Separated case
- Thread starter Lefty49
- Start date
Idaho53
Full Blood American
- Feb 5, 2023
- 160
- 497
Bolt action or semi-auto? Assuming there are no excessive pressure or headspace/chamber issues, my first guess would be case hardening...annealing can help resolve these failures.
Last edited:
- Thread starter
- #3
RL338
Handloader
- Mar 23, 2017
- 4,263
- 7,442
How many firings?
- Thread starter
- #5
Idaho53
Full Blood American
- Feb 5, 2023
- 160
- 497
4 firings is enough to split case necks when: full length sizing each time, no annealing, lower grade brass, etc. I have seen cases separate w/o any cracks showing up. Many times the failure will start on the inside of the case and won't be visible on the outside. If you load belted magnums, they bulge right after the belt and then fully separate when done.
- Thread starter
- #7
Idaho53
Full Blood American
- Feb 5, 2023
- 160
- 497
I have a basic Hornady annealing kit you can have, if you want it. Will ship it to you for free...works great with a cordless drill and some practice.
HeathSexton
Handloader
- May 12, 2006
- 1,213
- 48
TackDriver284
Handloader
- Feb 13, 2016
- 2,922
- 3,104
I second Idaho53's advice, I would toss all that brass and get some new quality brass. What brand of brass are those?
- Thread starter
- #11
wvbuckbuster
Handloader
- Nov 5, 2015
- 3,174
- 3,501
There can be a bad lot in any brass but most of the FC brand brass that I have used last couple of years had loose primer pockets show up after 3 maybe 4 loadings. No split necks. Might try a different brand and anneal. Hopefully you won't have any more problems.
TackDriver284
Handloader
- Feb 13, 2016
- 2,922
- 3,104
I once fired some Match factory Federal ammo, saved them for reloading for the first time and found that half of the batch had loose primer pockets after the 2nd firing. Never went back to Federal brass for this reason. Stuck with quality brass like Lapua, Norma and Nosler, its all I use. The quality brass I used have went through 15 firings easily for non magnum cartridges. The 7 and 300 Magnum cycle through about 5-6 firings before pockets gets a little loose, because I push them hard for hunting.
RememberBaker
Beginner
- Dec 2, 2012
- 133
- 61
I was at a local range one day and a fairly well known outdoor writer was there shooting a .458 Win Mag with Hornady factory ammo. I picked up some of the cases to look at and on probably half of them a considerable portion of the neck was gone. He didn’t seem concerned about it.
