchester 30 carbine that split on firing. I also disassembled some gov't 30-06 that the primers were bad. these were cleaned with soap and water(after I removed the primers) to get any of the primer salt out, and have reloaded and fired with no problem. a lot of factory rounds(Remington comes to mind) already switched over to non-corrosive primers

as long as it does not get all green from impropper storage, it should be fine. and actually some "green stuff " may still clean up well enough to shoot. but, after it is polished, if you find pits in the brass, chuck it. you dont want all those high pressure hot gasses coming back at your face!

I find that it is the young, immature brass that usually goes bad first. But once they have "been around the block" a few years they tend to settle down again. And if they happen to enjoy reloading, they live a long and happy life. :)

Justin

I find that if I anneal the cases right it shoots for a long time. I shot some 300HH shells once and reloaded them and a freind explained to me that the shells I used were worth more with the box then I really wanted to know. They were pre WW2 and had some weird bullets that hadn't been made for many many years.

I've got some 1942 and 1943 303 British brass that still works fine for reloads. I have not been reloading them since 1942 though.

Every few years some of my old Winchester rifles come out and I load up ammo for them. Some my cases are more than 100 years old and they do just fine.

Be careful when loading the old "baloon head" cases: These old centerfire cases were constructed like a rimfire round and a case head can seperate upon firing if the case is not in good shape. These cases came mostly in Winchester calibers like .38/40 and .44/40

In the absence of external evil compounds, brass will last a very long time.

I've seen many kinds of milsurp ammo subjected to the extremes that brass often goes through while stored.
Back a few years ago, I bought a couple thousand rounds of Turk milsurp 8MM ammo. It consisted of mostly 1941 dated in one case and '42 & '43 in the other, all in stripper clips and bandoleers.
Most of the '41 ammo looked like it had been manufactured yesterday, in mint condition and super clean. The other case of ammo had some brass with corrosion on some as well as the clips and some cracked necks with loose bullets, probably due to the bandoleers drawing moisture.
At 60 bucks for 900 rounds, I pulled many bullets and sold some and shot some, as I reload 8MM.

Condition of storage is the key for most milsurp ammo and can make the difference in having safe, shootable ammo or corroded, scary stuff that may be dangerous.


NCsmitty

"What about the brass. I plan on reloading it? "

Contrary to the opinions of some young whipper-snappers, old brass does not dry rot with age.

Some WWII GI brass had a habit of splitting due to insufficent annealing but even that was rare. Most other case splits, etc, that get attributed to age is more likely due to exposure to ammonia or mercury at some point.

I have some .45 ACP brass that is head stamped WCC 43 (Wesrern Cartridge Co. 1943). It's still going strong.

I still reload original 43 Spanish cases with berdan primers & pyrodex, 1 or 2 crack occasonally. My "match" loads for the 1903 springfield my 9 yr old shoots are headstamps S L 43, haven't split 1 yet. On the other hand I've split 223 brass from the late 80's on the second reload.