Cracks (?) in spent casings

[Infanteer90]

Does anyone know what causes old surplus ammo to crack/burn through like this? Is it just that the brass is brittle from being old?

http://img.villagephotos.com/imageview.aspx?i=26015370

 

[Northman999]

Age and corrosion I think.

I've seen it on 303 Brit, like you've got there, myself.

 

[ArtyMan]

Ive seen that A LOT on some of my .303 ww2 surplus. I agree with Northman, I think its something to do with age and corrosion, none of the newer ammo does this

 

[LeeEnfieldNo.4_mk1]

What does the head stamp say? Its probably is just old/corroded brass.

 

[Pblatzz]

Old brass will do this, stored wrong, old, handled, etc. The powders and primers will breakdown too.
Did I mention poor quality is a factor, poor manuf technique, poor annealing....

 

[Nathan231]

This also happened in my .410! Is it a big deal should I be concerened?

 

[carbonrod]

+ many of these older rifles have dimensionally inaccurate, and mishapen chambers. Many still shoot, but are hard on brass. Couple that with brass that has brittled with age, and you can easily get what you see.

 

[smellie]

Brass actually gets harder with age. A lot of folks don't understand this (including myself), but if the things don't crack on the first firing, you can prevent future cracking to a great extent by annealing carefully before reloading.