Thread: Attention All Newby Reloaders (and you old buggers)

Been burning a lot of powder lately out on the hill. Theres just to many animals to walk past and as a result the old reloading press has been busy.
One aspect of reloading often overlooked is to thoroughly inspect your brass before loading. If there are any major dents, discrepancies, or blemishes and you're in doubt, give it a rub with some steel wool. Any problems will be more visible with shiny brass. Then you can ignore if its a "non-problem", or simply discard.

These case have been loaded twice with pretty mild loads and they're top quality brass so youd expect them all to be fine.
Not so - On closer inspection from 100 cases one is pretty sick and one more is starting to show signs.

I had that with brand new 22-250 brass,only fired once,factory round and three out of twenty were toast. Thanks for the reminder to be vigilant.

Originally Posted by Bos

Been burning a lot of powder lately out on the hill. Theres just to many animals to walk past and as a result the old reloading press has been busy.
One aspect of reloading often overlooked is to thoroughly inspect your brass before loading. If there are any major dents, discrepancies, or blemishes and you're in doubt, give it a rub with some steel wool. Any problems will be more visible with shiny brass. Then you can ignore if its a "non-problem", or simply discard.

These case have been loaded twice with pretty mild loads and they're top quality brass so youd expect them all to be fine.
Not so - On closer inspection from 100 cases one is pretty sick and one more is starting to show signs.

Attachment 287330

Greetings @Bos,
The case on the left is a classic failure from being fired with excess head space either from the rifle or oversizing of the case. What is the calibre?
GPM.

Calibre is my trusty 6.5 06. The brass is 25.06 necked out to 6.5.
I hear what you're saying re the head space / oversizing, however the die in question has remained "set' in the same position in the press for a very long time. Strange how one (or 2) pieces of brass are failing whereas the other 98 are all good.
Maybe the reloading gods were unhappy with me that day

Originally Posted by Bos

Calibre is my trusty 6.5 06. The brass is 25.06 necked out to 6.5.
I hear what you're saying re the head space / oversizing, however the die in question has remained "set' in the same position in the press for a very long time. Strange how one (or 2) pieces of brass are failing whereas the other 98 are all good.
Maybe the reloading gods were unhappy with me that day

Greetings @Bos,
The head separation crack starts as a groove on the inside of the case well before it shows up as a crack on the outside. You can check for this with a piece of light wire (often a paper clip) with the end bent and sharpened. As the 6.5-06 is again a wildcat it is important to have the full length sizing die set carefully. Hornady offers a Headspace Comparator that clamps onto the jaws of your calliper which is a great help in setting your die correctly and well worth it's modest cost. Trying to set the die by trial and error will drive you nuts. I have been helping a friend handload for his 6.5-06 for close to 20 years. I was only able to check the loads headspace recently which turned out to be a little over the ideal 0.05 mm (.002") but fine for a hunting rifle.
Load data, unfortunately is all over the place, but you have likely found that already.
Regards Grandpamac.

I totally get it Bos. The 2 cases that failed might just have had thinner or thicker walls and showed the underlying issue first.

Did the shell holder ever change or did it too stay in position. This is normally where I find the reason for sudden over sizing issued. Dies are "set" and left, while the reloader will have several shell holders that gets swapped out.

Without measuring its almost impossible to determine if one is over sizing or not. It only becomes apparent when these cracks start showing.

The same ring normally shows after several reloads, 15 to 19 in my case - I keep record of the number of times reloaded, so if I start seeing this after 10+ reloads I know, its time to start prepping another box or two.

Thanks for the suggestions
Yip, Same shell holder. Like you I keep pretty detailed records and am an overly fussy bugger with my reloading. I always like to know that when I miss, its me, and not the ammo or rifle.

Yup, Grandpamack's right. Classic sign of overly big headspace.(shoulders pushed back to far during resizing)

Good on you Bos, for reminding everyone.

How did you clean them? For two firings and cleanings they appear very dull.

Wind your fls die out a touch.


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Looks like a significant difference in the length at the neck and shoulder of the fired cases. Last time I saw that it was a mix-up with custom shell holders.

Let me guess, are those cases S&B?

Originally Posted by Old_School

Let me guess, are those cases S&B?

Norma

Yep definitely good to keep an eye on....especially if using second hand brass or running the same brass threw multiple rifles.