Brass Quality

[HKMark23]

This rates a 10 on the non-issue scale I know, but I'm interested in knowing if you can tell anything about brass casing quality by its apparent stiffness. I was sizing some once fired brass that had been sorted according to manufacturer and couldn't help but notice one brand was stiffer (required more force on the ram), than the other. Taking from what I understand from articles I've read about annealing, I'd expect the softer brass to last through a few more reloadings before failing. Does this theory have any merit at all or is it just that brass sizing is very boring .

 

[sunray]

Normally, no. Some brass is a bit harder and a bit thicker(not like milsurp though) than others though. Plus the alloy used can be different from make to make.
Annealing the neck and shoulders does extend case life. Brass gets work hardened from repeated firing and resizing. When you get one neck or case mouth crack, pitch it and anneal the rest of your cases.

 

[peterdobson]

Brass metallurgy is crucuial to longevity. Lapua has mastered this over many years and there is 6 levels of hardness in the case head alone. Moving forward from the cases head, there is uniform hardnes for 2/3 of body and and then gradually softer through to the neck.

Regards,

Peter

 

[Oscar Makonka]

I was sizing some once fired brass that had been sorted according to manufacturer and couldn't help but notice one brand was stiffer (required more force on the ram), than the other. :.

Could be the brass hardness or it could be something as simple as how much the brass has to be sized to use again. Was this once fired brass fired in different guns. If some of the brass was fired in a gun with a chamber on the large side of chamber specs it will take more force to size it down than if it were fired in a gun with the chamber on the small side of chamber specs. I.e the more a piece of brass has to be sized or shrunk the more force it takes. I have a few rifles of the same caliber. One rifle has a tight chamber, another of the same caliber has a looser or larger chamber. The same lot of brass shot from each gun will require different force to resize as the one fired in the larger chamber has to get get shrunk/sized more than the other to bring it down to the same size and generally will not last as long as cases of the same lot that have been shot in the tighter chambered gun which isn't worked near as much.