I got lucky today-case separation

[Dean2]

Originally Posted by gitrdun

I already have a knife stuck in my neck. Do I need to stick a fork in my eye TOO make it stop?

Bud
ArE U SURE U HAVE THE RIGHT THREAD? I don't see anything bad here.

[amosfella]

Originally Posted by tikka250

Hmmm interesting. Last year i had a batch of federal brass that went at the third firing. Of 80 cases probably %30 of them had case head seperation or cracks with a mid book load shot in a m305 (yes the headspace has been checked) not saying loading practices are not to blame in your case just saying it may be partialy brass related.

Semi autos are hard on brass regardless. Try lubing the brass in the semi with a very thin slick lubricant. Greatly increases case life. I like to wipe the cases with a rag sprayed with spray on lithium grease.

[amosfella]

Originally Posted by gitrdun

Myself, I use the Sinclair Shoulder Bump Gauges. No guess work, you know exactly how much of a bump back you've re-sized your brass to.

http://www.sinclairintl.com/reloadin...prod35265.aspx

Theoretically, one could use a dial gauge to determine the bump back. If one could feel where the case shoulder met the die then turn it in a few more thou...

[tikka250]

Originally Posted by amosfella

Semi autos are hard on brass regardless. Try lubing the brass in the semi with a very thin slick lubricant. Greatly increases case life. I like to wipe the cases with a rag sprayed with spray on lithium grease.

Im not going to lube my cases for shooting just because federal makes crap brass. Some of my ivi brass is getting on 5th and 6th firing with no issues so i will just stick to that and continue throwing away the federal junk.

[lclund1946]

Originally Posted by Opalsasquatch

I've been oversizing the brass, so it stretches even more upon firing. It then gets thin near the case head


"Shuuuuuuussssshhhhh.

You can't post stuff like that, too many heads will explode."
Hillbillyreefer

It is more likely a combination of over pressuring the brass, which forms it to a chamber that is likely over Saami Minimum, and sizing it with a FL die which cannot be set so it does not oversize the brass. It has been my experience that Federal brass holds much less powder than most other brands. A properly FL sized Federal Brass holds about 1.2 grains more powder than a Winchester brass in a 270 Winchester that I have been working on. This can result in a much higher pressure as the powder is comprssed in the Federal and not in the Winchester and this would show up on a chronograph. Aslo case dimensions may be smaller resulting in more case stretch.

It is commonly thought that setting a FL die to "Bump the Shoulder a few Thousands" will solve problems like incipient head separation that you experienced. However it only reduces case damage caused by excessive HS and not the excessive stretch at the neck, shoulder and base of a case. Neck Sizing solves this problem, except for the neck, but only if one does not overpressure the case so that it is sticky at the base.

[Opalsasquatch]

Here's the hottest load I put through it during load development

Current load runs 2650


"Shuuuuuuussssshhhhh.

You can't post stuff like that, too many heads will explode."
Hillbillyreefer

[lclund1946]

Originally Posted by lclund1946

It is more likely a combination of over pressuring the brass, which forms it to a chamber that is likely over Saami Minimum, and sizing it with a FL die which cannot be set so it does not oversize the brass. It has been my experience that Federal brass holds much less powder than most other brands. A properly FL sized Federal Brass holds about 1.2 grains more powder than a Winchester brass in a 270 Winchester that I have been working on. This can result in a much higher pressure as the powder is comprssed in the Federal and not in the Winchester and this would show up on a chronograph. Aslo case dimensions may be smaller resulting in more case stretch.

It is commonly thought that setting a FL die to "Bump the Shoulder a few Thousands" will solve problems like incipient head separation that you experienced. However it only reduces case damage caused by excessive HS and not the excessive stretch at the neck, shoulder and base of a case. Neck Sizing solves this problem, except for the neck, but only if one does not overpressure the case so that it is sticky at the base.

I had a once fired 223 Winchester factory round and an IVI once fired round and decided to measure them before and after FL sixing. I set my RCBS FL die to size the brass with Zero HS, as measured at 0.330" with a Hornady HS Gauge. They both measured 1.458" which is under the Saami Minimum 1.463". The Winchester brass had minimal stretch at the neck, shoulder and base datum compared to the IVI which was near or over minimum Sammi spec. The IVI case was bigger by about 0.005" at these three points. The sizing die reduced the base to 0.3735" on the IVI Brass but did not move the 0.0035 base on the Winchester brass. The necks and shoulders both came out the same after FL sizing. The interesting thing is that the trim length only increased by 0.003" on the Winchester brass while the IVI stretched 0.010". It is apparent that the Winchester brass will last much longer than the IVI in this situation.

I necked them down to my 20-223 EXTREME and found that the Winchester Brass trim length stayed the same at 1.750" while the IVI trim length came out at 1.765" or 0.015" longer. I know that both these brass hold the same amount of Powder and that a new Winchester brass , formed to 20-223, has only increased by about 0.006" on six firings moving a 40 V-Max at 3668+ so looks like it does not suffer from being FL sized each firing or being formed from once fired 223 brass.

[Don_Parsons]

My Lee Colliet dies showed up today, and I'll reset my FL dies a little less than 1/4" above the press bump.

I'll keep screwing the FL die down a 1/2 turn down at a time till I get those tight brass too chamber easy... Then lock it in place with about 2 thousands free space.

Awesome ideas on getting some extra life of of our brass.

Don

[Duramaximos]

Lee collet die has worked flawlessly for me on 5 reloadings of 6.5-06 winchester brass. I havent had to bump the shoulders yet.
Perfect feeding and very low run out.
Maybe it's because of the generous body taper or the fact I'm running these in one chamber exclusively.
Factor in the cost and it's an outstanding solution.

Sent from my SM-N920W8 using Tapatalk

[Don_Parsons]

Yes, this is what I heard too Duramax.

I'm hoping my 30/06 case is forgiving in this reloading world.

Another fellow from our shooting range has been using the Redding compitition die-set as he's had good luck with them.

Neck, body dies are each of their own.

I'm sure I'll be ok with the standard FL and Collit dies.

Don

[elkhunter11]

Most people over work the cases because they don't adjust their dies to only bump the shoulder back enough to chamber easily. Regardless of what the instructions that came with the FL die recommends, setting them to bottom on the shellholder will usually bump the shoulder back more than required. I typically neck size, and then bump the shoulders back only enough to allow the cases to chamber easily, when it takes more effort than I like to chamber the cases.Purchasing once fired cases can also result in having to work the cases a lot more than desired f the chamber that they were fired in is on the larger size.

[andy1]

Thank you for sharing. I want to get into reloading one of these days.

[Opalsasquatch]

Well, my lee neck die and new lapua brass came yesterday, so I loaded 20 rounds with same charge weight, bullet, coal etc

50 fps slower, so should be easy to adjust for that, poi a little low and right of previous.

The question I have is this-anyone see any reason not to throw mag primers in, and would I expect to see much of a velocity difference?
I won't test it until I fire form the other 80 pieces as they are already primed.


"Shuuuuuuussssshhhhh.

You can't post stuff like that, too many heads will explode."
Hillbillyreefer