This is the first time this brass was loaded and fired. This load was fine in the rifle before. I had the barrel off to put on a new recoil lug, reassembled, then went to the range. I had 2 out of 10 come out like this and I quit shooting. Did I screw up the headspace somehow or is there some other problem? It's a Savage 300 WSM BTW.

I don't think it was a headspacing problem. Usually that shows at the rear of the cartridge case with a shiney ring and you can feel it inside the case using a bent paper clip.
I can't really tell from the picture if those are wrinkles or did the charge burn through the case at the shoulder. The only time I saw marks like that is when I tried to convert some 8x57 brass to 7x57. It happened during the resizing operation when the shoulder was pushed back. I don't know if that was any help or not, but that's the only time I'm had something like that happen to me in 52 years of reloading.
Paul B.

It burned through. There are actually 5 of them on that piece.

Well, that takes care of my idea. Sorry.
Paul B.

Check the rest of the unfired cases with a magnifing glass. I had the same problem with some new 416 rigby brass, except they had single cracks. Found a few unfired cases with barely visible hairline cracks in the same place.

I had some 257 Weatherby brass do the same thing after the 3rd or 4th loading of it.

Hmm
I wonder if the factory failed to anneal the necks properly.
Jim

NOT "burn through", but longitudinal cracks when the case expanded....

Brittle necks.

The "burning" happend AFTER the case cracked.

AllanD

I've had this happen using once fired nickel plated Winchester brass. People I've talked to think the brass wasn't annealed properly before it was plated.

Check to see if your chamber is clean. I've had this happen when trying to extract a cartridge that had a long seated bullet and pulling it out of the chamber the bullet was left in the barrel and powder everywhere. When I thought I had the chamber cleaned out and fired another round the extracted case looked like this. Upon further inspection the chamber still had a few kurnels of powder in it.

Did you mic. the two recoil lugs to make sure that they are the same thickness? If they are not the headspace will be off.

Looks to me like the cases were cracked when formed. It has a radical shoulder and case size in relation to the neck. Poor annealing at the factory cracked them when formed.
I formed some cases from new 30-06 brass once. I annealed first, formed them and annealed again. I then fire formed them and put them in the box. A year later I looked at them and many necks were cracked.

b beyer; Would you please explain what you are talking about.
thanks!

quote:

Did you mic. the two recoil lugs to make sure that they are the same thickness? If they are not the headspace will be off

Having trouble with that one. If the rifle was headspaced it would not matter if it was only contacting one lug. It might allow things to flex a little.

I have never seen a headspace issue cause that problem. I've seen it twice and it was a case issue both times. Once factory cases that had little lines in them the second was some of my fireformed brass. Mine was an annealing issue. Probably the factory as well

B beyer,
It's a Savage rifke, the headspace was reset when I reassembled it. That's the nice thing about the fugly barrel nut.

I am looking at a long necked 6.5 wildcat that I necked down from a FC .308 caes. It has these grooves , not burned through, and in the same positioning on the shoulder. It appears that the brass has started to fold in on itself close to the neck shoulder junction.

We may not be looking at the same type problem but I am sure that once fired at reasonably high pressure these grooves would become thin spots along the shoulder susceptable to the type burn through that you are witnessing. roger

When the recoil lug was replaced, if the new lug was thicker that the replaced one the headspace would be excessive,would it not, by the same distance that the new lug was thicker than the old one. I did not realize it was a barrel nut gun.
Ramrod, We are talking recoil lug not bolt lugs.

Excess headspace would NOT cause that problem.

quote:

Ramrod, We are talking recoil lug not bolt lugs

Helps if I read it correctly. Still have never seen a headspace issue give that result. Not saying it can't just never have seen it.

Another vote for annealing problems.

I'm voteing brittle brass. I get this sometimes when using new brass for my .338-06. Try some older cases & see what happens there.

I have about 40 rounds of these loaded up. Is it safe for me to shoot the rest of these or should I pull them all and wait for my Remington brass to arrive?

It usually won't hurt anything if it only happens once in a while. I would clean and inspect the chamber to make sure it is not being burnt and gouged from the gas.

Here's a picture of some cracks in some 416 Rigby formed from some new 460 Weatherby. There's 3 cracks visible on the left case

quote:

Originally posted by Gdragon:
B beyer,
It's a Savage rifke, the headspace was reset when I reassembled it. That's the nice thing about the fugly barrel nut.

Love them Savage rifles, they sure make the Rem 700 an obsolete pile of junk!

Love them Savage rifles, they sure make the Rem 700 an obsolete pile of junk![/QUOTE] Hardly so. And they are so UGLY.