Recent Experience with Peterson Brass- Neck Breakage and Brittleness

Here are some more examples of stress fracturing, this 22-250 R-P brass was new when loaded, it had been left at at my Uncles farm quite a few hours away after I moved back to the big smoke. It sat there, in a MTM 100 round box for over 8 years, all but 15 of the 48 cases fired, split the necks and none went the full length, most had 3-4 splits around the neck and all were inspected prior to shooting. So this is either age cracking, or hoop stress from sitting loaded for so long.
Here's some pics.

Cheers.
 

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I would take your sizing die and hone the neck .

I also feel on some brass, annealing is a double edged sword, more harm than good.

Hone the neck, stop annealing gets my vote. Repeat.
 
The only thing I see in your loading process that is suspect is the crimping. Annealing after every firing is the right thing to do. The only neck lubing I do is to put graphite inside the necks just before seating a bullet. I use Peterson brass for 6mm Creed. My 300 WM brass is all Winchester which is lower quality than Peterson. I've never had a 300 WM case crack at the neck. The only Peterson cases I have ever tossed were for stretched primer pockets. I suspect the crimping step is causing your premature neck failures. Are you crimping into a cannelure or just crimping a smooth bullet bearing surface? The latter is a no-no.
 
And looking at that brass you should be worried about case head separation as well. You should check inside of cases with a paperclip. I can see the case stretching and a line in the pic.
 
SSG Graybush said:
And looking at that brass you should be worried about case head separation as well. You should check inside of cases with a paperclip. I can see the case stretching and a line in the pic.
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Please look a little closer.....what you see is the reflection of the light fixture in the brass overhead, a little bright glare spot.....it may appear to be a defect, but it is not. Case heads are all fine.
They are not getting over worked.
 
VarmintBob said:
The only thing I see in your loading process that is suspect is the crimping. Annealing after every firing is the right thing to do. The only neck lubing I do is to put graphite inside the necks just before seating a bullet. I use Peterson brass for 6mm Creed. My 300 WM brass is all Winchester which is lower quality than Peterson. I've never had a 300 WM case crack at the neck. The only Peterson cases I have ever tossed were for stretched primer pockets. I suspect the crimping step is causing your premature neck failures. Are you crimping into a cannelure or just crimping a smooth bullet bearing surface? The latter is a no-no.
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I will have to check, but it could be a smooth surface w that seating depth on these bullets.

I understand that crimp into a cannalure is ideal, but what is the mechanism that crimping on a smooth part of the bullet would cause split necks?

I may just stop crimping this caliber altogether unless I am using hammer bullets. Because I already have plenty of neck tension and holding friction.
 
Veteran said:
Please look a little closer.....what you see is the reflection of the light fixture in the brass overhead, a little bright glare spot.....it may appear to be a defect, but it is not. Case heads are all fine.
They are not getting over worked.
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No it looks bad. Take another pic. It looks like there's a low/stretch area just below the line where it will separate. Could be from before you started only bumping 2 thou, but not good.
As asked before what's your fired and sized neck width?
And how are you annealing. I have a Annealleez as well, 6 to 7 seconds with the tip of the flame just touching the neck shoulder junction, is what I do. And I don't lube bullets for seating. I can get 15 firings from my 7mag Peterson brass.
 
Veteran said:
Fired O.D. of the necks is about .334 to .335 inches

I'm sizing with Redding dies using the 327 S type neck bushing.
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So to clarify you're using a 0.327" bushing? What's the thickness of the case necks?

If they're somewhat normal thickness (call it an average .0125"-ish) that sounds like too tight a bushing - do you have a .331" bushing?

Veteran said:
No loaded ones right now.
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I was trying to back into your neck thickness if you had loaded rounds on hand. If they aren't loaded you can measure thickness directly, which is even better.
 
I just checked 3 different 300 wm fired cases with .338-.341 fired dimensions. .331 sounds tight!.. Also crimping non- cannular projectiles can Dramatically spike pressure...albeit case head separations. As stated by others....DON'T CRIMP! Back that die off!
 
QuietTexan said:
So to clarify you're using a 0.327" bushing? What's the thickness of the case necks?

If they're somewhat normal thickness (call it an average .0125"-ish) that sounds like too tight a bushing - do you have a .331" bushing?


I was trying to back into your neck thickness if you had loaded rounds on hand. If they aren't loaded you can measure thickness directly, which is even better.
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Ding, ding, ding! I think we have a winner!
That's why I asked for, but unfortunately didn't get an answer as to what the sized O.D. is. I got the dimension for a loaded round but by then the damage is done. Throw a crimp in there and it's just too much presumably since we are working with limited information. It appears to be a case of overworking the necks.
 

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