Brass lifespan

[Marcus99]

The batch of 20 pieces of .30-40 Krag brass I have been shooting in my Krag just hit 8 times fired. No cracked necks or any other damage that I can see. Always mild to medium loads, only fired in one individual Krag and always neck sized only. At what point should I toss this batch?

[Parashooter]

At what point should I toss this batch?

When they're no longer usable. Could last indefinitely with occasional neck anneal.

[Kirk]

I have one batch of brass from the early '70s that has been fired 30x times. I annealed the brass periodically and trim as needed. No loose primer pockets so far (wouldn't expect that anyway). Just a few cases have failed.

[Michael Petrov]

A lot of brass is worn out in the loading press, neck sizing only will help a lot to prolong the life of your brass.

I shoot a lot of Schuetzen type rifles where I use only one case that is re-primed and reloaded, never sized. The primer pocket gets loose around 1000-1200 firings.

[psteinmayer]

I have some brass that I've loaded and fired 10+ times... I have over 600 rounds of viable brass, and I don't shoot nearly as much as I would like... so my brass turnaround is relatively low.

I have never annealed my brass and I'm not sure how... Maybe I should start doing this... What is the process? I have annealed steel before, so I am familiar with the basic theory, but just not with brass!

Thanks in advance!

Paul

[Kirk]

I have never annealed my brass and I'm not sure how... Maybe I should start doing this... What is the process? I have annealed steel before, so I am familiar with the basic theory, but just not with brass!

Thanks in advance!

Paul

There are several techniques. Two I've used is to stand fired cases in 1" of water (to protect the case head from excess heat) and aim a propane torch at the case mouth. Just as the mouth starts to get cherry red, tip the case into the water. Alternately, hold the case head in your fingers and heat the case mouth. When the case head gets hot to the touch, drop the case in water.

[Parashooter]

When brass looks "cherry red", it's way too hot - grain structure is damaged. Direct flame at shoulder and stop when color change extends 1/4 to 3/8" aft. No water is needed. Air-cooling spread out on a metal pan is safe, effective and quick.

[psteinmayer]

Thanks much Kirk and Parashooter! Now for the next obvious question? How often should I do this? As I said, I have tons... I obviously won't anneal the once fired, but I may just go ahead and anneal the rest of my cleaned brass to be sure (better safe than sorry). I must admit that I don't neck size, although I never see much evidence of the main case body touching the die anyway... Maybe I need to rethink that, based on my recent accuracy experiment (which didn't turn out nearly as accurate as I had hoped)... I have the powder/bullet and reloading in general down pat, but with such a wealth of knowledge on this forum... I am always open to new ideas!

[Kirk]

I think I annealed the cases after each 10 firings.

By neck size, I mean that I screw the die in until it is about .1" above the shell holder. I lube the case (trimmed), leaving a small dab of lube at the jucture of the shoulder & neck. I then size the case, progressively screwing the die in until the dab of lube shows signs of being squeezed. I then clean the case & chamber it. If the case shows any resistance at all when the bolt is closed, I turn in the sizer die a half turn (a 7/8" x 14 tpi thread advances .07" per turn so a half turn is .035") and check again until the bolt closes with no resistence. I then lock the die in place. A die so adjusted does not set the shoulder back but completely sizes the neck - as long as the case is always shot in the same rifle.

Another rifle may require a different adjustment. When doing this for a Garand & M1903, I adjust the die for the ahortest chamber; the case should will show some expansion on the longest chamber.

[psteinmayer]

Should I anneal the cases before sizing, or after?