I've got to go through 2 bookcases of brass that was stored in a garage in NYC. A lot of it is has been there 20-30 years.

Any reason to think it's bad?

I've heard of "age hardening" , but I don't know how long it takes to "age". FWIW, I've used lots of old stuff without any issues. 20-30 yrs old I doubt any issues.

I routinely use brass that old; no issues. However, some lots age faster than others, and will crack due to brittleness.
No way to tell, except shoot them and if a lot starts cracking, usually in the neck area, then you have to anneal it.
Any reason to think it's bad? No. Any reason to think it's good; yes, with a .8 probability. More or less.

dpcd is 100 % correct. I have picked up old brass in several calibres that was brittle in the neck area and it would split the necks on first firing.This is usually brass that is hard to find so you don't want to lose it. A couple calibres I had this issue with were 6.5 Rem, 22 Sav HP and some 25-35. Anneal them and they were like brand new brass. If I get new old brass now I just anneal before doing anything with it and I dont lose any of it.

I have .270 Win brass I bought in the mid 70’s, still reloading and using with no problems, same with .338-06 brass formed about 1985, conversely, I have 40 new .505 Gibbs brass of which I loaded and fired 20 rounds, 14 of them split. Never annealed brass but I’ll try it before I start loading the remaining brass.

Anneal it before you use it and it will give you no problems.

quote:

Originally posted by ted thorn:
Anneal it before you use it and it will give you no problems.

Like I said, never done it but am sure going to learn how on the rest of that brass.

quote:

Originally posted by K Evans:

quote:

Originally posted by ted thorn:
Anneal it before you use it and it will give you no problems.

Like I said, never done it but am sure going to learn how on the rest of that brass.

There are ways to complicate it but its very easy.
Do some YouTube searching and keep it simple.

quote:

Originally posted by ted thorn:

quote:

Originally posted by K Evans:

quote:

Originally posted by ted thorn:
Anneal it before you use it and it will give you no problems.

Like I said, never done it but am sure going to learn how on the rest of that brass.

There are ways to complicate it but its very easy.Do some YouTube searching and keep it simple.

it's not rocket science, but there are guys who think it is

just the guys with metallurgical degrees.

"A couple calibres I had this issue with were 6.5 Rem, 22 Sav HP and some 25-35."

.22 Savage and .25-35 still hangs on in Europe but obsolete in US.

I observed Tony Barnes, the ultimate tester of all thats holy in the gun world..He took a new 30-30 and a 30-06 shot and annealed it up to 80 times and gave up..Im pretty well convienced that if one anneals every case after firing the brass will last forever????? I base that soley on tonys experiment however..

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
I observed Tony Barnes, the ultimate tester of all thats holy in the gun world..He took a new 30-30 and a 30-06 shot and annealed it up to 80 times and gave up..Im pretty well convienced that if one anneals every case after firing the brass will last forever????? I base that soley on tonys experiment however..

I have had to dump cases after the primer pocket became so loose that the primers started falling out, so no.
For interest, this was .308 Federal Gold Medal brass, which had been reloaded upwards of 20 times. Never been annealed either, but I size them with Lee Collet neck-sizing dies only. I firmly believe these dies are kinder on the brass than any other. Loads and velocities are not maximum and there are no signs of pressure (primers not flattened, no hard extraction, headspace never grows despite neck sizing only etc.).

I went 35-40 years without having a 41 magnum, but saved my brass, both Remington and Winchester. This brass had already been reloaded several times back in the early '80s. I recently got another 41 and started loading the old brass, and after another half dozen loadings they are still going strong. 10+ reloads over 4 decades without any cracks, splits or loose primer pockets, and never annealed, either.

I have Kynoch 404 Jeffery factory ammo from the '60s where about one or two out of five cases split at the necks on firing. Could pull the bullets and anneal the cases before loading back up but being Berdan primed I could not safely remove the primers before annealing as I would if boxer primed.

I also have brand new RWS cases for the 404 dating at least from the early 80's when I obtained them and I will anneal these before I come to use them. If done correctly, annealing does absolutely no harm to cases, only good, so annealing old or new cases before use is a good practice.

Wouldn't bother with commonly obtained stuff but hard to get cases, most definitely anneal BEFORE first firing.

well, in some cases (no pun intended) ..
if fired with corrosive/semi-corrosive primers, or black powder, or cleaned/stored near ammonia they can "go bad"

i havve a 6x45 that i used some gi brass in and aftger 3-4 loaeing about 20% of the cases split in the middle. everything measured just fine but the splitting continued finally i threw tihem away and bought some new brass - problem solved

quote:

Originally posted by eagle27:
I have Kynoch 404 Jeffery factory ammo from the '60s where about one or two out of five cases split at the necks on firing. Could pull the bullets and anneal the cases before loading back up but being Berdan primed I could not safely remove the primers before annealing as I would if boxer primed.

I also have brand new RWS cases for the 404 dating at least from the early 80's when I obtained them and I will anneal these before I come to use them. If done correctly, annealing does absolutely no harm to cases, only good, so annealing old or new cases before use is a good practice.

Wouldn't bother with commonly obtained stuff but hard to get cases, most definitely anneal BEFORE first firing.

I had the same problem (with the same ammo in the same caliber). They were also very prone to hang-fires, and an old gunsmith friend told me the problems were related. One of the elements in the old corrosive priming compound leached out and hardened the brass.

We actually tried to re-load some of it, and the firstly the primers were almost impossible to remove and secondly the brass was so hard it actually cracked the sizing die.

quote:

Originally posted by Peter Connan:

quote:

Originally posted by eagle27:
I have Kynoch 404 Jeffery factory ammo from the '60s where about one or two out of five cases split at the necks on firing. Could pull the bullets and anneal the cases before loading back up but being Berdan primed I could not safely remove the primers before annealing as I would if boxer primed.

I also have brand new RWS cases for the 404 dating at least from the early 80's when I obtained them and I will anneal these before I come to use them. If done correctly, annealing does absolutely no harm to cases, only good, so annealing old or new cases before use is a good practice.

Wouldn't bother with commonly obtained stuff but hard to get cases, most definitely anneal BEFORE first firing.

I had the same problem (with the same ammo in the same caliber). They were also very prone to hang-fires, and an old gunsmith friend told me the problems were related. One of the elements in the old corrosive priming compound leached out and hardened the brass.

We actually tried to re-load some of it, and the firstly the primers were almost impossible to remove and secondly the brass was so hard it actually cracked the sizing die.

My Kynoch ammo is non-corrosive primed and loaded with the Nobels granular powder so was more an issue of aged harden brass necks than priming or powder composition. I am able to repair neck cracks and use the cases for cast bullet loads. The Berdan primers are easily removed and reloaded using my supply of Kynoch #81 Berdan primers. Using the same powder and charge behind cast bullets, the Berdan primed cases show slightly better accuracy that RWS or Norma cases.

Age alone is not a problem. It is the conditions to which the brass has been subjected to which may cause a problem. This includes environmental conditions (like exposure to certain chemicals, humidity, and corrosive atmosphere), as well as how much the brass may have been used or reloaded and work-hardened.

If you have problems with splitting which does not appear to be related to environmental conditions, then proper annealing may address this problem.

Annealing isn't black magic, I know a guy that holds the case in his hand and uses a kitchen cooking torch and when it gets to hot to hold he drops the case in water!! It works for him, Ive never had the nerve to try it, but watched him do it over the years..I use an auto annealer I got form Norm and it works and its fast..took awhile to figure it out, but once I got it figured out and made a few modifications it works..

An annealer is specific IMO for special needs like that damn 25-35 brass that comes from the factory brittle and split prone even with one loading, so its best to reform 30-30 brass and problem solved..Hard to come buy old brass like my 10.75x68, some old Win. rounds like the 32-20, 25-20, 38-40 can be hard to come by at times and annealing is the salvation of your firearm.

Most stuff like 06, 270 etc will go 10 to 15 rounds with a trim ever 4th reloading, in which case I toss it and buy another 100 or 200..To me thats a better solution under some circumstances..