How a cartridge case should wear out.

H4831

H4831

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This is what a brass case should look like when it has reached the end of its useful life. The crack, which is .3" long, only appeared after I pushed the 420 grain cast bullet in the case of the 45-70.
I am glad to see the crack is as long as it is. Had it been only about .1" long, it would have indicated I had been giving the case too much flaring and/or too much crimping, thus being extra hard on the mouth of the case. As it is, it shows there was nothing more I could do and the case just wore out from too many times reloaded.
I don't count the loadings, so don't know what the count was. Also, I don't give close inspection of the necks before reloading. If I had, I probably could have detected the insipient crack. I just wait until there is an obvious crack, like this, then when it is next empty, I will discard it.
Yes, I will shoot it. I will note which one it is, and I would be very surprised if it goes out of the group at 100 metres.
45-002.jpg
 
Good pic and info.
I've had that as well as the too-much-flaring. I prefer the wear out.:D
I fire them as well, never a problem.
 
I have had that on my .38s a few times. (fired in my .357)
Same deal, I don't know how many times it's been fired before they crack. I just toss them, even if loaded.
 
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I fire lots of my brass until it cracks like that as well. Usually around 10 loadings. I would not have a problem loading and shooting that case either. When H4831 says a statment like that, it's because of his experience with this caliber.

Did you anneal the case in the beginning of it's life as a reload? I don't see any heat/temper marks on it...?
 
Dutchie said:
I fire lots of my brass until it cracks like that as well. Usually around 10 loadings. I would not have a problem loading and shooting that case either. When H4831 says a statment like that, it's because of his experience with this caliber.
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If it was a 38 Special case, I'd have tossed it when a crack first appeared and replaced it with one of the hundreds I have sitting in reserve, but when it's a large low pressure case that costs a lot more, I just mark the crack and keep a close eye on it.

Cracks like that make it difficult to size the case and then seat a bullet, but are not dangerous.
 
Interesting that it failed like that when you seated the bullet, suggests the case wall was down to little more than foil thickness. Do you not lose case neck tension when they get that far gone?
 
I handloaded a bunch of .308 ctgs and stored them for a few years. The cases were well used, and had probally about 8-10 firings. No annealing at all. When I went to pull them for a shoot, most of them had split necks. I guess the pressure of the bullet was just a bit much for the weakened case mouth, and it goes to show that work hardened brass will fail over time. Luckily, the bullets, powder and primers were saved to be re-used, and shot by the end of the week.
 
BattleRife said:
Interesting that it failed like that when you seated the bullet, suggests the case wall was down to little more than foil thickness. Do you not lose case neck tension when they get that far gone?
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Yes, a lot of neck tension is lost after it cracks, but it actually went in quite hard. I am using them single shot in the Marlin, so, as I said, I don't think the less tension will make any difference on shooting the heavy bullets.
Of course, if I was shooting in a match, using them for hunting or filling the magazine, I wouldn't use it.
 
Thanks for your comments, Denny. Probably one book is enough, except some publishers are looking at a second manuscript I have, which I actually wrote before the one that got published, so I am not holding my breath anymore on it.
There is something like a 3% chance that publishers will publish a given manuscript. And wow, is about 90,000 words a lot of typing, or not! And retyping and retyping--
Quite a few of the CGNs on here have my published book, and Denny, I really can't remember if you have it or not.
 
Bruce,

Any idea why factory loaded ammo would crack at the neck?
I have a box of UMC 25 Remington from circa 1906-10, the necks are cracked on quite a few of them. I suspect a chemical reaction with either the copper of the projectile or maybe the powder.

I have been trying to find an original 41 Swiss round for my collection and notice many of them are cracked from the black powder reacting with the copper (or so I am told).
 
blacksmithden said:
Good post Bruce. I wish you would sit down and write a book on reloading. I'll sign up for copy #1.
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X2 on the post Bruce and the same goes for your book. I enjoyed it even more the second time I read it:). It hasn't happened very often but when I've come across a case mouth that has cracked, even slightly, I wouldn't hesitate to shoot it at the range on a single shot basis just to burn it off.

If, however, I find a crack in a case mouth as I'm in the process of reloading I usually scrap that case and set aside the remainder from that batch. If they are cases of a caliber that are hard to come by, I may anneal and use them for range target practice. With some of the more readily available 'stuff', I usually just scrap the batch.

The general 'rule of thumb' is to trim cases to 0.010" under the maximum case length. What I usually do is to trim to 0.005" under. It may mean I have to trim or touch up a little more frequently but I think this helps to address the beginning formation of cracks or seems to anyway.
 
Noel, it is not a rarity for old factory loads to crack at the neck. I have seen quite a few in old CIL brass.
I would just have to guess at why they crack with age, but there must be some people on here that could explain it.
 
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