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What headstamp?Yeah, thought possibly annealing. These were not, though it was only their 2nd firi
I have shot thousands of federal and have never seen a case split like in the picture.Federal
Have found many dozens of 223 at the range, brand new, with their necks split.I have shot thousands of federal and have never seen a case split like in the picture.
I'm not fond of federal brass. The necks start to split after 4 or 5 reloads. But Yikes! never seen it with new brass.My only other concern was that this being loaded nine grains below the Nosler site charge range, that I may have had a quasi-detonation. Recoil didn't indicate that. Nor any other case markings.
Have found many dozens of 223 at the range, brand new, with their necks split.
Also, pull, anneal, reload and fire -- easy way to test the annealing theory. Had 100% failure rate this evening....
With all the home built AR's, I think headspace could be a problem.Have found many dozens of 223 at the range, brand new, with their necks split.
That was my first thought.With all the home built AR's, I think headspace could be a problem.
The broken off neck is dirty. You polished the other pieces. That makes the detective work more difficult.338 Win Mag, Winchester M70
Nosler 250gr E-Tip bullets.
Vhitavhouri N165 Powder
Doing a load work-up from 62-75gr to find nodes.
Starting at 62gr
Cases were full length sized
Zero other pressure signs.
Q: What are potential causes?
View attachment 1088304
Fired by me or the prior owner. Bought rifle with 3 full new boxes and ~100pcs of brass ages ago.So was this once fired by you or were they pickups or bought or factory?
Optical illusion. They are all the same length. These are 338 Win Mag. The Federal range brass with split necks that I was talking about was 223.What does the inside look like and I noticed that the neck and shoulders are not the same length, if they are all 223.
Good call. I stood them up and put a steel ruler across the top. All the same length - i.e. of the three, I did not see any light between the ruler and the case mouth.I hope the different lengths are because you laid them flat, not standing up, for the photo.
Would agree, but the split necks I was talking about were all longitudinal splits - which would be a throat diameter problem.With all the home built AR's, I think headspace could be a problem.
Haven't pulled out my headspace checker to verify the exact shoulder position, but standing the cases up, all are the same length, and all shoulders at neck and body align. That was a D'oh photograph, and as commented on by @Xmark1, screwed up the analysis by rubbing the cases with steel wool.As mentioned above, those shoulders don't match up… if they are aligned vertically, you are getting inconsistent full length resizing, and setting the shoulders too far down for your chamber. The shiny neck band on the right is evidence of excess brass stretch.