Elasticity, hardness, & case life

[Lee Martin]

I recently completed a study of brass elasticity and case life using a .41 Magnum. I thought the article may be of interest to fellow reloaders:

http://www.singleactions.com/BrassElasticity

 

[contender]

I'll have to take the time to read this later. But, if it's like most everything you've published,,, I'll enjoy it & know it was well thought out.

 

[Sagebrush Burns]

Lots of good information - an excellent read. Thanks for all the hard work.

 

[Bob Wright]

Case Life?



And:




Lest there be any misunderstanding: I load my brass with full power magnum loads or serious hunting loads for about five times. After that many times I back off and use milder factory equivalent or milder loadings thereafter.

Bob Wright

 

[Danjet500]

Interesting information but I am skeptical of the hardness data. I work with copper and copper alloys every day performing hardness and tensile testing. The wall of the case is far too thin to get an accurate hardness test result on the Rockwell B scale. Rockwell B scale hardness is performed with 150kg of force and will easily over-penetrate the thin brass wall. I suspect some of your hardness numbers are influenced by the rod you used a backer. This is called an "anvil effect". The proper scale and machine to use would be Vickers or Diamond Pyramid Hardness (DPH). However, as you mention in your article these machines are very expensive and probably not for the casual user.

http://qs-hardnesstester.com/hardness-minimum-thickness.html