Case neck splitting

[coyotepittman]

Any of you folks have any ideas on the cause of a few of my cases suffering split necks? I am shooting 26gr of Benchmark which is a relatively light load with a 32gr Hornady V-Max with new Winchester brass. I have noticed a few case mouths splitting after firing or they split while resizing with a fl sizing die. There appears to be no other case damage on the body or head separation etc. I am not turning the necks nor do the cases appear to have unreasonable stretching. I have not resized any yet with my bushing type neck sizer because I noticed a few splits on the range and wanted to correct this issue before I re-loaded any additional rounds. Appreciate any ideas.


Thanks,

CP

[WrzWaldo]

It may be due to overworking the brass in previous reloads. How many loads do you have on the problem brass? Annealing will almost certainly correct the problem if your beyond a few reloads.

[coyotepittman]

These loads are once fired. I just fl sized the new Win brass, loaded and went to the range. I was inspecting the cases after I fired looking for headspace issues and noticed the split mouths. I threw away about 5 rounds out of 50. I did not trim the new brass as it was around .004 past the trim to length. Do you think a few were just too long???

[WrzWaldo]

What dies are you using? What is the OD of the necks on the fire brass? I sounds like the die is overworking the brass and/or you have a loose chamber.

Edit: A couple more questions.

What lube are you using on the necks (if your dies require it)?

What is the OD of the expander ball?

[acloco]

Hmmm....sounds like MY Winchester brass.

[skipper]

When I prep new brass I go the whole nine yards. After putting that much time into my brass I was upset to lose some of my new Winchester cases to neck splitting. I started annealing my new Winchester cases right out of the bag. I haven't had a problem with split necks since.

About the time I need to bump the shoulders back a little I anneal again. I recently annealed my Norma brass because it was needing a little bumping back. I have lost count of how many times I have reloaded some of my Winchester brass. It got mixed in with some other Winchester brass that was a lot newer. Just keep a close watch for signs of head separation.

[coyotepittman]

I don't currently have any annealing equip. I shoot win brass in my 223 AI and also use a RCBS fl sizer with it with no problems. The only thing I did any differently this time was not trimming the factory new brass after fl sizing. Mayber I had a few too long

This brass was new out of the bag..I fl sized and loaded. ..noticed a few splits as soon as I extracted the emty. I siaze with Imperial

[jo191145]

Thats the gamble we take buying the cheaper brass. Sometimes you luck out sometimes you don't.
If they're splitting while FL sizing then most likely its just some bad brass. Hopefully your lubing the inside of the necks. If your not then start. Some dies/brass combos really feel as if they do not need lube they're sizing so close to the expander ball size anyway. Only you can tell that. I lube no matter what.
Switching to your bushing neck sizer should help if your bushing is larger than what the FL die is (should be).
You could try annealing them but if its just bad brass and not a sizing method error it probably will not help much. Annealing will not correct flaws in the neck. Doesn't hurt to try though.

We've all seen split necks. Early Hornady factory brass was notorious for it. Some folks dumped lots of brass because of a few split necks. I just chucked the splits and kept the rest. Some of that stuff has seen 20 reloads and I still have it. Most likely never use it again but its all bagged up.
Some Win brass comes split right in the bag.

The question is how many? More than 10% and I'd say buy some new stuff. Try the necksizer and see if it stops.

[scootertrash]

My experience with the WW .204 brass mirrors Skipper's, and I too anneal it right out of the bag. I've been switching over to Hornady brass for the .204, and don't see the splitting as prevelant with them.

The switch wasn't entirely made because of the splitting, I just get very low ES with the Hornady for some reason. So for me, low ES and less splitting made it a no-brainer for me.

Mike

[woodchuck]

I had 5 Win cases split last wekend when I was neck sizing. It was the third time sizing. I use Hornady dies and I had 2 split with no lube then I lubed the outsides and had 3 more. I used to lube the insides but it had been awhile and I forgot some of my procedures. I took a year to build us a new house. If you do lube the inside do you clean it before you load it?

[TD-Max]

My experience with the WW .204 brass mirrors Skipper's, and I too anneal it right out of the bag. I've been switching over to Hornady brass for the .204, and don't see the splitting as prevelant with them.

The switch wasn't entirely made because of the splitting, I just get very low ES with the Hornady for some reason. So for me, low ES and less splitting made it a no-brainer for me.

Mike

Have you tried Hornady once fired from factory ammo? I tried to cut the primer pockets and it alway binds severely on the reamer so I gave up on it.

I have about 1100 Winchester brass many once fired. So far no splits.

[skipper]

TD-Max

Put a little lube on your primer pocket reamer and it will quit binding. I use a Q-Tip and 3 in 1 oil to lube mine. Works great. You definately want all your primer pockets identical for consistent ignition. I always run the primer pocket reamer through my brass after decapping to clean the pockets. That works great also. I haven't found a better way to clean primer pockets between loadings.

[TD-Max]

I'll try that. I've used the Rem Dry lube with decent success on normal pockets. It just seems that the Hornady brass is so far undersize that it takes too much bite and binds. Like a drill bit breaking through. The only way to proceed is to back it off, but it wedges in so tight that I wreck the brass with pliers most of the time...