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Another cracked shoulder thread

Buy some new brass. I don’t think it’s your rifle. I have had the same thing happen with 223, 22-250, 300WM and even 30-30 brass. It was old and time to replace it. Get some new brass and I will bet your problem goes away.
 
I was getting cracked necks on my 6.5 CM brass. Not a bunch but maybe 1 out of 20 reloads.

I annealed the brass and it reduced the number of cracked necks by at least 50% using the same brass I have been reloading for 4 years now.
 
the brass is the problem. The last 100 rds of RP 7BR brass (new) about 7 years ago i got, out of the 100 cases, 2 had cracks in the shoulder and 1 had a hole in it with unfired brass. reason I use Lapua OR peterson for my 7br brass now.
 
So is ALL the brass from factory ammo?
What brand factory, and otherwise?


No. When I was consistently getting cracks with reloaded ammo I annealed the brass and consistently got more cracks than I purchased factory ammo and found it also is cracking

If I recall correctly all of the brass is Winchester brand
 
No. When I was consistently getting cracks with reloaded ammo I annealed the brass and consistently got more cracks than I purchased factory ammo and found it also is cracking

If I recall correctly all of the brass is Winchester brand

Change brand of brass and repeat what do You come up with ? . Lot's of fire flowing through a small opening acts like a Jet engine . Compressor blades disintegrate . Use another brand of brass and see where it puts you .
 
I have a 6.5 WSSM. As stated above......necks are THICK. I have 13ish firings on mine...fairly stiff load. Never had a problem, but I anneal often. This is some TOUGH STUFF!!!!

Tod
 
Change brand of brass and repeat what do You come up with ? . Lot's of fire flowing through a small opening acts like a Jet engine . Compressor blades disintegrate . Use another brand of brass and see where it puts you .
There is no other brand of brass. Winchester is all there is..
 
I am using Win brass 223 wssm. Not sized from another diameter
Factory ammo is cracking as much as reloads. I am doing minimal neck sizing when reloading. I have only one rifle in this caliber
Not sure why I never thought of it before but I have a friend with an identical rifle, I need to borrow his rifle and put some shots through it just to see if it cracks
 
Not sure why I never thought of it before but I have a friend with an identical rifle, I need to borrow his rifle and put some shots through it just to see if it cracks
Good Idea. There is a chance that your chamber is bigger than normal.
I'm a fan of the WSSM case and Win reloading brass for it, so this is interesting to me.

On the 223, I feel like they never should have made it. That they should have left the 243 & 223 to wildcatters, and began at 25wssm upward.
The brass is interesting in that they obviously made it from cut down WSM brass. This putting WSM body thickness in WSSM necks. Your 223wssm has the thickest necks of any cartridge ever put out, at around ~25thou. I guess it was cheaper to do that, and if they're running in a cheap mode then it makes sense that quality control would be lower. Perhaps the cartridge would be accepted as disposable.

I think it was their intent to run very high pressures, to win some perceived velocity battle in 22/24cal, while trashing super thick brass (sourced from WSM brass, possibly the worst of).
They might think that anyone drawn to super velocity cares about little else.

If I just took WSM cases, cut em down to WSSM length and formed 223WSSM cases, I would need to anneal the crap out of it for every single step in the forming.
I learned from forming and neck turning 26WSSM Imp. that there is nothing easy in working with brass so thick & hard.

There is always a price for everything, so it's advantage holds disadvantage.
There is also a balance for everything, and I think 223WSSM is a bad balance.
It's too much
 
I get the part about the next being sick and possibly the brass being hard. But the fact is when I first purchased this rifle it was not cracking brass. I am thinking a shot the rifle for a few years and then started to notice a few cracks so I put the rifle in the back of the safe and started playing with other new toys. Once I rediscovered the Rifle and dug it out I am now aware of the cracks.
I really do like the model 70 rifle, this one has a heavy barrel and I purchased the outback stock with the funky holes in it
 
Way back in 1997 I bought 500 Win 220 swift cases for a prarie dog hunt. About 75% split from the neck shoulder to the end of the case mouth. cracked clean through. Win gave me 500 new cases and had ZERO issues after that. That was WAY before I started to anneal. As far as the WSSM brass .... I started with 25 WSSM brass (this also before I got my Benchsource) and yes, they are thick!! I think the reamer had a .301 neck. I can't remember If I had to neck turn those or not to get them to fit.. The dog ate my notes.;)
 

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