We need more loading blocks for the 223, 308 and 338 Lapua size cases.

Found kitchen cutting boards, plastic, which were 0.8 inch thick so perfect for our purpose.

Went and bought different colors.

Cut the hole is them to fit each case size.

Strange discovery.

The brown colored ones were fine.

Red, blue, green and yellow, all seem to spring back.

Making the holes very tight!!

Who would have imagined??

We use the larger trays to sort out reloads for our experiments.

Here you see 10 rounds each load, 5 with a silencer, and 5 without.

Also found these old Lapua factory ammo brass developed these cracks after first reload.

Fired from the factory loading with no problems.

Way back in 1975.

I was given bunch of Remington once fired 357mag. brass.

They all split on the first resizing.

These brass cases were from old Lapua factory ammo.

In the old white and red box.

Fired normally first, but developed these cracks after first reload.

Might even be from the same box.

The case world is going to hell, Saeed: Remington's cracking, oversized Winchester primer pockets, Norma's not fitting shell-holders . . .
Now you tell us that even old Lapuas were dodgy!

quote:

Originally posted by sambarman338:
The case world is going to hell, Saeed: Remington's cracking, oversized Winchester primer pockets, Norma's not fitting shell-holders . . .
Now you tell us that even old Lapuas were dodgy!

These were very old cases from very old ammo.

In 1969, I bought a 270 and 60 pieces of DWM brass.

Today, I still have about 22-23 pieces, and they are going strong.

The pieces I am missing were lost while hunting, losing them in the grass after a shot.

I use Norma 404 brass for my 375/404 hunting rifle.

My chamber and my reloading dies are both cut to the same size.

I get about 15 reloads out of these cases.

After that they start splitting at the neck or shoulder.

I don't keep track of how many times they are loaded.

I just notice the cracks while trying to resize them, and then I replace them with a new ones.

I have a 6PPC bench rifle.

Came with a bunch of 220 Russian brass years ago.

I still use them, and never lost a single one!

Do you anneal cases? Ive reloaded for 48 years and never have. I should make a week of it some year soon…

quote:

Originally posted by GoWyo:
Do you anneal cases? Ive reloaded for 48 years and never have. I should make a week of it some year soon…

I anneal the Lapua cases for my 6.5x284 when I found that I was culling cases for neck cracks after a dozen or so reloads.

Since I started annealing every other reload, I haven't culled a single case for neck cracks and I get over 20 reloads before I feel the primer pockets starting to get loose.

quote:

Originally posted by GoWyo:
Do you anneal cases? Ive reloaded for 48 years and never have. I should make a week of it some year soon…

I did a test on annealed v not.

Did not find any difference in how many times a case could be reloaded before it cracks.

Saeed, several years ago I had some handloads in Bell .458 Lott brass that split radially in several places around the case just like your Lapua brass did.

The brass was new when I made up the loads but the ammo was probably 5-10 years old when I fired some of it and got the splits. Not every case would do it.

I posted questions about it here on AR and everyone surmised it was the metallurgy of the brass that was causing the failures.

I pulled the bullets from those handloads and junked all of the brass. I burned the powder, too, because I didn’t trust it. The powder was Vihtavuori.

I sectioned a couple of the cases and took photos of the splits. I’ll try to find and post them.

Truly a strange phenomenon.

I had some old ammo that when fired was splitting cases much like your pictures. I pulled the bullets and I found the powder was breaking down. The powder was full of a red rusty like powder and had a strong odour . I suspected the gas produced from the breakdown of the powder was making the brass very brittle. It all went in the garbage

What powder was used?

The powder I used was VV N550, a double based powder that includes both nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin.

I did wonder if the nitroglycerin may have somehow broken down and affected the integrity of the brass. When I pulled the bullets, I didn’t notice anything abnormal about the powder.

It’s an intriguing question as to whether powder decomposition can weaken brass, but I had no practical way of testing the theory.

It is also very interesting to me that Saeed’s split cases are from Lapua factory ammo.

Lapua is a sister company to VV. Lapua factory loads must use VV powder.

Coincidence?

This will get your attention!





Since this happened, it has perplexed me what caused it.

I had fired dozens if not hundreds of these before then with no problems.

Here is another.

Powder deterioration.

Normally very easy to tell.

But, sometimes not.

VVN powder - can’t remember the number.

Looked ok and I loaded some ammo to try.

First bullet out was at low velocity??

I did not have the Chronograph set.

Looked at the target, no bullet hole??

Fired another one, again very low velocity.

Probably in the lower hundreds of feet per second.

I fired all five shots, same results.

Went to examine the powder.

There was no way to tell by looks.

There was a slight change in the smell.

Took the powder can outside and spread it on the grass.

The grass in my house is African elephant grass.

I brought it years ago.

And probably used in dozens of other house, as friends borrow some and plant it.

I've always meant to research this subject but have never done so.

Just from anecdotal evidence, I think the double based powder may be the culprit.

I have fired ammo that is over 100 years old with no problems.

One story.

I bought seven fully loaded World War I Model 1911 magazines at an estate sale.

The US arsenal made ball cartridge headstamps revealed 1917 dates of manufacture.

Two things.

I'm not sure how long the magazine springs had been compressed, but I would bet, given their vintage, it was more than 100 years.

The ammo was clearly over 100 years old.

Every magazine fed rounds into the chamber of my Colt Gold Cup and every round fired and functioned the action perfectly.

It was even accurate!

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
I use Norma 404 brass for my 375/404 hunting rifle.

My chamber and my reloading dies are both cut to the same size.

I get about 15 reloads out of these cases.

After that they start splitting at the neck or shoulder.

I don't keep track of how many times they are loaded.

I just notice the cracks while trying to resize them, and then I replace them with a new ones.

I have a 6PPC bench rifle.

Came with a bunch of 220 Russian brass years ago.

I still use them, and never lost a single one!

A friend from Germany gave me two packets of new RWS cases back in 1977 when I purchased my 404 Jeffery. Using one packet (20 cases) I worked up a suitable reload with RWS 400gr FMJ bullets imported from Aussie, loaded up the packet and with some other Parker Hale (Norma) factory rounds headed over to Aussie to shoot buffalo. Since then I don't know how many times I have used these original 20 cases for jacketed and cast bullet loads but still have 15 in use. In recent times I have purchased another 13 loose new RWS cases and 15 Hornady cases so have almost 50 new cases to hand.
I anneal the original RWS cases every second firing as well as the few ex factory load Parker Hale and Kynoch cases. The 5 cases I have lost were prior to me getting on to annealing and repairing cases. Yes I do have some Scottish blood in my ancestry so devised a method to repair cases with neck cracks using low temperature silver solder while holding the case necks over a 'dirty' (non-stick) steel rod. Once repaired and annealed they resize and work perfectly fine for cast bullet reloading.