Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters .44 Magnum new brass cracking in storage box.

Around 20 years ago, I bought some Winchester new primed .44 Magnum brass. I loaded them with WW296 powder and Sierra and Remington 240gr. JHP using Lee and Redding Pro Series Dies in 2002 and put them away in an ammo can for future use.

I recently used this ammo to site in my Model 92 levergun and found that at least 1/3 developed cracks from the case mouth down the side to the web. I thought that the rifle had a bad chamber, so I fired some in my Ruger Redhawk with similar results.

I sorted through the unfired ammo in the boxes to discover that many of the cartridges in the ammo box had cracks from the mouth down to the web.

What would cause brass to crack just sitting in an plastic ammo box stored inside a house with no temperature swings?

It is generally accepted that ammunition and reloading components have a 100 year or so shelf life under constant heat and humidity. Due to the reloading component shortages of recent years, many of us have bought and stored brass, bullets, primers, etc. in greater amounts than normal. Many assume that nothing strange can occur to brass stored in your house for future use, but apparently this isn't so.

I emailed Winchester about this but am curious if anyone else has experienced this.

Gregor

I've seen this before, but it is very, very rare, IME. It has to do with the anneal that the brass got, and the grain structure it had when it left the factory. When a bullet is loaded, it puts the brass under constant tension, and if the brass is not soft enough, it will begin to split over time from the neck tension of the bullets. Likely, the anneal was off just a handful of degrees, and the grains stayed too large, by a hair.

Somewhere around here I have a partial box of Remington 308 factory loads , the brass from the ones that were fired have splits in the shoulder. Fired in 2 different rifles so it's not the rifle.


Mike

My bud bought a 1000 pieces from them and there were a lot of cases that had cracked necks,even before loading.
He got a hold of Win.and they sent him replacement brass.

They wanted him to send them any brass that he had not sized or loaded,just the leftovers.
They told him to trash the rest.
We tried to anneal some but it made no diff.
Seem to recall they had a bad batch of brass about then.

Could be the "monsoon brass cracking" phenomenon. The Brits in India found that during the monsoon season, their stored ammo would split. The root cause was the wet weather, which provided water, and the horses in the barn where the ammo was stored, which provided ammonia.

More to chew on - Once upon a time an uncle gave me some of his .44 Mag reloads that had been sitting on a shelf a long time along with some factory ammo about the same vintage. Skip ahead a few years. The box or two with the most reloadings had many splits (before firing). The boxes with few or one reloading I THINK had no splits, and some splits after firing. Don't remember how many. None with the factory ammo. No doubt there were no splits when they were reloaded.

So taking work hardening into account it has to do with the hardness of the brass and time. Combine this with age hardening, stress risers, and crack propagation and I don't know where you end up. All I can say is at the time I needed to shoot more often.

Hydrogen embrittlement , happens to various metals.


Mike

I appreciate the quick and informed replies. Alot of knowledgeable and experienced people here.

I'd say it sounds like season cracking, which is what denton called "monsoon cracking". This is a fairly well recognised phenomenon in relation to brass and other copper alloys, and is a variety of what metallurgists call "stress corrosion cracking". The mechanism is the combination of residual stress from cold-working the brass and ammonia, which preferentially attacks copper. The two combine to cause localised embrittlement and then brittle failure (cracking) under applied stresses such as the stress exerted by the seated bullet, or firing.

Perhaps you could look for sources of ammonia in the storage environment, such as Brasso or similar cleaning materials, or even decaying plant matter.

The risk can be reduced by annealing brass necks, and keeping ammunition in an enviroment free of sources of ammonia - airtight containers for example, for long storage.

Is ammonia exposure so rampant that this can really occur? Ammonia in any real amount is a serious irritant to the respiratory system, eyes, etc. I'd expect that, though brass can be weakened this way, it is not something the reloader has to worry about.
I could be wrong.

Season cracking of cartridge brass is not uncommon, and has been reported for over 100 years, with the cause being identified in the 1920s. The concentration of ammonia need not be high at all - not at levels which will cause irritation to the eyes etc. In fact as long as there's some moisture or humidity, and residual stress, the concentration of ammonia may only be at trace levels. It is the combination of stress, moisture and ammonia which does the damage. Common sources of ammonia are certain copper solvents, used for cleaning your firearms; Brasso and similar materials, sometimes used for cleaning brass; home cleaning products; and breakdown products from organic matter (maybe a damp shed, with some rot in the timbers, or critters urinating in the corner).

UPDATE

I was contacted by Winchester customer service and sent back 200 pieces of brass to them for their inspection.

I told them it wasn't necessary due to the responses I received on this thread, my questions and concerns were answered to my satisfaction and referenced this site and thread. They insisted that I return them and issued a UPS call tag.

A few weeks after, I received a letter stating Winchester was sorry for the problems I had and enclosed a check for the replacement cost of the brass, a rather generous amount to me.

Thought I would give "...the rest of the story..." and complement Winchester on their handling of this issue.

Glad they handled it well for you. I had bad luck using Winchester customer service. I had some new 25-35 brass that would split -- and do so badly enough to seep soot and blacken the cases no matter if the load was mild, medium or average. Brass from other lots did not do this.

I contacted them and then, according to their instructions, sent the remaining brass in along with a couple of the fired cases. I called a few times to check on things but never got much of an answer. They never bothered to contact me or to replace the brass (I sent them the remaining pieces from 2 fifty-count bags).

Should 44mag brass be annealed to help prevent this? Would this help with more uniform case neck tension with bullet along with a firm crimp for hunting loads? More consistent velocity?

I have no idea if one might improve a given lot of brass in such a way. However, I do think it is probably a lot-to-lot issue rather than a problem which is widespread. Winchester brass has always seemed like good handgun brass in my experience. I've used it quite a bit in both 44 Mag as well as 45 Colt, the latter which works the brass quite a bit since my (Ruger) chambers tend to be generous. Winchester brass has a 'softer' feel to it when it's run through the sizing dies but it holds bullets well and lasts long. As an aside, I have used nickeled cases in both chamberings, Win nickel in he 44, Rem nickel in the 45. The latter seem brittle and crack after just a few firings - and this has been true over several batches. The former work as well as any regular brass, even Starline, which has been among the best brass I've used in my revolvers.

Copper pipe will harden over time. I don’t know why it does. I suppose brass will do the same. Brass is harder and more brittle, so I can see it cracking over time.

I have no idea about the behavior of copper pipe over time when the pipe is not in use. Automotive brake lines are steel because copper - which would resist road salt and other corrosive elements better than steel - will work harden as the tubing expands and contracts with variations in internal pressure. Eventually the work hardened tube will fail under load.

Time was heavy cartridge cases known as Everlast were touted to last longer. I'd guess that expansion differs with original case size and thickness and chamber size including especially throat size.

I have 40 year old cases waiting for the right project that I expect to do just fine. I have had longitudinal splits which I attribute mostly to bad tolerance stacks in temper or dimension just like the circumferential splits from excess head space.

November 2017..... Its been many years since I’ve hunted with a handgun, though this year I might try it a couple days, got out my Ruger Mag-na-Port Stalker 44 Mag with Leupold 2x scope on it. Grabbed a box of ammo loaded 6/2008, Winchester brass new purchased in 1985 , Hornady 240 gr. XTP with 24 gr. of H110.

Shooting off bags the gun didn’t disappoint me 2″ high at 50 yards, one ragged 1″ hole with 6 shots, same as it did last time it was shot 10/2009. While ejecting the spent cartridges I noticed one was split in the middle of case, primers were flat but not close to even cratering. Not having all my notes on me about the load and gun, I looked up on my phone just to check load data on Hodgdon web site, maximum load is 24.4 gr. of H110. Went and shot 6 more rounds going in the same ragged 1″ hole, ejecting the cases 3 were split in the middle.

Went home pulled a bullet out and checked powder charge weight 24gr. on the money. Except the case split about 1/4″ using a kinect bullet puller in the middle. Upon inspecting very closely with a magnifying glass remaining 37 cartridges 20 had very fine cracks in the middle of the case below base of bullets. Checking 50 more rounds loaded at the same time 27 have cracks. All the brass is from the same lot number.

I have 800+ cases the same lot number new and 1x fired, I guess they are good for scrap metal….

I’ve never have found a loaded case that split, after firing… yes….

A store here in town used to have several old guns and old ammo in his attic. A collector wanted to buy a full case of 28 ga. paper hull Super X shotshells. Before he bought them he asked for one of the boxes to be opened. The brass was split and unwrapping right at the rim.

Exact reason why I quit buying Winchester brass. Have experienced way too many issues due to the brittle nature of it.