I have a close friend who has just had his rifle rebarreled to .338-06 AI. He has been using 3 sources of brass in it...A-Square "factory" stuff at over $33 per box (just for the brass!!), Winchester .35 whelen necked down and fire-formed, and Remington .35 Whelen also necked down and fireformed.

With a particular bullet and load, the Winchester brass all fireforms apparently perfectly, and has now lasted well past 10 reloads.

The A-Suare stuff, of course, performs excellently as it was MADE to fit chambers of that designation.

The Remington brass, however, is a puzzle. Some few of the cases form correctly and remain intact. Most however, appear formed correctly but are split vertically at the lower edge of the shoulder during fire-forming.

What do you guys figger may be contributing to that happening?

(I told him I suspected either improper anneal to be used for his purpose, or a minor flaw in the brass cups or drawing die & punch when the brass is actually being formed at the factory. I've urged him to try another lot of Remington brass, as this may be a one lot deviancy, but he has not yet done so.)

I had identical occurences when fire forming 35 whelen AI with Remington brass. Winchester performed fine. I anealed the sholder of the remaining Remington brass and didn't have another failure.

This is why I use Winchester brass for all my reloading. Never had a problem. My 338-06AI likes it very much - great caliber choice!

It's definitely a brass temper issue. I have had similar problems with all kinds of rounds. Sometimes you have problems even with no cracking. Some examples.

Bertram 425 WR. You couldn't even run through a sizing die and load without first annealing. Took too much effort on the press and would tear rims. After annealing, like loading 22 Hornet.

Same problem after forming 416 Taylor from 458. Same solution.

Formed a bunch of 6/284 from Winchester 284. After loading, didn't shoot for about a year. On examination, about half the cases were split through the neck and upper shoulder, even though they had been ok when formed. On firing, most of the others split. After forming new ones and annealing, they were fine. Note that the original cases which weren't loaded and tensioned by the bullets didn't crack.

Your cases are splitting at the lower shoulder because that is where they are expanding. I now, as a rule, anneal any case before fireforming, or after die forming, and never have any loading problems. The one thing you don't want to due is try to anneal and then neck down. You will loose a big percentage of your cases.

Glad to hear you guys suspect the same culprit(s) I do....incidentally, as posted in my first post, this is NOT MY brass. I am just trying to give my friend some advice/assistance and wanted to make sure I had the proper bases covered.

Thanks for your input.

I had the same issue fireforming Winchester and Remington .300 H & H ammunition in a recahmbered Model 70 .300 H&H years ago. The Winchester ammo all fireformed without a hitch, half the Remington's exhibited the same problem your friend's did. Nothing wrong with Remington brass, they just don't anneal it enough IMO. I just recently resized and fireformed 100 .375RUM's to .404 Jeffrey without a problem but, after 2 firings, I annealed all the necks and shoulders.

where did you find winchester 35 whelen brass, that's the only Remington brass i use.. and i would MUCH rather us winchester

quote:

Originally posted by tom ga hunter:
where did you find winchester 35 whelen brass, that's the only Remington brass i use.. and i would MUCH rather us winchester

For the third time in my 3 posts, this is NOT my brass. I have no idea where my friend got it.