MikB Posted 10 December , 2011 Share Posted 10 December , 2011 70/30 brass is ductile and will cut with a continuous chip in the lathe. It can be formed and annealed in succession to produce cartridge cases. The further you load the composition toward Zinc, the more brittle and less suitable for cartridge formation the brass becomes. Standard machine-shop brass these days is CZ121, effectively a 60/40 alloy. It cuts with a discontinuous chip like a shower of short brass splinters, and is brittle enough to break after only minor deformation - multistage drawing would be really difficult if possible at all. Machined components of it are highly suitable for electrical contacts etc., but would not work in cartridge cases in normal thicknesses and dimensions - case separations and splits would be a real danger. So the options in changing the formulation of brass for cartridge cases are pretty limited - even swapping 1/7 of the copper content for zinc makes it unusable. Limitations on the supply of copper would pretty rapidly force the examination of alternatives like deep-draw steel. Regards, MikB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyE Posted 14 December , 2011 Share Posted 14 December , 2011 As promised a while ago, here is a picture of a British experimental coiled case made with tinned iron. This is a .500/.450 for a trials Gatling gun in about 1872. This particular case was one of a batch of unloaded cases sent to India to assess their susceptability to rust whilst stored in a tropical climate. It came back to the UK about thirty years ago when I acquired it in an auction. The normal coiled case Mark III Martini-Henry is shown for comparison. Similar cases were also made in .577 Snider. Regards TonyE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikB Posted 14 December , 2011 Share Posted 14 December , 2011 This particular case was one of a batch of unloaded cases sent to India to assess their susceptability to rust whilst stored in a tropical climate. Maybe I'm easily pleased, but it looks like it passed the test rather well. Or are you just showing us its good side? Regards, MikB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyE Posted 14 December , 2011 Share Posted 14 December , 2011 It certainly did! It looks like that all the way round. Cheers TonyE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gew98 Posted 16 December , 2011 Share Posted 16 December , 2011 Daniel Kent in his book " German 7,9 Military Ammunition 1888-1945" gives a fair read in this. But Dieter Storz's work on the german 98 rifle and carbine really has an awesome treatise on the trials and tribulations the germans went through to manufacture a suitable steel case for small arms ammunition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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