223 case Split Necks after 3rd reload.

[TheSnake]

A friend of mine is having trouble with some of his reloads for his R700 VS SF in 223 Remington with less than 100 rounds through it. The brass is Remington factory rounds shot, then reloaded 2 times for the 3rd shooting. Brass was FL resized both times reloaded. Bullets are AMAX 50gr Loaded with 25.0gr of H4895. Hodgden shows 25gr as starting load. CCI 400 primers, RCBS dies. Powder is a few years old and kept in his climate controlled shop office. The bullets themselves were loaded 2 months earlier and placed in an ammo box and did spend a little time in the workshop in the heat. I can say that he probably does not clean the barrel between shootings as often as he should and keeps the rifle in his covered Gator in the shop. I measured the shot brass and a round he FL sized and nothing seemed out of line. Using fired brass compared to FL sized, shoulders are bumped back .005 and the necks reduced .0115 to .2440 OD. About 25% of these rounds split the necks after the 3rd firing.

Here is the clincher; he had about 10 rounds that were split just sitting in the ammo box unfired . He discarded them so I don’t have any pictures of them. Here are a few cases with one of them split after the 3rd firing. The split case is very dirty but he states it was not this way after firing (been sitting in the open air a few months). I don’t load for 223 so I don’t know if this is to be expected from Remington brass in 223. Have any ideas?

 

[SS427]

I had some new 22-250 Winchester brass do the same thing on the first firing. It was a starting load of IMR 3031 powder. I suspect it was some brass that was either brittle by nature, or not annealed properly at the factory. I suspect your friend ended up with some similar brass. He might want to have a gunsmith take a look at the rifle to make sure though.

I have Winchester and Lapua .223 brass that has been reloaded ten times or more time and have not lost a single case. .223s are generally pretty easy on brass unless you load them hot.

 

[Mikem]

It sounds like bad brass to me, especially if its necks are splitting before its shot the first time. I would contact Remington, and, or the place he got it and get them to get him some decent ammunition. I dont think there's anything wrong with his rifle.
Mike.

 

[Laurie]

It sounds like bad brass to me, especially if its necks are splitting before its shot the first time. I would contact Remington, and, or the place he got it and get them to get him some decent ammunition. I dont think there's anything wrong with his rifle.
Mike.

+ 1 on this opinion. It's almost certainly inadequately annealed brass that is too hard and brittle. If nothing else, the necks splitting on unfired rounds through neck-tension alone is a giveaway. The old arsenal 0.303" British ammunition loaded with case-length cordite sticks used to have this problem. With the propellant sticks going right up to the shoulder, they couldn't be inserted into a completed case, so charging was done during the case manufacturing process before the shoulder and neck were formed. Obviously no heat could then be applied so no annealing. It was very common to find old ammo where a third of the necks had split after some years in storage when they were unpacked, and the rest would split on firing.

It won't be helped if the dies your friend is using size the necks down a lot and leaves them such that there is overmuch neck tension. Running an expander mandrel such as a Lyman M die through the necks after sizing will cure this problem if it's a factor, as will moving onto something like the Redding 'S' die. I still think it's at least 90% a brass problem though. Simple test - buy 100 unprimed Winchester, better still Lapua cases and see how they get on.

Laurie,
York, England

 

[cmillard]

+1. i have never liked remington brass. for my .223s, its either winchester or Lake City. i can get many loadings out of that brass.

 

[fdshuster]

I'll get 14 to 16 loadings with LC in my AR's before the neck splits. Just a few less with Winchester. Don't use remington.

 

[wapiti25]

I have seen rem brass crack before, with no apparent reason. One case was factory ammo in the box, about 8years old.

 

[Johnboy]

hey I to agree with the brass being to brittle.but I do use rem brass alot and never had a split neck till it was loaded about 10 or more times.even have some that has more than 20 loadings on them that just need anealing to load again.but have to add that I neck size only till the case is a little hard to chamber.

but if your friend does not have a neck sizeing die I would recommend the he should get one.maybe the lee collet would be a great choice.thats what I use and get great results with it.

 

[jonbearman]

To say remington brass is a case of I've never liked it is ridiculous. I have used every kind of .223 brass on the planet , with out ever having any trouble. I have a little norinco .223 brass that i covet,why,because i have reloaded some of that lot close to 20x.If in doubt about brass,anneal it or send it out to have the whole lot done. Brass imbrittlement is usually caused by poor production quality control. Another possibility is chemical imbrittlement,such as ammonia,mild acids etc. Lots of guys will try anything to clean brass to shine it up with little effort.Just get some newer brass aand throw the others away. Since it is a factory chamber get some once fired if you cant afford new,clean and process it .This will be the control for this experiment.If the new brass does it,have a chamber cast made to make sure it meets saami specs. If it does'nt send the barreled action back to the factory for a barrel replacement. Idid it once and no more problems. Good luck

 

[TheSnake]

Thanks for the replies! I do have plenty of 223 brass (given to me) and will give him a batch to load up just as he did his last batch to see what happens. If the chamber was out of spec, I should have seen it with his fire formed cases. Everything I measured were within maximums. I did check his Dies and they are not S B Dies so that is also out of the picture. Again, thanks for the replies so far.

 

[jonbearman]

One more thing,use neck lube,light amount when reloading. the expander ball can work harden the neck quickly. Use imperial sizing wax,it works great.