20 years ago I loaded up a bunch of ammo using one lot each of Remington and Winchester once-fired brass. I've been shooting through it slowly due to time restraints. Two months ago I fired twenty rounds with no issues. Yesterday I started with Winchester brass and got 50% neck splits. I switched to Remington and got neck splits on every case and two complete case neck separations. Ammo loaded with IMR 4198 and stored in ammo can, always in climate control. Inspection of older fired brass showed no splits. Inspection of remaining loaded rounds revealed numerous hairline cracks in the case necks. Any ideas as to what caused this?

i've found similar in old brass. metal does age. be sue to anneal the good ones before you reload them

Work hardened brass.
Pull the bullets,deprime and anneal the neck shoulder with the case bases sitting in one inch of water.

But it was once loaded brass. I had fired it for years with no splits. The rounds that split had only been reloaded by me once from new ammo that I had fired in that rifle. It occurred in two separate brands/lots at the same time. Only two months before I had fired rounds from those lots with no splits and had never had a split prior. All of the ammo was loaded in 1995. I pulled the bullets and the powder was fine. I'm stumped, but will scrap all of it and start over with new brass. I'm just trying to figure out what happened. It is hard to fathom that two different brands would fail at the same time. Nearly all of the remaining unfired rounds show cracks.

quote:

Originally posted by Rapidrob:Work hardened brass.
Pull the bullets,deprime and anneal the neck shoulder with the case bases sitting in one inch of water.

could be the powder if it is old. were the reloads old?
any pressure signs in the brass that didn't split?
I had some old kleanbore ammo reloads from years past the the cases necks split, 52gr ww brass.
I anneal my 222about ever 4 th reload.

Bobster

I was told after several of my new brass split the necks that it was caused by not using a hot enough charge.
This was told to me by a gunsmith I don't know if it is true though.

Yes, rounds that have not been fired are showing fractures in the neck and shoulder. Powder is old but good. I've reloaded for 40 years and never seen this.

quote:

Originally posted by hivelosity:
could be the powder if it is old. were the reloads old?
any pressure signs in the brass that didn't split?
I had some old kleanbore ammo reloads from years past the the cases necks split, 52gr ww brass.
I anneal my 222about ever 4 th reload.

Temperature sensitive powder? Was it hot during this incident?

Temps were actually cooler than the previous session 90 F. The ammo can I had them stored in had a high odor of paint fumes. I wonder if this played a part?

Just the age of the brass caused embrittlement; Not the powder nor the loads. Not paint fumes. Even once fired, it wasn't annealed correctly from the get go. Some brass lasts for 100 years and others don't. If you wait long enough, it will split without firing.

I have had that happen with old brass even if it is once fired. I think I even saw it with very old British new factory Kynoch ammo.

Like dpcd and naki said.

Thanks for the insights. This one will chalk up as a learning experience.

Twenty year-old brass would be some of my freshest. I have plenty of forty year-old brass which is doing fine, and have never experienced a brass failure which could be connected with the age of the brass.

As (just one) example, I have some Herter's brand .222 Magnum brass which I bought in 1971. I know that for a fact since I was in college at the time but squeezed a few precious dollars out of my budget to buy this brass on a bargain closeout ($1 per bag of 100). It was fifteen years before I ever managed to buy a .222 Magnum rifle to use it in. And I'm still using it in that same little Sako.

I think there's something going on with that lot of brass other than simply age.

I recall an instance wherein a gent rancher friend of mine drove around the ranch and Texas with a box of 30-30s in his glove compartment for an unknown number of years...When he finally shot at a coyote with those loads it blew the lever open, tore the case in half..The result was determined by the ammo factory.. The powder thru time and viberation had reduced to a fine powder with a burning rate of Bullseye..I don't recall what the original powder was, but it was a wakeup call to the many local ranchers, self included, who always had a box of ammo in the glove compartment.