Brass case age

[45acp230]

Does brass get brittle with age, or just from working it?? I have some Lake City .308 brass that's been loaded 2-3 times but no more than that. LC 68,LC 69 headstamps. Looks OK-no splits,etc. My guess is that working brass makes it brittle, but wondering if there's a chemical reaction that might affect the metal? Hank in Va.

 

[DeletedMember275]

That brass is practically brand new, for all practical purposes. Shoot it two more times and then anneal it. As long as the primer pockets are still tight and you're not trying to launch bullets into space with them, they should be good for five more loads.

All of this is assuming that they haven't been fired in machineguns or M14s. In that case, check for incipient head separation by using a paper clip. Straighten it out, then bend one tip at a 90-degree angle. Leave the 'L' section about 3/16" long; I like to file it to a sharp edge. Insert the paper clip into the case and push it down until it hits the bottom of the case. Dragging the sharp edge against the inside of the case, pull the paper clip back out. You're looking for it to catch about 1/2" up from the case head. If it does, trash that piece of brass. If not, you're golden.

 

[DGW1949]

Does brass get brittle with age, or just from working it?? I have some Lake City .308 brass that's been loaded 2-3 times but no more than that. LC 68,LC 69 headstamps. Looks OK-no splits,etc. My guess is that working brass makes it brittle, but wondering if there's a chemical reaction that might affect the metal? Hank in Va.

I'm no expert on this stuff but here's my take;

Yeah, "working the brass" makes it brittle. That could also however, have something to do with the heat it experiences when being fired....and/or the expansion of the brass from the pressure of firing.
Most .308 rounds operate in the 48K-50K presure range. That is a bunch.
7.62 NATO ammo is at the upper range in pressure, and the the cases have less volume than typical .308 cases because the walls is thicker. That might be something you'd want to consider when consulting the manuals for what load to use, and how many times you'd want to reload a NATO-spec case.

In my own experience when reloading LC (7.62X51) brass for M1 and M-14 rifles, I'd sometimes see little splits in the neck after it had been resized 5-6 times and the case would have to be trashed. Never had a head seperation though.
Another thing that I'd have to be mindfull of was how chewed-up the rim would get. That, and how many times the reloading proccess involved ironing-out case dents. Semi-autos are perty-rough on brass.
FWIW, my own experiences lead me to limit my reloading of a single "once fired" case to 3 times because the rounds I was loading was for long range match-guns which required some perty-hot ammo, and I didn't want to chance any sort of failure due to a problomatic case.

No idea on the "chemical reaction" thing. But I wouldn't discount the possability, particularly on reloads that might get stored for a long time.

Hope something here helps.

DGW