Brass much thicker right by neck?

[dok7mm]

I'm not sure what I'm seeing, but it appears to show carbon residue alongside the lands, all the way thru, though it might be a shadow. The bottom of groves and top of lands look fine.

It may be time to use a bronze brush with patches and JB, if it is what it looks like on the video. For baked, hard carbon, no solvent will do better than soften it somewhat.

 

[dok7mm]

If you have a shooting friend with a Hawkeye & 90* mirror, you will be able to find any/all carbon in barrel or chamber, plus any burrs or flaws.

 

[bigedp51]

Whidden custom dies to my chamber, sizer is bushing with .314 bushing size.
I anneal with AMP after each firing, don't turn necks, and use STM tumbling for 4 hours.
Case length is still within spec, about 2.575 to 2.580 so i haven't trimmed yet.
I have been hand loading for about 4 years, self taught from watching videos, reading here, and reading articles.

You are wet tumbling far too long and peening your case mouths and that is what is making the case mouth thicker.

If you are going to wet tumble your cases you will need to trim your cases each time you wet tumble.

Below the case on the left was sized, trimmed, fired and wet tumbled too long. This peens the case mouth and make the case mouth thicker. My point being here before wet tumbling the case mouth was perfectly flat from trimming and the mouth was also chamfered. And the case on the right was just taken out of the factory bag and shows factory tumbling on the case mouth.

Again if your are going to wet tumble you should trim the cases each time to remove the case mouth peening and not tumble as long. I also wet tumble and had your same problem, and reduced the time to two hours or less. I also find that I use my vibratory tumbler more and reduce the peening and can leave the cases tumble all night.

Under a good light and using a magnifying glass look at your case mouths after wet tumbling.

 

[Barrelnut]

Good post ^

 

[The Oregonian]

I measured the chamber dimensions by this method just now...i get 2.611 to 2.616...that is about .030 longer than any of my brass so that seems to make sense.

I was going by the STM instructions...I have a Giraud trimmer on the way and will trim all to the trim to length for 28N, which is 2.570...that will take off about .005 to .008. Here is a pic of brass that was deprimed and then tumbled and it shows the peening. It does measure thicker at the mouth by .003 or so...in the past I chamfered all the brass to remove that and could feel when it was gone, but this batch may just be worse, and this batch I can't feel a sharp raised edge but it appears to be there based on that quick measurement and the posts above.

That seems to be the problem but won't know til i trim and do more loadings. If you trim after tumbling does that remove enough to get rid of the STM effect? How much do you need to trim off to get rid of the peening?

 

[The Oregonian]

I have this on order which has a finer head, but not as fine as I would like. But people swear by it...

https://www.brunoshooters.com/product/15512.html

 

[Alibiiv]

"I feel like my head is going to explode...not having someone who taught me anything or having a local resource sucks." You probably have the best resources that anyone could ever find helping you here right now. I have been reloading for 55+ years, just started out doing precision reloading. Thanks to everyone on this forum I have learned a lot about precision reloading that I never experienced before. I'd like to suggest not getting frustrated when this stuff happens, it happens to everyone. I like what Bigedp51 wrote in his reply to you about over tumbling your cases and peening the case mouths over, what he wrote is quite feasible.

 

[The Oregonian]

"I feel like my head is going to explode...not having someone who taught me anything or having a local resource sucks." You probably have the best resources that anyone could ever find helping you here right now. I have been reloading for 55+ years, just started out doing precision reloading. Thanks to everyone on this forum I have learned a lot about precision reloading that I never experienced before. I'd like to suggest not getting frustrated when this stuff happens, it happens to everyone. I like what Bigedp51 wrote in his reply to you about over tumbling your cases and peening the case mouths over, what he wrote is quite feasible.

I agree this site is a huge resource...I didn't try to diminish it at all and I apologize if it came across that way. I was just saying that it would be nice to have someone knowledgeable that taught me and could talk through things....uncle, father, friend, etc. I have learned a ton here, it is just difficult to describe things and use pics...and I am impatient and a problem solver by nature so when something like this pops up it consumes me to a degree until I get it figured out.

 

[Alibiiv]

I agree this site is a huge resource...I didn't try to diminish it at all and I apologize if it came across that way. I was just saying that it would be nice to have someone knowledgeable that taught me and could talk through things....uncle, father, friend, etc. I have learned a ton here, it is just difficult to describe things and use pics...and I am impatient and a problem solver by nature so when something like this pops up it consumes me to a degree until I get it figured out.

Nope no apology necessary, you didn't come across any other way than you were frustrated, ready to pull your hair out and at our wits end; got it!! I think we all get that way sometimes. When I get like that my best plan is to put it down for a while and think about it. You're good.

 

[bigedp51]

That seems to be the problem but won't know til i trim and do more leadings. If you trim after tumbling does that remove enough to get rid of the STM effect? How much do you need to trim off to get rid of the peening?

I trim to minimum length every time, but how much shorter you need to trim will depend how badly the peening is.

I also added more SS media in my STM tumbler and check the cases every hour. (less is more)

I like how my brass looks after wet tumbling, "BUT" the soft annealed case mouths will take a pounding. And after watching the video below I bought a Lyman Turbo tumbler and use lizard litter and Nu-Finish polish more than wet tumbling.

 

[dok7mm]

You are wet tumbling far too long and peening your case mouths and that is what is making the case mouth thicker.

If you are going to wet tumble your cases you will need to trim your cases each time you wet tumble.

Below the case on the left was sized, trimmed, fired and wet tumbled too long. This peens the case mouth and make the case mouth thicker. My point being here before wet tumbling the case mouth was perfectly flat from trimming and the mouth was also chamfered. And the case on the right was just taken out of the factory bag and shows factory tumbling on the case mouth.

Again if your are going to wet tumble you should trim the cases each time to remove the case mouth peening and not tumble as long. I also wet tumble and had your same problem, and reduced the time to two hours or less. I also find that I use my vibratory tumbler more and reduce the peening and can leave the cases tumble all night.

Under a good light and using a magnifying glass look at your case mouths after wet tumbling.

Good catch Ed. Don't know how I missed that, but I did. These type questions generally turn out to be easily solved, by someone paying attention.

 

[bigedp51]

I agree this site is a huge resource...I didn't try to diminish it at all and I apologize if it came across that way. I was just saying that it would be nice to have someone knowledgeable that taught me and could talk through things....uncle, father, friend, etc. I have learned a ton here, it is just difficult to describe things and use pics...and I am impatient and a problem solver by nature so when something like this pops up it consumes me to a degree until I get it figured out.

I'm 68 wear glasses and have chronologically gifted eyesight and when reloading I wear clip on magnifiers. And if I want to take a even closer look at something I take a closeup macro photo of it and study the problem on my computer screen.

Below a closeup macro photo of a brand new RCBS .223 die expander. You should have seen the case mouth photo I posted above of the case mouth peening taking up my entire computer screen.

 

[The Oregonian]

You are wet tumbling far too long and peening your case mouths and that is what is making the case mouth thicker.

If you are going to wet tumble your cases you will need to trim your cases each time you wet tumble.

Below the case on the left was sized, trimmed, fired and wet tumbled too long. This peens the case mouth and make the case mouth thicker. My point being here before wet tumbling the case mouth was perfectly flat from trimming and the mouth was also chamfered. And the case on the right was just taken out of the factory bag and shows factory tumbling on the case mouth.

Again if your are going to wet tumble you should trim the cases each time to remove the case mouth peening and not tumble as long. I also wet tumble and had your same problem, and reduced the time to two hours or less. I also find that I use my vibratory tumbler more and reduce the peening and can leave the cases tumble all night.

Under a good light and using a magnifying glass look at your case mouths after wet tumbling.

I wonder if there are any other problems this could create around velocity, pressure, and/or accuracy. If the case mouth is thicker on some cases that likely results in more and inconsistent bullet tension, which could affect pressure and accuracy, and maybe pressure.

 

[Alibiiv]

Yes I believe that peening of the case mouths will in fact affect velocity, pressure and accuracy. Two of the key factors to accurate reloading are repetitious, continual consistency. Throw one variable out of the process and everything gets thrown out. Just curious if you have some new, un-tumbled/unfired brass that you could try in an effort to determine whether your problem is with the brass or the rifle? Also might want to check the cleanliness of your dies, and also the seating depth of your seating die if it's a crimp die. I don't suspect the problem is the crimp die, but worth checking just in case a locking ring loosened and the die got slightly turned in; you're trouble shooting.