Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles The perils of second hand brass

I recently acquired some previously used Norma 6.5x55 brass as part of a package deal. It was supposedly once fired but had changed hands at least a couple times so the history was unclear. It looked okay so I prepared some mild loads and headed to the range. After a dozen or so shots, I ejected a case that had no neck -- the neck had completely separated from the case at the shoulder. When the rifle cooled a little, the neck dropped out of the chamber and there was apparently no harm done. The fracture line was smooth; it looked like the case had been scored where the neck met the shoulder. Checking the other fired brass with pliers (crushing the neck), two of the fired cases separated where the neck met the shoulder. Obviously, I will not be using any more of this brass.

Has anyone else experienced this type of case failure? I've been reloading for decades, on a small scale, but have never had anything like this happen.

where the neck turned on this brass, I seen guys turn into the shoulder area and created this problem for themselves.

I have received brass that had been annealed by someone who probably watched a u tube video, was useless 300 BO the entire case was annealed primers just fell out after firing not every one but enough to trash the whole batch, of course it was pre primed I just loaded and went shooting my first BO upper thought it was the upper until I tried factory rounds, Thinking it was the primers fault I deprimed and replaced all, first 20 no problem the next 3 failed, had some 30-06 brass fail also head separated luckily in an encore was not so hard to remove after cooling, sometimes it just works out like this,

I stopped picking up range brass other than to recycle it after getting neck splits on the first loading (so I thought) of some .223 brass.

With 223 and 308 mil type brass if the primer is still crimped in it's nearly a lock it is once fired. My bitch is that if it's on the ground it probably came out of a semi auto brass basher, particularly the 308 stuff. Even so, I get a certain satisfaction out of turning those sow's ears cases that once held 147 grain fmj into well prepped silk purses launching a 168 bthp.

I spend way too much money on shooting and hunting to mess with used brass unless I absolutely know its history.

It's astonishing how much of the used brass advertised on the Internet is "once fired."

It's equally astonishing that so many people believe it.

Being new-ish to reloading, I appreciate the knowledge I can glean from these threads. At this point, this is yet another example why I am only comfortable reloading brass that I started with new... as you said, I know the history.

I had what sounds like a similar happening with a single case of 5.56/223 brass. It was surplus U.A.E. ammo I bought new around 2002. I shot it myself and had loaded it twice with 23.0 grs of Accurate Data 68 powder, a surplus ball powder similar to Accurate 2015, and Hornady 55 gr FMJ. That one round had the neck separate from the body and stick in the chamber/throat. I had to pull it out with a screw as a brush would not grab.

I had used other cases from the same lot for several loadings before and since without problem before discarding. I did notice that these cases had a large range of weights running the gamut from some of the lightest to nearly the heaviest of the various brands. Unfortunately, I didn't weight that case so can't say where it fell on the continuum. I chalked it up to a flaw in the case and carried on as usual.

Otherwise, I have bought a fair bit of "mystery brass" as some of what I load is no longer in production and is not easily formed from something else. I've been pretty lucky in this as none of it has given me issues.

You never know unless you are buying from someone you know well.

[quote=Mule Deer]

Gosh.

But someone fired it once.

i just had 270ps of 30/30 brass give to me from a buddy that he found in the trash can at his club .check it an none needed to be trimed put back in fac. boxs an dump

I guess i have more time than most folks.
I get brass from others and just take my time looking and checking it out.

I have had one lot of brass that had problems with separation but it did not take all of them for me to put them in the scrap brass box.

Some brass i get i don't even reload for but they are treated the same just after the ones i use get done.

Nailed it. When I learned how to neck turn that was the biggest warning. When it comes to common cartridges like 22-250, 270, or 30-06 and I see someone with a new factory box at the range, I ask for their brass. For my sweed's, and 388WM, I purchase new brass or purchase factory ammo and reload them. I track all my loads in lots whether or not I load for myself or family that way I can track how many times I reload them (not more that 5x).

Wow, that was all one “sentence”.

😀😀😀

Every ad is once fired, then tumbled in pins so it all looks new. Problem is that they decap take the crimp out if it was there so you can’t tell if it’s once fired or been on the ground for 2 years. Wouldn’t touch that stuff with a ten foot pole.

https://brassmanbrass.com/

Campfire member and all around good guy...

excellent prices and he knows the history of where his brass came from...

give him a call and talk to him if you need to...

picks up a lot of police range brass from a batch of Depts...

along with having contacts at Sierra and Weatherby
to include some other majors...buys their fired brass on contract...