Bonehead move on my part. Your opinions please....

[fatelvis]

I bought a batch of new Starline 224 Valkyrie brass for F-class, (very good brass, by the way) and have been loading them up in 50 round batches. I usuallly run a .222" mandrel down the neck before loading, due to excessive bullet pull from the factory. INSTEAD, I ran a .242" mandrel down the necks of 50 of them. Catching the mistake when I went to seat the first bullet, I used a bushing and necked them all down to where they belong, and loaded as normal. My question to you is:
Should I keep them separated from the rest of the brass, after firing? Will the undue stretching of the necks leave the brass any different after firing? Would annealing all brass together, after firing,work towards equalizing any differences in future bullet pull induced by the undue stretching?
Thanks for any input guys!

 

[olddav]

Here is my uneducated opinion. If you have the tools I would check neck thickness and compare them to the other brass. If that checks out then I would mark them so I could find them later. I would then load and shoot them noting POI. Now you can process the brass and check your neck tension again. If your unhappy with them at this point then I would scrape all 50.

 

[JFrank]

I would put a sharpie color mark on those pieces and just keep track of them, give it some more thought

 

[garandman]

I would separate and monitor ANY difference in a handload.

Taking 0.020 out of a case neck would have me concerned about the case neck splitting.

 

[jrm850]

I would keep them separated for a cycle or two until I see what the target says. There shouldn't be any permanent changes to the brass in my humble opinion.

 

[47WillysGuy]

I bought a batch of new Starline 224 Valkyrie brass for F-class, (very good brass, by the way) and have been loading them up in 50 round batches. I usuallly run a .222" mandrel down the neck before loading, due to excessive bullet pull from the factory. INSTEAD, I ran a .242" mandrel down the necks of 50 of them. Catching the mistake when I went to seat the first bullet, I used a bushing and necked them all down to where they belong, and loaded as normal. My question to you is:
Should I keep them separated from the rest of the brass, after firing? Will the undue stretching of the necks leave the brass any different after firing? Would annealing all brass together, after firing,work towards equalizing any differences in future bullet pull induced by the undue stretching?
Thanks for any input guys!

To test, shoot two relays with your "unstretched" cases and then shoot the third relay with the "stretched" and see which load produces the best score.

I would keep them separated until fired. After firing and the annealing of all the cases, I don't think you will see a difference on the target.

 

[spclark]

I'm surprised you didn't take notice of the extra handle force necessary pushing that larger 6mm mandrel into those skinny necks, but... I doubt the stretching / reducing operation will affect that brass much after you've shot it a time or two with an annealing somewhere along the way.

I've been messing with a 7mm wildcat based on the venerable 308WIN case since 2016. Needs to have a false shoulder imparted before fire-forming. Best way I've found yet is to run a .350 mandrel into those .308 necks then size enough back so that the large diameter holds cases in place in the front while a 7mm bullet's firmly seated for the first firing.

As long as I'm careful to anneal those once-fired cases before sizing again they perform best of anything I've tried so far.

 

[Zero333]

What olddav said about measuring neck thickness is good.
Keep them separate and measure the neck thickness right after you size them the next time.
Measure the thickness at the bottom, middle and top of the neck to get the whole picture.

 

[carlsbad]

resize to 223 and then anneal. do not mix in with the others.

 

[mikecr]

I would guess that it took a few bushings to size back down.
Fire em, anneal, resize & you should be back in the pack(provided no splitting),

 

[Delfuego]

Run the .242 in all of them. Then at least they are all consistent! Happy Sunday

 

[DJSBRS]

What type sizing die do you have? Does the bushing die size the neck all the way down to the shoulder? If not, depending on your chamber clearance they may not chamber due to being larger at the front of the shoulder and before the bushing can come all the way down to size it.

I would not attempt to shoot them as is. They probably will not chamber correctly.

Pull bullets, pour powder and decap. Anneal then necks size or fl resize all the way down to shoulder. Make sure they chamber after that. If you want to run your .224 mandrel down to get back to to consistent neck tension. then you should do that after annealing.

After firing re-anneal and they will be happy then.

Just my .02¢ worth.

DJ

DJ's Brass Service
205-461-4680

 

[RegionRat]

Batch controls are always a good idea for high performance work. Only testing will show you the effects, but they sound like good candidates for an early annealing cycle, then carry on if they perform.

 

[fatelvis]

To resize the “overexpanded” necks back down, I used a Redding S-style neck sizer in 7BR, with appropriate sized bushing. I se this die as a sort of “bushing holder die” for many cartridges. It works well because it’s made for the short,squatty 7BR and allows me to neck size almost any of my other cartridges without buying a caliber specific die. And yes, I sized the necks all the way down to the shoulder.

 

[DJSBRS]

Will they chamber nicely as is now?

DJ

 

[dcali]

Do the same thing to the rest of them. Problem solved.

I doubt it really matters. Track them and see what happens. If you anneal, it won't matter at all - that will "reset" the necks.