Hoot's been workin' out again it appears!
Or he ate a big can of spinach....

it's been niggling at the back of my brain - that ain't normal work hardening. Hadn't put two and two together, though, like he did. If it's old brass, there's a good chance that it was fired with mercuric primers. In which case, you need new cases.

The reloading data on the boxes indicate they were loaded in 1970-72. The primers "appear" to be equivalent to modern Winchester and Federal.

The cases are all reformed .30-06, and some brand new, by all appearances. For this particular cartridge, the shoulder is pushed back and the neck reduced. My assumption is either no or ineffective annealing was done at the time of forming.

There is much disagreement around the 'net regarding 'age hardening' of brass and copper alloys. Age hardening is intentionally done for certain alloys but I cannot seem to find if it can be done for cartridge brass. I know for certain that I have seen many instances where loaded ammo shows neck cracks and in every case, said ammo has been loaded and sitting for decades. That said, I have also seen much more ammo which is also decades old with no issues.

At the very least, I will get much needed annealing practice.

This ammo was acquired with the rifle and I didn't have dies at the time. Considering what was paid, the brass, powder and primers were free.

Now, I have dies and proper headstamped brass from Buffalo Arms so it has been more of a bullet salvage operation than anything.

As mentioned earlier, I need to learn to anneal cases. The 'survivors' will provide much practice.