I just fired a new to me .25WSSM for the first time the other day. I got the gun from my Dad so am fairly certain the brass was new when he loaded it, if not it was only the second loading. Of the twelve cases fired, two were split. All had sooty necks. Load was 1.2gr below max I believe.
What I believe to be true is the brass is thicker and probably harder. Nothing else I've ever loader for has done this with brass this new.
So whats an easy way to aneal case at home and get consistant results?

Gas burner & Tempilac - the latter being a temperature sensitive lacquer you dab on just below the shoulder. It changes colour at a certain temperature.
Midway stocks it.
If you rotate the brass in your fingers, then believe me; the case base will never get too hot.

You can get a Lee case holder for their trim tool that has a mandrell for a drill motor.

Spin the cases with the neck about 1/4" away from in the inner blue cone for about 3 seconds.
Practice on some cheap or junk cases first.

The case neck should turn a wet liquid appearing light silver blue along the neck and about 1/4" below the shoulder. Pull out of flame after 3 seconds. Quench in water.

The cases should not crack now. This is a very mild anneal if you stop at the light silver blue.
Reapply every 2 to 4 reloads.

quote:

Originally posted by BigNate:
I just fired a new to me .25WSSM for the first time the other day. I got the gun from my Dad so am fairly certain the brass was new when he loaded it, if not it was only the second loading. Of the twelve cases fired, two were split. All had sooty necks. Load was 1.2gr below max I believe.
What I believe to be true is the brass is thicker and probably harder. Nothing else I've ever loader for has done this with brass this new.
So whats an easy way to aneal case at home and get consistant results?

A bad lot of brass. I had a bunch of Rem 357mag brass in the 70's they all split on the 2nd firing.

I just tossed them after they split not worth the bother.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:
A bad lot of brass. I had a bunch of Rem 357mag brass in the 70's they all split on the 2nd firing.

I just tossed them after they split not worth the bother.

Annealing would likely have fixed them.

I agree that annealing should fix it. I had the same with a 300 Win Mag (after 5 loads) and after annealing never again, not even with the same batch of brass.

Overworking the brass is possibly the reason, a die that's minimum spec in the neck and a chamber at maximum, or a die that sizes too much and then expands back to the right size with the expander ball. Either way annealing should fix it.

You can also buy the hornady kit, or make a holder that fits in a drill. I've heard that you can use a socket for that and put a bolt through the bottom. You need to be able to just tip the case out.

Google annealing; there is a lot on the net.

Probably a sizer die that is overworking the necks. Check the diameter of the neck on a fired case then run it through the sizer with the expander removed and measure again. It shouldn't be more than about .005 difference. If you can measure the inside of the neck, it only needs to be about .002 smaller than the diameter of the bullet. If you send a few fired cases and the die back to the manufacturer they should rework it for you.

I have had 270 WSM factory loads split the neck occasional. I mark it off to bad lot of brass.

Well tried my had at annealing. I first thought I'd try some 5.7x28's because I picked them off the ground and don't have a rifle. Why not ruin some brass I don't care about?
I followed the video recommendation to use a socket driver in an electric drill motor. Heated them with a propane torch, and dropped them into quench water. They turned black and oxidized before they showed any color change.

So after frying a few I decided it was to small a case with to big a flame to accurately control. So I tried a wssm case. Sure enough, I could actually see color change taking place and when finished it has the color change with the blueish hue just below the shoulder. I'm going to do the rest of them tonight if I have time.
Working the Holiday, Thanks to those who have served our country.

On brass you don't have to quench in water to anneal them. Just will anneal just air cooling. If you want to handle them right away after annealing then you can, but then you have to dry the inside of the cases out before you can reload them. Annealing will also lessen your neck tension and you won't get the proper bullet neck tension back until you've reloaded and fired them a few times.