My uncle found some of his old reloading stuff and gave me a pile of old brass today . Most of it is dominion,imperial,wetherby and western in calibers like 25-20, 8mm,7mm weatherby ,7mm mag ,30-30 and 22 hi power. The color is brown ,havent tryed tumbling it yet though. whats the best way to clean it up and would it still be good? dose it get brittle over time?
how long is brass good for ?
- Thread starter BCboy
- Start date
Tumble it, it should still be good if not too corroded, yes it does get brittle oevr time, and you can re-anneal it if you like. - dan
Old brass
I have annealed brass in the past, but it is tricky. One must be very careful not to soften the bases. I took out the old primers, then placed the brass upright in a pan of about an inch of water. Use a soldering torch to heat the necks and when they start to turn red, upset it in the water.
If overloads are not used, the primer pockets should stay tight for many shootings. Eventually, the necks will have a lengthwise (vertical) crack in the wall, starting at the mouth. This is not a dangerous condition, it just means the bullet won't be held as tight, so these cases are discarded.
If you are going to anneal, it must be done before these cracks appeaar.
I have annealed brass in the past, but it is tricky. One must be very careful not to soften the bases. I took out the old primers, then placed the brass upright in a pan of about an inch of water. Use a soldering torch to heat the necks and when they start to turn red, upset it in the water.
If overloads are not used, the primer pockets should stay tight for many shootings. Eventually, the necks will have a lengthwise (vertical) crack in the wall, starting at the mouth. This is not a dangerous condition, it just means the bullet won't be held as tight, so these cases are discarded.
If you are going to anneal, it must be done before these cracks appeaar.
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
If you hold the base in your fingers you will drop the case in the water before the case head softens. The results, case to case, might be more uniform because you can rotate the case in the flame.
Years ago, before I knew better, I fired some very old .303 ammo which had been found on the top of the wall of an old log cabin. The cabin had been used back in the '20's. I took one cartridge apart, and the powder charge was long sticks of cordite, and I remember they smelled just awful when I fired them. Of the dozen or so rounds I fired, there was no evidence of case failure, although I didn't resize any of the fired cartridges.
Years ago, before I knew better, I fired some very old .303 ammo which had been found on the top of the wall of an old log cabin. The cabin had been used back in the '20's. I took one cartridge apart, and the powder charge was long sticks of cordite, and I remember they smelled just awful when I fired them. Of the dozen or so rounds I fired, there was no evidence of case failure, although I didn't resize any of the fired cartridges.
If you want to anneal cases I suggest you read the link below. Gives you everything you ever wanted to know about annealing and much more.
http://www.6mmbr.com/annealing.html
http://www.6mmbr.com/annealing.html
- Location
- The Conservative part of Ontario
If it's a cartridge that I can get brass easily for, I won't bother with any case that doesn't come up shiny in the polisher. Just not worth the effort, too old.
