30/30 Split Necks

[triangleman]

Been loading some 30/30 recently. Had some Hornady brass, 18 of 20 had split necks after only one reload. Anyone else have similar experience? I’m getting around 4 loads with R-P and win brass.

I’m loading 130 gr Speer, 31.0 gr RL-7.

 

[PJGunner]

Looks to me like that brass was not properly annealed. If this was brass purchased bulk to load, you might contact Hornady and complain. Could be they'll send you some free brass. About 15 years ago I bought 100 rounds of new Remington .308 Win. brass and loaded them with my pt load at the time. A while later I took 40 rounds to the range and what was usually an accurate load was throwing strange flyers in no particular direction. Some of the cases had cracked necks. I looked at the rest of the ammo I took and there were more cracked necks. When I got home I checked the rest of that ammo and sure enough, more cracked necks. I pulled the bullets on the brass that was still good, saved the powder and pushed out the primers. I then annealed the necks with a propane torch, reloaded the brass and it worked just fine until I wore it out.
Paul B.

 

[1Shot]

Probably not annealed properly is my thoughts also. Also just a thought. What dies are you using? Some dies do too much sizing down and expand back up of cases and can attribute to your problem. I know that some people have had this problem with Lee dies in 6.5 Grendel. I have an old set of Lee 30-30 Win dies and a newer set of 30-30AI and have no problems with them. Most likely the mentioned brass annealing.

 

[PJGunner]

There is also a condition called, "season cracking" where neck crack from age, again probably due to improper annealing when you get right down to it. One thing I've found out is bulk brass does not get the same final inspection as brass the factories use to load their ammo. Probably one of the reasons Winchester brass is getting such a bad reputation these days. Bulk brass is packaged by weight. They know just how much 100 rounds of a particular cartridge weigh and go by that. I've bought bullets in bulk that way from a fellow at a gun show that I've dealt with off and on for years. He just weighs the bullets, then throws in a couple more to be sure. I've never been short bulleted by him yet.
Paul B.

 

[triangleman]

Probably not annealed properly is my thoughts also. Also just a thought. What dies are you using? Some dies do too much sizing down and expand back up of cases and can attribute to your problem. I know that some people have had this problem with Lee dies in 6.5 Grendel. I have an old set of Lee 30-30 Win dies and a newer set of 30-30AI and have no problems with them. Most likely the mentioned brass annealing.

I thought about possibly an oversized expander. But then the Win brass did not have an issue. Thinking maybe the neck may be thicker on the Hornady brass, thereby being a tighter fit for the expander. Ironically, I’m using Hornady dies on a Dillon 650.

Also I guess I should have specified, the brass was once fired factory ammo, fired by me. This was the first reload and they almost all split. Rem and Win, a few splits, but not a bunch.

I did figure annealing would solve the issue, I was just curious if anybody has had such an issue with this brand before.

 

[mjcmichigan]

I had a set of Hornady dies that often cracked 300WSM brass, various head stamps. Switched dies, no more trouble... I did get the dies with a model 70 from a reloader, he had no complaints. He loved the Hornady dies... I should probably send them to Hornady to see if they can see a problem. The loaded ammo he gave me did have some cracked necks..so.. not everyone looks at their work closely...


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[1Shot]

"Rem and Win, a few splits, but not a bunch."

If you are having split necks with different makes of cases then something is not right with the die.

The expander ball being over sized is not the problem. The problem I have seen, at least seen others have with the Lee dies, is that the neck is being sized down too much by the die and then when the expander is pulled back through the neck to bring it back out to proper size it works the brass too much and causes it to crack. If you are cracking different makes of cases then this could be your problem. You could remove the expander and then run a case through and measure how much it has been sized down. Then measure a case that has been sized with the expander installed and see how much difference is between them. If you have someone that you could borrow a set of dies from to compare measurements would be very helpful.

 

[Joec7651]

"Rem and Win, a few splits, but not a bunch."

If you are having split necks with different makes of cases then something is not right with the die.

The expander ball being over sized is not the problem. The problem I have seen, at least seen others have with the Lee dies, is that the neck is being sized down too much by the die and then when the expander is pulled back through the neck to bring it back out to proper size it works the brass too much and causes it to crack. If you are cracking different makes of cases then this could be your problem. You could remove the expander and then run a case through and measure how much it has been sized down. Then measure a case that has been sized with the expander installed and see how much difference is between them. If you have someone that you could borrow a set of dies from to compare measurements would be very helpful.

+1 on this. Likely die related with it happening to different manufacturers brass. It’s not often this happens with a 30 WCF. After having different issues with various makers dies I have went to Redding for all my dies. I would however anneal the necks to give resilience. Also maybe go to a slower powder like CFE223, Varget, or W748. But an issue with the sizing die seems very possible.

 

[triangleman]

"Rem and Win, a few splits, but not a bunch."

If you are having split necks with different makes of cases then something is not right with the die.

The expander ball being over sized is not the problem. The problem I have seen, at least seen others have with the Lee dies, is that the neck is being sized down too much by the die and then when the expander is pulled back through the neck to bring it back out to proper size it works the brass too much and causes it to crack. If you are cracking different makes of cases then this could be your problem. You could remove the expander and then run a case through and measure how much it has been sized down. Then measure a case that has been sized with the expander installed and see how much difference is between them. If you have someone that you could borrow a set of dies from to compare measurements would be very helpful.

Thanks for the insight. I load on a Dillon 650, been thinking about getting the Dillon size/trim die anyway so I could eliminate the separate trimming step. I’ll pull the trigger on that and see if it makes a difference.