PCK wrote:G'day all
I've been picking up cases at my local range. Some or them are well tanished. Could well have been out there for years. What I would like to know are they safe to reload, given all the other things are right, no splits, primer pockets not blown etc.
Be most grateful for any science or practical knowledge.
Peter
Hi PCK...
Welcome...
There are some folk here that have some mighty fine knowledge about reloading other peoples used brass indeed...so take the advice you've been given here mate...
But ill throw my 2 cents worth in for the sake of it...
For me, ive found a basic routine of brass prep, along with paying attention to seating bullets, should pick up any abnormalities...particularly in the case of split necks.
So if the brass is really badly tarnished, in the past (before i had a wet tumbler), i used to plop a blob of Autosol on a rag, & wrap that around the neck of a case & turn it, giving the neck a good polish...
Do 100 cases in front of the TV & feel that burn in the thumb...
The dirtier the cases, the more rag & Autosol you go through, but you get a shiny neck very quickly...
From that, with half decent vision, you can see the neck pretty well for any damage...not to mention, the rag may well catch on a badly split neck then & there...
If you dont have great vision, & are doing this while sitting watching TV, have a torch on the coffee table, or hold the case of the neck against the backlight of the TV, & a split neck can be seen pretty easy, by way of light coming through the neck where it shouldn't be...
If sizing the case with a die that uses an expander ball, you should feel a split neck--not always, but most of the time...either from the expander ball dragging excessively through a neck thats in need of annealing (or lube...
), or mostly from it feeling easy to size/not as much resistance as the other cases...
Any damaged neck cases that you dont pick from that, you'll surely pick either while your trimming them all to the same length...&/or...when you chamfer & deburr them---a split neck will give a "bump" to the chamfer/de-burr tool, that you should pick up by feel if you're paying attention to what you're feeling.
As for the head of the case...look up "case head seperation" on the net...that'll give you an indication of what to look for (the line where the case head is joined to the case)...
And with this, you'll no doubt find some points about the place explaining how to bend a paper clip, insert it into the case & drag it up the wall of the case, feeling for the paperclip catching on a section inside the case...
Ive found most of my split necks from
feel while doing brass prep...the lesser majority from visual inspection against a bright light next to my press...and the occasional one from a slight visual difference in the appearance of the neck while generally handling them...
I havnt read all the replies in this thread, so hope i havnt doubled up on any...but no doubt i have...
Hope that helps...
The man who knows everything, doesnt really know everything...he's just stopped learning...