Thread: Handloading Ghosts

On a slightly related note....are cases from 25-30 years ago still okay to use, or do they go brittle with time?
I have a bunch of cases from the mid-late 1990's, no corrosion as such just looking a bit dull. Some of them were loaded so I pulled the projectiles, the ones loaded with AR2208 were okay but the 308's loaded with AR2206 had gone fairly solid inside the cases so those may have internal corrosion.

Originally Posted by Cigar

On a slightly related note....are cases from 25-30 years ago still okay to use, or do they go brittle with time?
I have a bunch of cases from the mid-late 1990's, no corrosion as such just looking a bit dull. Some of them were loaded so I pulled the projectiles, the ones loaded with AR2208 were okay but the 308's loaded with AR2206 had gone fairly solid inside the cases so those may have internal corrosion.

Greetings,
A lot of the cases are 40 to 50 years old and yes they do go brittle in the neck. The cases will be neck annealed after a thorough inspection. Some with neck cracks or external corrosion have already been tossed. Compressed loads often need a prod to get the powder to run out where it has been compressed in the neck, as was the cartridge I broke down, but the powder was fine.
GPM.