Weird, brittle brass issue

[Eric Lamberson]

Has anyone encountered this? (see pics). This was brass that was purportedly "once fired" and in fact showed no evidence of multiple reloading. I did not clean it with chemicals or polish, although I cannot account for what might have been done prior to my purchase. This was the most interesting example; however, several exhibited signs of brittleness. Two were Federal, another was S&B. Thoughts?

[Richbirdhunter]

Did this happen while resizing or firing a live round after loading?

[Eric Lamberson]

I noticed the issue after sizing the brass during the reloading process. I would think that "belling" the case mouth was not the problem given the horizontal cracks.

[Richbirdhunter]

Are your dies clean? What kind of lube are you using and how much? What kind of dies are you using?

[PBratton]

Yikes!

That there is some brittle brass.

[Eric Lamberson]

Dies clean--Tungsten Carbide sizing die. The brass was sold as "roll sized" and I am wondering if in the cleaning process the company used a liquid chemical cleaner or dried the brass in an oven. The example I provided was the worst of the lot; however, there were several other cases that exhibited brittle fractures as opposed to splitting resulting from firing. Very weird. I plan to call the company and ask how they processed this brass. Another friend who purchased brass from the same company is having the same problem with approx 2% of the cases.

[Weg]

Never..only cracks I ever see are at the case mouth. Weird.

[Eric Lamberson]

I was wondering if they had used some type of cleaner with ammonia. Any possibility that ammonia could weaken the head, web, or primer pocket area enough to cause a case failure upon firing? I now know of another incident where 9mm round loaded with brass from this company completely failed in an S&W M&P. Low possibility of double charge since it was loaded on a Dillon 1050--with a very light TightGroup charge with a 147gr round nose.

[boxermoose]

It's possible, sure - it would be interesting to have those cases X-rayed or a Magnetic Particle Inspection done, like they do on the better AR bolt-carriers.

Not to split hairs but you can't mag nonferrous and I don't believe anything g use full will show up on x ray.
But if you do have a friendly metallurgical guy have the do a sample to view alpha beta microstructure

Send some pics to the manufacturer they may have some interest or they may just say stress corrosion cracking due to ammonia exposure, which is the most likely anyway....somebody used windex to make the brass pretty