Hornady cases and split necks

[cst]

I found my first neck split after shooting today. The hornady brass has seen about 4-5 reloads. The loads are pretty warm loads with some mild flattening of the primers and ejector wipes.

How many reloads do u guys do before annealing? I'm not sure if it's worth it to anneal( time and if I'm doing correctly)
Or how many reloads are u guys doing before u trash the brass?

Out of a 100 rounds yesterday I only found 1 split neck....ive reloaded Remington brass for .308 as much as 11 times before I trash it

[Kilco]

I really like Hornady brass. Occasionally I get a lot that is a little softer. For instance, in still using the original 100 pieces I started with. No web stretching and necks look good.

I have another 50 from some hornady black ammo, and like your batch, after 5 reloads I get 1 or 2 pieces every reload that show a split neck after full length sizing.

Personally I don't anneal anything for my auto loaders.

LRRPF52 has some really good tips for babying your brass. Believe he radius and polishes his ejector and does some extractor work, along with tuning your gas system.

By doing this you can make your brass go a long ways with such a low pressure round.

[VASCAR2]

What dies are you using? It has been reported that Lee 6.5 Grendel resizing die over works the necks of the 6.5 Grendel brass. The Lee dies supposedly reduce the number of times the 6.5 Grendel brass can be reloaded. I bought Hornady 6.5 Grendel dies and a Friend has Lee dies. He's not loaded enough 6.5 Grendel dies with the Lee sizing die to know the life expectancy of his brass.

[LRRPF52]

I polish my expanders as a rule on all my dies as well, to limit the damage from tooling marks on the inside of necks.

I have yet to see a single Hornady case split a neck. I had one piece of Lapua brass split a neck a few years ago, that I narrowed down to excessive imperial sizing wax over-working the case.

All my brass has been running and looking like new. I load in 100rd batches minimum and will blow through them pretty quickly in a range session. Shooting events with multiple days will usually see 250rds or more.

I'm using Hornady One-Shot spray from multiple angles, Hornady dies, and I tumble-polish a lot.

[LR1955]

The loads are pretty warm loads with some mild flattening of the primers and ejector wipes.

CST:

I believe you have answered your own question.

Hot load the Grendel and you are asking for trouble.

LR55

[Kilco]

have yet to see a single Hornady case split a neck. I had one piece of Lapua brass split a neck a few years ago, that I narrowed down to excessive imperial sizing wax .

I use imperial sizing wax, and this very well might be the culprit on the split necks I've experienced. Can you elaborate on how this happens?

[sneaky one]

The brass is from - Putin ville. It's quality is -meh.... if you get 4-7 shots thru? Lucky u!

So sad that ppu got involved again. Stiil on Feddy to get better on neck thicknesses.

Kilco, always use a spray -like One Shot.. No crush -wrinkling of cases. Let it evap for 15-20 mins. GTG. Wipe them, or tumble in sawdust afterwards-, or any other polishing medias.

It's so easy this way.

Many of us use the sonic cleaners firstly , to remove most of soots, etc.

[Kilco]

The brass is from - Putin ville. It's quality is -meh.... if you get 4-7 shots thru? Lucky u!

So sad that ppu got involved again. Stiil on Feddy to get better on neck thicknesses.

Kilco, always use a spray -like One Shot.. No crush -wrinkling of cases. Let it evap for 15-20 mins. GTG. Wipe them, or tumble in sawdust afterwards-, or any other polishing medias.

It's so easy this way.

Many of us use the sonic cleaners firstly , to remove most of soots, etc.

PPU is making hornady 6.5 Grendel brass?? Jeez it says made in USA right on the box of Hornady brass..

I've uses imperial sizing wax for years on bolt guns, single shots, and auto loaders with NO stuck cases or premature neck splitting. I've had more than a few get stuck with 5.56 brass in small base dies using the one-shot lube, so I gave up years ago..

However I DID notice a few split necks on a specific lot of Hornady brass, which I've been typically getting 12-15 firings from, and I have been using liberal amounts of wax with this cartridge.. I believe LRPP52 was on to something when he mentioned the wax as the possible culprit.

I also polish tumble before sizing and after as well, no carbon or gunk on the case, with the ID of the necks scrubbed clean as well before sizing and running the expander ball through..

[doofus65]

What dies are you using? It has been reported that Lee 6.5 Grendel resizing die over works the necks of the 6.5 Grendel brass. The Lee dies supposedly reduce the number of times the 6.5 Grendel brass can be reloaded.

What if you necksized it first using a 6.5 neck die, then put it through the full-size die? Asking cuz I have a 6.5mm neck sizer for my 6.5 bolt guns.

[VASCAR2]

I really have no experience with Lee 6.5 Grendel dies even though a friend has a set I've never been there when he was loading 6.5 Grendel ammo. Maybe someone with more experience with Lee dies will chime in.

[LRRPF52]

I use imperial sizing wax, and this very well might be the culprit on the split necks I've experienced. Can you elaborate on how this happens?

I switched to spray-on lube. Haven't seen some of the over-work signs I was seeing before since I made the move to spray-on a few years ago.

Since Imperial wax can get caked on, the wax and sizing die will win that battle every day when pushed against brass.

I'm thinking of moving neck expansion to another die as well.

[maxxmojo]

I recently had two Hornady necks crack on me after a 3rd firing, but I suspect they were part of a batch of CFE loads that ended up waaay hot so I wasn't real surprised. Otherwise so far they've all (152 shells) looked good. I was looking into possibly annealing them this next time around for good measure though. Using Redding dies for what it's worth.

[Klem]

You could remove the expander ball of the sizing die stem. The outside of the case neck will be making contact with the die only but as long as the neck tension ends-up what you want then that will reduce the neck working. My Forster die gives .003" neck tension (perfect) without the expander ball while the Redding gives only .001" (bolt guns only).

That said, I'm with 55 on this one. Hot loads and standard quality brass is the reason here. If you want your cases to last longer than 5 reloads then treat the cause, not the symptoms.

[Mad Charlie]

Forster will hone their dies to whatever size you need, I like mine set up to give the expander ball .001 to work on, I don't use bushing dies anymore.
That said, a lot of guys are using mandrel type expanders and reporting great results.

I have been handloading for over 40 years, and using Imperial for quite a few years. I have not encountered any issues with necks changing size, but I don't get it on the neck and shoulder, not on purpose at least.

I'm with the rest of you as to hot loads causing the splits.