338 rum caselife

[Ultramag45]

I am shooting a 338 Rum 225 gr accubonds. at 3100 fps... 93 gr of Rl22... Not really showing any pressure signs, I am only getting 3 reloads out of my brass... what to do to fix problem. or is this normal case life... all cases split at the necks

 

[royinidaho]

UM45,

You seem to have a sizing problem.

Sounds as if you may be stress hardening the necks due to resizing. If your die resizes the neck excessively the neck will stress harden and split when shot.

Splitting after only 3 shots is a bit unusual.

A couple of options are:
1) Anneal after every two shots. (A real pain)
2) Measure neck diameter after firing and after resizing. This would be a neck tension measurement. If it is excessive a better sizing die could be needed.

I don't know what is excessive or which bushing die is better.

I'm confident some one will chime in with the correct sizing info.

I have never had your problem with my 338 RUM. Mine last 5 or 6 shots due to primer pocket growth. I stoke it up pretty well.

 

[steve smith]

Anneal the case necks. If that doesn't solve the problem to your liking, then get a bushing neck sizing die.

 

[groper]

aneal after every 2 shots????

i thought once a metal had been anealed, (softned via heating) that was it.... once is all thats needed...

why do it more than once????

 

[J E Custom]

aneal after every 2 shots????

i thought once a metal had been anealed, (softned via heating) that was it.... once is all thats needed...

why do it more than once????

What Roy said !!!!!

Brass work hardens like other alloys and must be annealed before they become brittle.

Just firing a cartridge is not the only time your working the brass, Every time you size and
then expand it to grip the bullet it gets worked.

Each firing requires that the neck be expanded and compressed a minimum of 3 times
so in reality before the third firing your brass has been worked 6 times.

It is the same thing as taking a piece of wire and bending it back and forth until it breaks.
buy bending it and then straightening it back out you are work hardening it.

J E CUSTOM

 

[bigbuck]

I used to get 4 to 5 loads out of my 300 RUM brass until I read some folks were getting 10 to 12 with their rem. brass I thought know way, well I was wrong I stopped trying to load in the red with my hornady book and I haven't noticed any split necks yet. I'm on 9 loads now with my rem brass one last thing I always full length size after every load . I would just about bet your loading to hot, let me know if i'm wrong it want be the first time.

Bigbuck

 

[Ultramag45]

UM45,

You seem to have a sizing problem.

Sounds as if you may be stress hardening the necks due to resizing. If your die resizes the neck excessively the neck will stress harden and split when shot.

Splitting after only 3 shots is a bit unusual.

A couple of options are:
1) Anneal after every two shots. (A real pain)
2) Measure neck diameter after firing and after resizing. This would be a neck tension measurement. If it is excessive a better sizing die could be needed.

I don't know what is excessive or which bushing die is better.

I'm confident some one will chime in with the correct sizing info.

I have never had your problem with my 338 RUM. Mine last 5 or 6 shots due to primer pocket growth. I stoke it up pretty well.

Ok. I have had problems with my old rcbs die... i now have a redding full length S die... I havent tried any reloads more thn once....I think the bushing is 364.... So this should fix my problem....

 

[RJ338]

That's the ticket, you're working the brass much less with that "S" die. It still may not hurt to anneal after 2-3 reloads.