Old Brass - Anneal?

R

RAG2

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I "found" 200 pieces of Lapua 220 brass that's probably 10 years old now (unfired). Should I anneal before pressing into service?
 
Okay, thank you! Not that I believe everything I read, but somebody mentioned that time work-hardens brass too...
 
I'm guessing it would be hard to "work"-harden something by not working it, but to be sure you could send them all to me and I'll give 'em a good testing ...
 
ReedG said:
I'm guessing it would be hard to "work"-harden something by not working it, but to be sure you could send them all to me and I'll give 'em a good testing ...
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Man, that's funny!

I gotta tell you, I knew I had some stored away in that tote, but I thought it was 50 pieces maybe...so finding 200 was like Christmas!
 
Time does harden brass and copper. I just scrapped an unused roll of copper that was 20+ years old that had gotten too hard to work with, and I've seen 25+ year old unfired Norma brass split every case while cheap new brass didn't, in the same gun.
 
RAG2 said:
I "found" 200 pieces of Lapua 220 brass that's probably 10 years old now (unfired). Should I anneal before pressing into service?
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Unless you are shooting 220 Russian it may be a mute point. if 6ppc, you should likely anneal at the very least, after forming. To hedge your bets, you may want to anneal them now before forming(or firing if 220 Russian is your cartridge). Annealing cases that may not need annealing will not hurt them in the least if done properly. I would probably tumble or clean cases as they are likely at least tarnished and anneal before doing anything else to minimize chance of case loss.

Mike
 
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