Brass quality?

[Kodiak]

Recently, I started reloading the .300 RUM, using Nosler bullets and new,bulk, Remington brass from Midway. Upon the first firing, I had 2 split necks out of 20 rounds. Forester BR dies were used. The brass was very close on wt. and length before loading. Is this to be expected with this round, or not? Maybe Nosler Brass would do better?

Jim

 

[Ol` Joe]

Brass should not split on the 1st fireing. I`d suspect the cases wee not properly annealed or the chamber neck area of the rifle is a touch large. Improper annealing is my bet though....

 

[R Flowers]

I have to agree with Ol Joe on this one, you just got a bad batch of brass, I suspect.

I have been loading for a 300 RUM for a friend and we have shot Remington brass for several firings and had no such problems.

I once split a batch of 500 new Remington brand 338 Win Mag cases with a friend. We also bought them from Midway. Not only did I get case neck splits on the first firing, I had some split sitting on the shelf never having been fired. (They were loaded and placed on the shelf, when I took them out to shoot them, some of them had splits in the necks.)

If you know someone with a case annealer you could salvage that batch of brass, I imagine.

 

[Charlie-NY]

I guess there is a reason why Remington brass has such a bad reputation. :?

I was lucky enough to get a batch of Federal Premium brass for my 300 RUM when it was available. This brass is very consistent and I have loaded the same 25 pieces many times. I have more of the Federal brass but its waiting for the new 300 RUM rifle to arrive. :grin:

Now that Nosler is making 300 RUM brass you may want to give it a try.

 

[lmerickson]

I asked Nosler about the 7mm RUM ammo they produce and I was told that they are using Remington Brass. After hearing bad stuff about it makes me wonder. Worst part about it is that Remington brass is the only choice. Grin and bear it I guess.

 

[280SOLIDBASE]

I was just going through some ammo I had loaded a good while ago and I examined a box of my 7mm BR and noticed out of a box of 20 that I had about 3-4 rds. that the necks had split after loading and just sitting on the shelf. It is Remington brass as well. This is the only time I've ever had brass do this, and I have alot of Remington brass.

 

[Charlie-NY]

I used Remington brass for many years in my custom 7STW. At the time, Rem brass was the only act in town. I run all the brass through my usual match prep operations, weed out the obvious inconsistent cases and just starting loading. Even if you waste 25% of the brass, the Rem stuff is so inexpensive that it isn't that big of a deal.

Despite Remington's bad reputation for brass quality, I have taken fully preped Rem brass and used them to shoot .25moa groups in the 7 STW. So it is still a viable option if you're willing to do the case work.

Now that I've learned how important good brass is to achieving tight groups over longrange, I would not build a gun for any cartridge where obtaining high quality brass would be an issue.

As to the 7mm RUM - Is there a reason why 300 RUM brass couldn't be necked down to 7mm? It may require a little neck turning (maybe not), but if it did that would only improve case consistency anyway.

 

[JungleJim]

Sounds like the cases necks are to hard and need to be annealed. Not a real big deal. Most high powered rifle rounds will benefit accuracy wise if you do this every 2 or 3 firings anyway. Since the Remington cases are the only game in town for the 300 RUM and they are not to cheap it would be beneficial to learn how. Just work in small lots till you get it down.

You don't have to spend a fortune to do this. Unlike what you read in some of the gun rags. I just use an old plastic lazy Susan to turn cases when heating, a sallow cake pan filled with water 1/4 - 1/3 of the length of the cartridge case , a propane torch, and low lighting.

Once you get the hang of it and your count down to where the case necks just starts to turn a sort of a maroon color .....(not glowing red) dump them over in the water filled pie pan than let them air dry out for a few days.

 

[Kodiak]

Thanks to all for the replys.

I have a case annealer that I use on other brands of brass-cases, so I will use the split-neck cases to get a test first, then anneal all the rest of the Remingtons.


Jim