Split case necks - Hornady brass

[lazyengineer]

Just,... uh, don't anneal the loaded ones

[603 Country]

[lazyengineer]

personally I like the 123 SST's as a good general purpose bullet. It's not the most super accurate; but it's pretty good. And it flies far, well. And it does stuff when it hits stuff.

[603 Country]

[kmon]

I know you like your 120s in the 260 so I would keep them for it and use the 123s for the Grendel.

[tdbru]

603,
I do the neck anneal routine regularly and haven't had a problem.

before I knew about neck annealing I would lose rifle brass of various calibers due to neck splits.

This occurred more regularly for me on ammo that had been reloaded more than 5x and then sat for over 2 years or more while I was experimenting with a different caliber. I lost about 100% out of a box of ammo that was on the 5th reload and had sat (in the back) on the shelf for 10 years.

the neck annealing on a regular basis has reduced my neck split case losses to 0. eventually in my full pressure (not Grendel) calibers after 10 or more reloads FC and WIN brass starts to get loose primer pockets. the only other loss is eventually I will get the bright line around the case near the head that is indicative of an upcoming case head separation. if I adjust the sizing die to just bump the should back enough to just chamber with no or little tiny bit of resistance, this prolongs the case life until I have to pitch them due to case head separations or loose primer pockets. if you're running the Grendel (or any cases) through a self shucker, then I'd suggest making sure the sizing die is set so that the shoulder is bumped enough to chamber with no resistance. You'll get a little less reload life that way but functional reliability is more important.

give case neck annealing a try, I suspect it will eliminate your split neck issue. also check your dies to see how much they are working the necks of the brass as suggested above. your dies maybe way overworking the case necks. though they're pricey the bushing style sizing dies (redding, hornady, probably others) are a way to reduce the amount of sizing that occurs on the case necks. you get the bushing that just squeezes the neck down for the amount of bullet pull tension you want and no more. It'll save money in the long run, particularly if your running pricey brass like Lapua or Nosler etc.

best to you,
-tdbru

[lazyengineer]

603,
I do the neck anneal routine regularly and haven't had a problem.

before I knew about neck annealing I would lose rifle brass of various calibers due to neck splits.

This occurred more regularly for me on ammo that had been reloaded more than 5x and then sat for over 2 years or more while I was experimenting with a different caliber. I lost about 100% out of a box of ammo that was on the 5th reload and had sat (in the back) on the shelf for 10 years.

the neck annealing on a regular basis has reduced my neck split case losses to 0. eventually in my full pressure (not Grendel) calibers after 10 or more reloads FC and WIN brass starts to get loose primer pockets. the only other loss is eventually I will get the bright line around the case near the head that is indicative of an upcoming case head separation. if I adjust the sizing die to just bump the should back enough to just chamber with no or little tiny bit of resistance, this prolongs the case life until I have to pitch them due to case head separations or loose primer pockets. if you're running the Grendel (or any cases) through a self shucker, then I'd suggest making sure the sizing die is set so that the shoulder is bumped enough to chamber with no resistance. You'll get a little less reload life that way but functional reliability is more important.

give case neck annealing a try, I suspect it will eliminate your split neck issue. also check your dies to see how much they are working the necks of the brass as suggested above. your dies maybe way overworking the case necks. though they're pricey the bushing style sizing dies (redding, hornady, probably others) are a way to reduce the amount of sizing that occurs on the case necks. you get the bushing that just squeezes the neck down for the amount of bullet pull tension you want and no more. It'll save money in the long run, particularly if your running pricey brass like Lapua or Nosler etc.

best to you,
-tdbru

Thanks for that. I too have noticed split necks seem to correlate with shelf age, but it seemed a phenomea unique to me, so I figured maybe it had more to do with practice at the time, than it did time on shelf.

[603 Country]

[LRRPF52]

[603 Country]