I bought a couple boxes of virgin hornady brass for the 300 wby. They sell these in red and white boxes of 50 along with other calibers. (I'm not talking about frontier headstamp just "HORNADY") Any how I did some case prep and was amazed at how smooth this stuff trimmed and chamfered and runnout on loaded rounds was mostly under .002". I thought I hit the jackpot but............I fired some test rounds with 165 interbonds + 85.0 7828 which is my normal 180 grain load. No signs of pressure..no hard bolt lift, no extractor marks ...nothing. Now I go to reload them and boy are the primer pockets ever loose. Maybe I got a bad batch or something. Darn....I am so impressed by the loadability of this stuff but can't believe the pockets could go bad on one load. Even quickload which is terribly conservative on weatherbies with freebore says this load shouldn't be doing more than 57,000psi. Guess I should have chrono'd them but this SHOULD HAVE BEEN A VERY AVERAGE TO MILD LOAD.

kraky, what kind of primers are you using? I find RP a tiny bit on the small side & Fed. a bit larger. I don
t know who makes Hornady brass but I have found the Fed.GMM a bit softer than Norma or Lapua or even WW.

Was using 215 match grade. I've got a rcbs hand seater and have a good feel for loose pockets and these will almost certainly have to be tossed after the 2nd firing.

I think it's gotta be the brass--I may email hornady with the lot number and see what they say. I just checked 2 other test loads that were loaded into weatherby cases and they are tight as can be. These were 168tsx and 165 northforks also with 85.0 I 7828. By the way these last two shot great.
I still don't want to condemn the hornady brass unless others chime in with a similar situation.

quote:

unless others chime in with a similar situation

I get 3-4 hot loads with them and remington brass and the primer pockets are loose enough
the primer can can be seated by setting it on the table and pushing the brass onto it and the primer is seated!
All I can say is I use winchester or pmc brass
any more.


It does sound like soft brass though.

quote:

Originally posted by kraky:
I think it's gotta be the brass--I may email hornady with the lot number and see what they say. I just checked 2 other test loads that were loaded into weatherby cases and they are tight as can be. These were 168tsx and 165 northforks also with 85.0 I 7828. By the way these last two shot great.
I still don't want to condemn the hornady brass unless others chime in with a similar situation.

More support for the old adage "re-work up your loads every time you change a component....."

Did you check the velocity of this combo with your chrono to see if it is producing higher velocities than before you changed brass?

It is just possible that the Hornady cases have less capacity, and the problem is being caused by higher pressures rather than soft brass. In either case, of course, you'd be correct to assert "it is the cases causing this problem"!!

quote:

Originally posted by cal30 1906:

quote:

unless others chime in with a similar situation

I get 3-4 hot loads with them and remington brass and the primer pockets are loose enough
the primer can can be seated by setting it on the table and pushing the brass onto it and the primer is seated!

This sounds to me like your loads are not just hot, they are TOO HOT. I have a 175-grain load for my 7X57mm that has an IV of 2720 FPS @ 10' from the muzzle using Remington brass. I have been told this load is "HOT"!! But the primer pockets are not stretching!!

Don, Call Bob or Doug @Hornady @1-800-338-3220 and ask them what they think, they'll be happy to help you out. Jay

Thanks Jay--will get the lot number and give a call!

quote:

This sounds to me like your loads are not just hot, they are TOO HOT. I have a 175-grain load for my 7X57mm that has an IV of 2720 FPS @ 10' from the muzzle using Remington brass. I have been told this load is "HOT"!! But the primer pockets are not stretching!!

I dont have any preassure signs in the head area of primer pockets with the Win or the Pmc
brass,(I get 10-15 loads with them)
I dont condemn the others just prefer the others as mentioned.And they are Hot but not bad.No leakage or anything.


And I will say that your load for the 7x57 is
impressive
But will all brands of brass handle it?