Split necks & accuracy?

[65Whelen]

I'm getting a lot of split necks and have decided to buy new brass, that's another discussion. Question, I've got about 100 pieces of my old brass left that has been cleaned, prepped and primed, no powder or bullet yet, do I use them? I'm in the process of working up a load for the Nosler 123 CC. Do you think a spilt neck will affect a shot? Was out yesterday and had one out of three cases split.

[A5BLASTER]

I would use them no since in not useing good brass.

Maybe you are over working the necks a lil bit. That could be the reason for the split necks.

But personally I would use them and get my money's worth out of them.

[LR1955]

I'm getting a lot of split necks and have decided to buy new brass, that's another discussion. Question, I've got about 100 pieces of my old brass left that has been cleaned, prepped and primed, no powder or bullet yet, do I use them? I'm in the process of working up a load for the Nosler 123 CC. Do you think a spilt neck will affect a shot? Was out yesterday and had one out of three cases split.

65:

Use them. I doubt a split neck will affect things that much.

Based on your other post on the split necks, you didn't say what sizing die and lube you were using. You did say you annealed the brass.

If you are using a Lee sizer die, throw it away and get a decent sizer. If you are using Imperial sizing lube, I suggest you go to the Dillon or Hornady spray on lube and get some in the necks as well as the outsides.

There is no need for you to anneal the brass for its life cycle and my bet is that annealing the brass did not help it out one bit.

LR55

[65Whelen]

Been using Hornady dies all along. I made my own case lube. Liquid lanolin & alcohol. Just ordered some new lapua brass. Hopefully in a couple weeks I'll able to answer my own question.

[centerfire]

65:

If you are using Imperial sizing lube, I suggest you go to the Dillon or Hornady spray on lube and get some in the necks as well as the outsides.



LR55

I'm curious why you don't recommend Imperial sizing wax?

[LR1955]

I'm curious why you don't recommend Imperial sizing wax?

CF:

Because normally guys put on that type of lube too thick and don't get any in the necks. Looking at previous posts where guys have had problems with damaged brass during sizing, it seems most used Imperial wax and when they switched to one of the spray lubes, the problem went away. Unless they were also using a Lee sizing die. Then by getting rid of both, the problems were solved.

I believe a spray on lube provides a more uniform coverage and is easier to get inside the necks. Also, it won't go on too thick.

LR55

[LR1955]

Been using Hornady dies all along. I made my own case lube. Liquid lanolin & alcohol. Just ordered some new lapua brass. Hopefully in a couple weeks I'll able to answer my own question.

Suggestion.

Do not anneal the brass. If you split necks with the Lapua brass, could be overworking from a poorly made die or your chamber is too big.

Buy a bottle of the Dillon Spray lube and use it instead of the home made stuff. Been there and done that. There is a thread on home made spray lube in the reloading section some weeks ago. Apparently a guy has to use a stronger rubbing alcohol than many can buy at most places and something else had to be done or it would not work well.

LR55

[CaptnC]

I'm getting a lot of split necks and have decided to buy new brass, that's another discussion. Question, I've got about 100 pieces of my old brass left that has been cleaned, prepped and primed, no powder or bullet yet, do I use them? I'm in the process of working up a load for the Nosler 123 CC. Do you think a spilt neck will affect a shot? Was out yesterday and had one out of three cases split.

How many firings before you split a neck?

I'm using the same batch of 100 pieces of Hornady between three different AR's. It's hard to keep ip with the number firing on those pieces of brass.

As I said in another thread. In the past year, I've split one neck and one above the web. The others that have failed has been because of loose primer pockets.

Not sure it's even possible to improperly anneal a neck...that would make it harder!

In my bolt guns, before I started annealing my brass, I could get 8 reloads before the necks would have a problem.

[ported45]

I picked up a .22 Hornet last week and it came with 100 rounds of reloads. I pulled down the reloads and found a handful that already had split necks; right to the scrap bucket for those! I had to resize all of them as they would not even chamber in the rifle. I dumped powder and reloaded bullets 0.006" off the lands. I shot several through my chronograph and velocities were all over the place! I inspected the fired brass and low and behold there were pieces with neck splits, holes, and a few that were unscathed. Apparently someone pawned off some overly well-used brass reloads on the guy that sold me the rifle. All of those went into the scrap bucket and I am waiting on new brass to show up at the door.

Split necks were wreaking havoc with my velocities.

[LR1955]

I picked up a .22 Hornet last week and it came with 100 rounds of reloads. I pulled down the reloads and found a handful that already had split necks; right to the scrap bucket for those! I had to resize all of them as they would not even chamber in the rifle. I dumped powder and reloaded bullets 0.006" off the lands. I shot several through my chronograph and velocities were all over the place! I inspected the fired brass and low and behold there were pieces with neck splits, holes, and a few that were unscathed. Apparently someone pawned off some overly well-used brass reloads on the guy that sold me the rifle. All of those went into the scrap bucket and I am waiting on new brass to show up at the door.

Split necks were wreaking havoc with my velocities.

That's because you had a lot of them and you got them reloaded by an unknown source. Your initial inspection revealed a number with split necks. That should have been an indicator that the entire bunch of them were bad.

In this case, 6.5W is using brass he has had total control over. The brass has no split necks and does not show any signs they will fail. And, he is choosing his own load. If it were me, I would shoot the brass and then toss it out.

LR55

[A5BLASTER]

LR1955. Could it be he is over heating the case neck when anneling them and that is causing the splits?

[LR1955]

LR1955. Could it be he is over heating the case neck when anneling them and that is causing the splits?

My same thoughts concerning the annealing providing that is the problem.

Not sure it is the problem though.

LR55

[CaptnC]

LR1955. Could it be he is over heating the case neck when anneling them and that is causing the splits?

I ask this in my earlier post....
How would that even be possible?

The only way you would ask that question would be if you didn't understand the basic theory of what annealing brass is.

When you heat brass, especially thin brass like used in ammunition it gets softer. The more heat, the softer it gets. At no point does the heating process make the brass harder (so more prone to split).

Try this experiment, heat your brass until it's bright cherry red, then let cool. Next take a flat base bullet and try to seat it...the brass case will most likely accordion down with bullet not entering the case at all. Yes, I have tried it...

So the proper question, concerning annealing would be whether or not he annealed long enough to PREVENT the case neck from splitting!?!?

[LRRPF52]

I had one split neck with Lapua brass when I was still using Imperial sizing wax. I switched to Hornady One-shot and haven't had it since. That was 6 years ago.

My Lapua brass ejects looking almost new from unsuppressed rifles with my CFE/123gr A-MAX load.

I don't anneal. I've read all the arguments for annealing and know guys who do it on their wildcats and higher pressure cartridges but have yet to see a substantiated case for it in 6.5 Grendel.

When you shoot the head stamps out of the brass after so many loads and it keeps on performing, I'm not sure why you would anneal.

Most of my loads are well below 50,000psi.

[A5BLASTER]

I ask this in my earlier post....
How would that even be possible?

The only way you would ask that question would be if you didn't understand the basic theory of what annealing brass is.

When you heat brass, especially thin brass like used in ammunition it gets softer. The more heat, the softer it gets. At no point does the heating process make the brass harder (so more prone to split).

Try this experiment, heat your brass until it's bright cherry red, then let cool. Next take a flat base bullet and try to seat it...the brass case will most likely accordion down with bullet not entering the case at all. Yes, I have tried it...

So the proper question, concerning annealing would be whether or not he annealed long enough to PREVENT the case neck from splitting!?!?

Dude just get over yourself. I use an annelezz anneling machine.

And yes you can over anneal a peice of brass. Hold it in the flame for more then 5 seconds and see what happens too your case neck.

Maybe a lil less bumping your gums and a lil more experimenting would be best.