finally fired a few rounds (factory 200 gr) through my new Encore Custom Shop Barrel. There are a few things that bother me about the fired brass and I wanted to get some opinions on whether there is a problem and if I should send the barrel back.
First, in front of the belt at the Pressure Ring the case is pretty shiny. It also measures an expansion of .008". When I was in Gunsmithing school I think our instructor used a figure of .006" as max. expansion. If it was over that we had to cut and start over. I may be wrong on that figure but I am pretty sure it is right (what we went by in school anyway).
Second, the brass stretched .012" (by measuring a loaded factory round) and a fired brass. Also, by an eyeball measurement it looks to me like .010" of that stretch occurred from the belt to the shoulder. Like I said these were eyeball measurements using my dial caliper as a depth mike but I measure in .0001" for 8 hours a day so I feel pretty confident that these numbers are real close to accurate.
Third, there is almost no way I can come close to the lands even with a 225 Nosler B-Tip and have what I feel to be reasonable case neck grip (say one caliber in the neck). I took a brand new case that I had FL sized and put a B-Tip in and snapped the gun closed and the overall length was 3.310". That seems way to long to me even for T/C (my Custom Shop .250 Savage barrel allows an OAL .050" longer than the Nosler manual with a 100 gr B-Tip and you might as well forget touching the lands on my regular production 22-250 barrel. But, I have found loads that shoot extremely well through them). I did the same as above with a 250 gr Speer in the case with the point of the bullet in the case, and the length from the base of the case to the flat base of the bullet was only 2.475".
So, I guess my questions come down to: Should I send the barrel back and ask T/C to replace it? Could this become dangerous (case head seperation) even if I am very careful not to set the shoulder back? Is there anyway to "fireform" the brass to reduce this body stretch? Like maybe seating some inverted bullets into the lands and firing with a moderate to low end load? (Maybe a dumb idea).
Thank you for any and all advice and suggestions on this. Sean

You need to post this on the single-shot forum. There's some very TC knowledgable shooters there.

LoneEagle---

I'd return the junk barrel and demand a refund so I could buy a barrel from someone that knew what they were doing.

I *certainly* wouldn't trust them to supply another one!!

You didn't say what caliber this was. My cousin recently went through something like this with an Encore barrel in .257 STW. (Not a TC barrel, but another maker). Same problem. Brass stretched and always separated on the second shot. The barrel went back and forth to the maker a couple of times, and everything checked out (chamber cast etc.) My theory was that it was a simple case of exceeding the design of the action. A simple break action like this can flex or move if pressures are high enough. A wildcat such as the 257 stw has a lot of loading data floating around that is pretty stiff. I think that some cartridges can simply overpower this action. That was certainly the case with the contender. Encores are great guns, and are really popular. They are not Ruger No. 1's, however.

If you are shooting a standard cartridge and are shooting a factory load, I would send the barrel back immediately. If you are shooting a wildcat or stiff handloads, you may want to chamber cast the barrel first to see if it is within spec. Either way, you appear to have a useless barrel, either because of the barrel or because of the application.

I would say from the stretching that the chamber is too long. While this is bad, it is not catastrophic with a belted case if you handload properly. You can reduce case damage and loss by lubing the brass when fireforming and fireforming with reduced loads. After that, neck size only. The head expansion may be the chamber, but sounds more like simply high pressure. I have seen heads expand this much in bolt rifles with good chambers when overpressure loads are used.

The above may help with this barrel, but I think I agree with JBelk. If you have spent all this money on a barrel, why live with a compromise and try to make it work? Get it replaced.

I realized that in trying to include all of the data that I had that I skipped the caliber. The caliber is 350 Rem Mag. Thanks, for your responses. Sean

Your chamber is, unfortunately, typical of factory chambers for belted magnum cartridges. The factories assume that the cartridge will safely headspace on the belt, therefore they use oversize reamers (which can make many more chambers before wearing down below minimums).

The best solution, if you want to keep your present barrel, is to make your cases from longer belted magnums (.338 Win would be a good start). Size the case in your FL .350 sizer just enough that it will enter the chamber and allow the breech to close. This will provide nice, snug headspacing on the shoulder, and alleviate case stretching at the pressure ring. On subsequent firings, keep the sizer screwed out enough that it only sizes enough of the case for it to reenter the chamber. Sizing down the longer brass will also give you thicker neck walls, which will probably fit your oversized chamber better. Of course, if the neck walls are too thick, you'll have to ream or turn them.

Well, I appreciate all of the replies. The barrel is on its way back to T/C. I'll give them a chance to make me a good barrel. Sean

I would find it totally unacceptable...absolutly oversize...