Old Brass Aging

[Thomasss]

Simple question. Old Wives tale or not. A buddy said he doesn't load brass from the 1950's any more because brass slowly loses its strength over time. Most of his 1950 -1960 brass is from Winchester and Remington. Your thoughts.

 

[Average Joe]

I don't see how that could happen.

 

[Warpiece]

Brass and copper become brittle through work hardening (flexing or reshaping) . Exposure to high temperature can soften it, even to the point of failure. The higher the temperature, the less time it has to be exposed to it for this to happen. Aside from these 2, corrosion or more broadly, chemical reactions would be the next concern. This is usually easy to spot, and an obvious sign of a problem.

If it hasn't been exposed to any of these to a significant degree, it's as good now as it was 70 years ago. It'll still be good long after we're dust

 

[EricBu]

Maybe he stores it in jars of ammonia? Lol. <shrug> I've loaded plenty of 40's and 50's surplus brass in .30-06, never saw any issues. Where you have a problem, is when you have a drum full of brass uncovered that sat out in the back 40 of DRMO for a decade. I got stuck with 5K pieces of such brass in 5.56, and it's so rotten and brittle it's completely unuseable. Most of it is 2008 to 2010 LC head stamped, which is why I bought it not knowing how bad it was.

 

[edwardware]

. . . because brass slowly loses its strength over time.

Of course brass changes over time. . . oxidation, embrittlement, various outside chemical reactions, and very slow internal chemical processes all alter both the chemical composition and the material state. Annealing diffuses the mixture of elements we call "brass" into a more homogenous state, and strain or time will allow them to re-order themselves into a lower entropy state. All materials change with time; if you can't measure it, you just aren't looking close enough.

Now, does that happen fast enough to be appreciable in 70 years? You could certainly measure it in a lab, and perhaps a careful reloader can appreciate it.

I suspect that what your friend is detecting is mostly an upward shift in quality. The production of arms was the subject of an astronomical amount of work during the war, so it's not surprising that all that learning resulted in better quality thereafter.

 

[EMC45]

I have .45 ACP cases from WW2 I load. They work fine. I also have some .38 Special cases from around the 30s-40s that are just fine too. Work hardening and improper storage will be your biggest enemies. Age does play a factor, but it is often accompanied by other contributing factors.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

How old???
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/39339

Seated Buddha
7th–8th century
Brass inlaid with copper and silver

 

[.38 Special]

I have some .228 Ackley cases which were made from 7x57 cases. They came with an inherited rifle, and when I received them in 1990 or so they were in good condition. (I have no idea how old they were when they got to me, or when they had been necked down, and whether they had been properly annealed at the time.) They ended up in a deep, dark corner with a bunch of other random brass, and it was decades before I pulled them out. When I did, about half of them had developed neck splits, from the case mouth down roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of the length of the necks. (The other brass that was stored nearby was fine.)

So while I personally have no problem reloading brass of nearly any age, it does appear that under certain conditions, brass can deteriorate with time.

 

[Ru4real]

Just about everything that’s not growing looses strength over time. I know I am!

Is strength loss for 1950’s brass enough to matter in loads that will probably be shot within 50 years or less? No.