What criteria do you use to discard brass for reloading?

I am getting back into reloading after many, many years away from it. Actually when I was doing it before I was helping my dad more than doing the whole job myself. He is gone now and I have all of his old equipment and some more modern equipment and most of what I am reloading is still the same as back then. 30-06. I have been going through the hundreds and hundreds of cases he left and most are in pretty good shape other than having 50 years of dirt and dust on them. He also had many boxes of loaded surplus ammo. This question pertains to both the empty cartridges and also the loaded ones. What constitutes a "bad" cartridge? I have quite a few with discoloration on them but it is smooth and no sign of actual corrosion. I also have a few with actual corrosion that you can feel as a rough spot on the cartridge. These I know are bad but what about the stained ones?

There is a plethora of reasons why one would discard a case from loose primer pockets (Hot loads) split necks, imminent head separation, die incidents where you crush them (done that a couple of times) web out of spec measured just above the extractor groove, thin neck wall and on & on it goes. You just have to measure & inspect and if they are to close to the max spec I ditch them length is easy just TTL its the primer, web & neck I look at if the shoulder moves to far forward bump it back with a body die or FLS it, neck turn if you have to or if your running a tight neck chamber, I find that if your in two minds about a case best flatten it with a hammer then bin it thats what I do why take the risk.

Pull the loaded rounds if its not stated what they have in them unless its for the same rifle I am not saying your father could not reload it just a peace of mind thing but if your confident and the rounds are clean etc go for it tumble the empties and if you have a sonic cleaner do the inside then when finished go over them with a length gauge and micrometer. Obviously you dont tumble loaded rounds lightly does it with OOOO steel wool will bring them up.

I've used cases that were brown in color and completely dark. If I get one shot before it cracks it's fine. It needs to either crack or show signs of a pending separation to go gash bin...then I save them and turn them in for yellow brass scrap price. Any of the mentioned permanent damages too...

"...boxes of loaded surplus ammo..." That may or may not be reloadable(might be collector ammo too). Depends on the type of primer. Berdan or Boxer primers. Berdan would be primarily European made. Some .30 AP had Berdan primers too. The downside is that you can't tell one from the other by looking at the outside. Some head stamps will tell you though.
"...imminent head separation..." Look for a stretch line near the case head. On an empty case feel with a piece of wire on the inside near the case head.
"...50 years of dirt and dust..." A hose or, literally, a bath in plain water will fix that. Then tumble as per normal. You may want to consider making a large capacity tumbler. Buy a big bag of crushed walnut shells(sold as small pet bedding) and look on-line for plans. Easier than it sounds. Think pail with lid and either an electric rotor or vibrator. Plan 'B' is a bucket and plain white vinegar. And a cookie sheet and your oven.
"...few with discoloration..." If that's at the shoulder, it's highly likely it's just unpolished manufacturing annealing. The military didn't care if the cases were shiney or not.
A stain will depend on what caused the stain. Plus a certain amount of what colour it is. Black isn't horrible. Black is oxidization and will come off in the tumbler.
Serious corrosion, green usually, is the copper coming out of the alloy. Pitch those and the ones you can feel as a rough spot. Pitch any with any cracks. Dents are not ruined either.
Dents on the shoulder are caused by too much lube. They'll will come out upon the next firing with no fuss. A lightly dented case mouth can be fixed when you resize. If the dent is too much for the expander button to fit, needle nosed pliers used as a mandrel will open the mouth enough.

I like the looks of the brass that comes out of the liquid and pin tumblers. Not so much for the shine but the fact it is so clean inside and out. Easier on dies and I am sure that has to have some effect on accuracy when the inside of the case is spotless each time as opposed to different amounts of residue each time. And the bullets have to be seating more consistently on brass then on residue. Winter is a good time for me to do that since I can lay out the wet brass on my wood stove for a couple hours and done. Summer is a different story. The missus is not going to be happy with me cooking brass plus that just stresses the AC even more with the heat from the stove. Is there any reason you could not rinse the brass in isopropyl alcohol after the tumble and then just lay it out to dry? The alcohol would get rid of the water and the alcohol will evaporate pretty quickly.

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Originally Posted by Sunray

"...boxes of loaded surplus ammo..." That may or may not be reloadable(might be collector ammo too).

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I have had several people mention the collectible thing to me but when I offer it to them the price I am offered is the same or real close to what I would have to pay to buy more ammo to shoot. So, as much as I want to support the collectible side of the hobby i also want to shoot the hobby side of it. If the ammo is so collectible then people would pay enough to preserve it while giving the person selling it reason to go to all the trouble. I did screw up by opening two boxes of Utah marked ammo dated 42. I will admit to that one. I am not going to shoot the ammo but it seems the only thing people wanted was the sealed box label.

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Originally Posted by Rickf1985

If the ammo is so collectible then people would pay enough to preserve it while giving the person selling it reason to go to all the trouble.

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Agreed, that puts the collector argument to rest.

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Originally Posted by Steve762

If you do not want to tumble try soaking the fired cases in Dawn and Leni-Shine over night.

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Just be cautious with the amount of Lenishine used. This stuff is a citric acid and will go after the zinc in the brass.

Some collectors are scammers trying to drive you down so they get a good deal, I pay a fair price for stuff do the research on going prices and go from there pity your there I'd be there in a flash to have a gecko I did get taken for a ride from a friend some years ago who offered me a bulk lot for $XXX.oo's as he said it was a substantial lot (Not) and when I had sorted it it had a few choice pieces (3-4) out of 200 the rest were well bloody shite.
There was a chap who passed a little while ago an old gunsmith and had a really good selection of rare cartridges and ordnence very nice indeed I offered him a substantial sum of $4 thousand dollars well above what it was actually worth but I really wanted that collection it really had some very rare gear, in the end my friend swooped on it paying half what I offered and then skited about it when I asked him how much he paid.:bitch:

Bit wiser now.....I am still friends with the chap and have brought other gear from him but call his bluff and walk if its to high he usually comes around. If I find stuff I shut my trap until I can poke it under his nose I mean at last count he had over 200 rifles & shotties in his collection!:dunno:

For the rinse or wet tumble use about 1/8 teaspoon of lemi-shine in a pint to a quart of hot water with a good squirt of dawn dish soap. I have never soaked them overnight due to the citric acid in the lemi shine. I have wet tumbled very dirty range brass in the above solution for 30 minutes and my brass comes out clean and shiny. After the brass dries I dry tumble it in a vibratory tumbler with crushed walnut shell media with a capfull of mineral spirits or paint thinner and a capfull of Nu-finish car polish for 3 hours and it shines the brass and protects it from tarnish. I have 30-06 brass in zip-loc bags that went through this process a couple years ago and they are still clean and quite shiny. I use the Harbor Freight rock tumblers for the wet tumbling and it works great.
As for your dads reloads, I would clean lightly with 0000 steel wool and inspect very carefully, then fire the ones that pass inspection. As others have said reject for any major defects, cracks, corrosion that is rough to the touch, incipient head separation etc. Only you can decide on the condition, if you aren't sure of the reliability pull down and check, or scrap.
A while back a friend gave me some old brass he had from old hunts in 30-30 and 30-06, they all were pretty dark with some green on them. I used my tumble process above, they came out very clean. Loaded and fired with no problem. I would not advise someone else to load them because they don't know the quality of these cases. Your mileage may vary. Bottom line, if in doubt, pull it down and scrap the brass.

I usually start with once fired (in my own guns) or new cases so I pretty much know their history.

On the one occasion that I was given several boxes of reloaded .30-06, I pulled and saved the bullets and pitched the cases. More than a few looked like this:

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...necks003-1.jpg

Never shoot reloads other than your own.

Just a word of warning ..!

Never tumble loaded ammunition! Particularly old loaded ammunition, especially if it is cordite loaded... The danger is not that it will go off in the tumbler, but that the tumbling breaks up the propellant grains, increasing the surface area of the propellant and significantly increasing the burning rate. Propellant becomes brittle as it ages, and cordite is particularly susceptible to this type of failure.

You may think that nobody would be that stupid, however history would prove you wrong. There were several instances a while back as a result of some bright boy "refurbishing" milsurp ammuniton by tumbling it in a cement mixer with sand...!

Increased burning rate can lead to burst guns.. so be warned!

I would also be inclined to anneal all old cases as a matter of course.. brass does age harden, and a quick anneal at least puts them all back to a known state!

Citric acid, per se is not that bad; the stuff supplied by the makers of drum tumblers like "Lyman", for instance clearly state on the packaging of the "trial" brew packed with the tumbler, that it contains Citric acid. I discovered very quickly that Brewing Supply shops sell Citric acid powder (for cleaning brewing equipment and hoses) a LOT cheaper than the “fancy stuff” from the gun shop. Like vinegar, it is also a useful household cleaner.

Concentration and "run-time" are important. The Citric acid, in combination with the constant agitation and pin impacts, cleans off the "brown" fairly quickly. A THOROUGH rinse in HOT water removes the Citric acid and other "crud" from the brass and then, depending on the time of year and location, spread the rejuvenated brass out in a cotton sheet in direct sunlight,

I've done many thousands of cases that way since I bought a drum tumbler, so far, so good. I do not want "polished" brass, I want CLEAN, uncontaminated brass.

As soon as they are dry and whilst still warm, the cases go into air-tight kitchen containers with a Silica-Gel dehumidifier sachet taped inside the lid. More than a year later, that brass will still be unblemished, until you start fondling it in the reloading process.

I tend to clean and prep in big batches and store the stuff. Preparation includes inspecting cases for bulges, cracks, neck-splits, incipient head separations, etc, at every stage of the handling process. Bottle-necked rifle brass MUST always be checked for length, and trimmed if necessary, BEFORE going anywhere near a press for filling. Regular use of case gauges and a good trimmer will reduce your need to replace a "bent" rifle or the need to learn Braille and manage a Labrador.

Then, reload in small batches as required. How long does it take to run up fifty rounds of your favourite rifle ammo recipe? If you are loading for regular pistol competitions, and you run a progressive press, it is possible to load a LOT of ammo in an evening; using your correctly-stored, well prepared brass, of course.

Good brass cleaner is per 5 litre hot water, teaspoon dish washing liquid and a teaspoon tartaric acid. Mix well, add brass let it stand couple of hours. Stir a couple times. Rinse with clean water, dry in the sun. Doesn't tarnish again.

Been working for me for 30 years.

Bruce is bang on (Pun) with the handling of your brass the more you handle it whilst checking it over the more you see and after its done the rounds it gets finally to the press loaded inspected again wiped over with a clean rag and then stored ready for the range or hunt don't matter.

If your just an average shooter hunter then you won't load the hundrds of rounds some of us do a year but the process is the same for all there ain't no skimping on it your playing with enormous forces a few inces from your beak and face with the result if it lets go the damage to you could be catastophic to say the least.
I run my 6.5 x 284 reasonably hot about 2900Fps with 140Gn VLD Bergers or 143Gn Hornady ELD X's and its in around @53 - 55,000's PSI so its a fait bit of oomph going on up front.
So learn from what those of us that have trudged the path of discovery with reloading as I am quite an*l about all my ammo hunting or target it has to be the best I can possibly make to get consistent hits or groups because if you do not take the care and be a bit slappy happy howdy doo-dee with it your gunna come a cropper and I or us here do not want that at all.
Advice is free gaining the knowledge to give that advice is a very expensive pass time indeed wish computers were around like this 43 years ago would have saved allot of us here $'s and headaches.................:banghead:

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Originally Posted by usabaker

Just be cautious with the amount of Lenishine used. This stuff is a citric acid and will go after the zinc in the brass.

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there is no danger with lemishine cleaning cases. Its actually how the ARSENALS clean cases. It actually helps preserve the cases.

Though there is no real reason to let it soak for more then 5-10 minutes if the water is hot.

A lot of signs of bad cases are not reliable at all. Like case separation,, the old trick of bent paper clip down inside the case to check the case for separation near the primer FAILS 30% of factory new brass from Winchester in .308