Crack in 223 case

[ronas]

What caused crack in case in photo? I circled the crack which is very small. Several other cases appeared the same way. Brass worn out from to many reloads.

Brass is LC loaded with 55g FMJBT with 24.8g of BLC-2 shot out of an AR15 with 20" barrel.

[StraightShooter]

What caused crack in case in photo? I circled the crack which is very small. Several other cases appeared the same way. Brass worn out from to many reloads.

Brass is LC loaded with 55g FMJBT with 24.8g of BLC-2 shot out of an AR15 with 20" barrel.

Yes

[polygunner]

Working the brass(resizing) causes it to get more and more brittle with every cycle.
Eventually it splits instead of stretching.
Annealing will soften it up again.
Resizing as little as possible helps but in the end this is the fate of all brass.
pg

[EBR Works]

Yep, if you anneal every 3 loadings or so, it will help to prevent this. Hornady has an annealing kit that will allow you to do this:

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=360902

I use it for my .308 brass and I have reloaded them up to 8 times but by then the primer pockets are usually out of spec. Despite Hornady's instructions, you do not need to water quench the brass after annealing them. Just drop them into a metal pie plate to let them cool. You'll only need to use their temperature indicating paste once and you'll get an idea of how long to hold the case in the flame. For .308, about 9 seconds in a propane flame is perfect. You can actually see the brass change color and travel down the case. When it's right below the shoulder, it's perfect.

[Agustav]

223 case aren't that rare or expensive. IMO, it's really not worth the effort to anneal. Just keep reload them till case failure and replace them!