Tell me if I’m on the right track here (split cases)

[Joec7651]

I managed to find a picture of new Win. brass I sent them because of their quality.

Not best picture but you look at the ones on the right you can see creases in the neck/shoulder. When fired these will crack through , found out the hard once. The quality of their brass fell off of cliff when they went to the black/red bags.

I had that happen with me with Remington brass in my 7STW.I annealed the brass and those issues went away.

That’s what I did, anneal the 3 bags from this lot. It’s not like you can get them to replace anything at this time. This is the first trouble I’ve had with Win brass, and these were bought 1 1/2-2 years ago so it isn’t related to the current shortages. Regardless it cost me 10 cases from 50 rounds fired. Not a hot load. 64gr of RL-23 with a 160gr Partition. I think the problem is that I was a dip**** and didn’t check a new rifle chamber with my OAL gauge. Which left me significantly jammed into the rifling, that in turn ramped up starting pressures. Primers weren’t pancaked or extruded but the brass was the week link in this case.

You know, believe it or not. I’ve gotten great service from Federal brass. I haven’t had case life trouble, as I neck size then FL size with a Redding die to bump the shoulder back when needed. No velocity difference because I load to the velocity my rifles prefer. I don’t get the bad wrap they get for being soft. Hornady has been great too. Some years ago I had some Remington brass that had all the heads separate after 2-3 firings even with neck sizing. I haven’t used Rem brass since then.

 

[lhsako]

Call winchester or who ever you bought them from have them send you a new batch !!! hold the responsible. I NEVER accept a faulty product from the seller/manufacturer!!!! We all work for our $$$$$ and must demand quality.

 

[Joec7651]

First comment, loaded long into a jam is likely the culprit.
When loading into the chamber, bullet hits the lands and jams down on the neck and shoulder. Stressing the case. Then, because there is no jump, the case takes a lot of pressure compared to a bullet with jump.

I think you did the right things.

I have a couple short throated guns and I don’t like seating so deep to allow a little jump.

Do you know a normally trimmed case won’t be pinched? That could cause trouble too. Does the empty sized case get pinched in the free bore.

You didn’t mention a heavy bolt close or open. I’m assuming you had both given what you described.

The charge you used doesn’t sound crazy to me.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Sorry MJ I didn’t respond completely before. No I didn’t have heavy bolt lift, but I do have a longer bolt handle installed. There is a small chance that there may have been resistance on bolt close and I didn’t notice because of the extra leverage the longer handle provides. I was paying pretty close attention to the feel of chambering and extraction especially after the first split, but I suppose it’s possible.

I haven’t been back to the range since annealing and setting seating depth to fit this chamber and throat. But no, I don’t recall any resistance upon close or open of the bolt. The primers weren’t flattened or extruded. Also after checking the chamber for any gas cutting with a bore scope, there isn’t a mark on the chamber, throat, or bolt face. Headspace is also correct as checked with Forster Go and No-Go gauges. The rifle is fine.