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Ultrasonic brass cleaning and case life

44hunter45

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Some time ago I bought some 264WM "once fired" brass on GB and they were absolutely spotless. Too spotless. Every time I buy rifle brass used, I anneal it. In spite of the anneal, I lost more than 75% of the cases to neck splits when I sized them, lubed inside and out.
I got back to the seller and he said they were ultrasonic cleaned, and good brass. He contended that the problem was my process. I trust my process.

Question:
Does ultrasonic cleaning work harden brass? Even if it did my annealing should have alleviated at least some of that.
 
what cleaner do you think he was using? If it has any ammonia in it that could be a cause. I wonder if he used Brasso (makes brass super shiny but contains ammonia)

My uneducated guess would be you bought junk brass and I'd wager they were fired a lot more than once. Split necks with once fired and annealed is a tough sell.
 
what cleaner do you think he was using? If it has any ammonia in it that could be a cause. I wonder if he used Brasso (makes brass super shiny but contains ammonia)

My uneducated guess would be you bought junk brass and I'd wager they were fired a lot more than once. Split necks with once fired and annealed is a tough sell.

Yup. I've bought and sold a lot of brass on GB without issue. This is the only seller I've ever said I would not work with again. I've since decided I will only buy "ugly" brass as well. Case prep is part of the fun for me.
 
Mthunter is probably right, it was probably a chemical issue, not a cleaner issue. Tumbling in steel shot will work harden stuff but I've never had things harden in the cleaner.
 
Ammonia and brass don’t mix. I know people that want their brass to look pretty and use Brasso or other additives to their tumbling media. It won’t (can’t) last as long.
 

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