I’ve got a question for you reloaders. About five years ago I loaded a few hundred rounds of .223 ammo. I found out afterwards that on most of them there is a small crack in the brass around the bullet. I’m wondering what would have caused this? It’s mixed stamped range brass that a buddy picked up for me that was full sized. I loaded about half of it and still have the other half sized and primed ready to be loaded, just never got around to it. I’d like to finish the job, but I’m concerned this batch will turn out the same way. I didn’t notice the cracks right away, it was months or years after I loaded it. Is it more likely it was there the whole time or could they have cracked after a while? I’ve never had an issue with necks cracking like this before. I’m thinking I’ll push bullets into some of the brass I have and see what happens. Anyone ever have a similar experience?

It has been my experience to use only fresh or once fired brass only or this can happen

That happens before you seat the bullet. Annealing the brass will give your cases another shot or three before you have to toss them. You can use a bullet puller to save the bullet and powder. I am unaware of a safe way to remove an unfired primer.

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where were they stored? any kind of gas will effect brass, be it chlorine, methane, whatever. It will become more brittle with any exposure. annealing doesn't seem to help with exposure to gas, have lost 100 7mm STW once fired brass from it.

ya didn't mention putting a foam ear plug inn the bottom to keep from deforming the bullet tip.

This is why I don't use range or re-manufactured brass. No way of knowing how many times it's been loaded. If you must use range brass get an Anneal-ez and a good eye loupe. All my brass gets annealed and inspected every time I load it. If it doesn't come out of my gun I don't use it. I have also deprimed live primers for years. They are too costly to not do it these days. I use a Redding deprime die and just gently push them out. Never had one go off in all the years I have used them. I have two, one each for large and small cases.

Storage should fine, no exposure to anything that I know of.

I’ll pull the bullets and save them. Thanks for the help!

.223s are brass eaters. I can get only 3 reloading cycles out of them before they start cracking either at the case mouth or an incipient crack behind the shoulder. Yes, you could anneal them but why go to the trouble with .223 so easy to get. It's easier to pitch them.
I suppose it's possible to load a work hardened brass and then it crack later. Temperature change or bumping it might be enough to make a hard case mouth under tension crack.
One of the great things about loading for .223 is that the brass is free just for the picking up from the ground. LOTS of folks shoot it out of go fast ARs and just leave it on the ground.

Ridge Runner1960, mine has foam in it. Was there when I bought it.


Paul D. Heppner , I will give that a try. Your right primers are too dear. If one does pop looks like there is plenty of room out the bottom for gas to escape. I got a box of 50 reloads I didnt load. I am a bit nervous about them.

I have not had necks split after I have reloaded them and I have shot many of my reloads that I loaded 20 plus years ago without issue. But while covid was on I cleaned trimmed resized and had hundreds and hundreds of pieces of brass annealed so they will last longer.Even brass get expensive now-cannot believe primers are where they are at if you can find them. Guys are selling 215 and 215m'S up here for 100$ per 100 primers-crazy

Many years ago, I bought a case of Federal .35 Rem shells on sale, and noticed the necks split when fired. Sent the back to Federal, and they fed me a BS story about how I got ammonia on them, and that made the brass brittle. I called them on it, and they ended up sending replacements.

Heat the brass neck slightly, enough to change color, annealing?
It softens the brass slightly, should reduce cracking for a few more reloads.
I only buy IMI brass, it's already annealed
Imi brass is the best