Brass Matters: Variance, Longevity, and the Hidden Geometry of Case Life

[Talyn]

Brass is the only component in the reloading process that is expected to survive repeated firings, and it is also the only one that carries forward a record of everything that has happened to it.

Every firing changes its shape slightly. Every sizing pass works the material a little more. Every decision about how hard a load is pushed or how aggressively a case is sized leaves behind evidence, whether the reloader notices it at the time or not.

Brass Matters: Variance, Longevity, and the Hidden Geometry of Case Life - Midsouth Shot Report

Most people do not come to reloading because they are chasing some idealized version of precision or because they want to spend their evenings measuring things most people never think about. They come because factory ammunition became expensive, scarce, or unreliable, and reloading offered a way...

midsouthshotreport.com

 

[RJW]

I believe brass can be annealed (or reannealed) to extend its usable life. But I'm not 100% sure of this.

 

[Scevaph]

The neck/shoulder area can be annealed to help prevent cracks from work hardening. The base / lower case should not be annealed.

 

[jumpinjoe]

Case length is as important (sometimes even more-so) as work hardening vs annealing, especially in bottle neck cartridges. Case length is less important in straight walled cartridges, but be aware of it in cases that 'headspace' on the case mouth.