Reloading

[Doug Brownlee]

I am trying to understand why I am getting powder burns pass the neck radius and onto the shoulder of my reloads. It starts creeping pass the shoulder radius after the 5th / 6 reload. I am shooting Winchester brass 300 wsm. doing a full case resize trimming the case length .005 below max length.

 

[varmintH8R]

Here is a similar thread that has some speculation (mine included) on possible causes of this type of issue. http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f28/powder-residue-entire-length-case-help-107307/

Their issue was using virgin brass. Because you are only seeing this after 6 reloads, I am wondering if it may be to hardening of the brass at the neck. You might want to try a poor mans annealing trick on one case to see if it solves your issue . . .

Hold a case at the base. Hold it so the shoulder/neck is over the flame of a candle. When your fingers get hot, quench the case in a moist towel. This should anneal the neck of the case and soften it. If your issue goes away, you should get an annealing kit that allows some control of the process (the way above clearly lacks sophistication), or pitch your brass.

Let me know if you try it and what result you get. Good luck!

 

[flashhole]

The brass is getting work hardened. It won't seal to the chamber when fired and soot is blowing back onto the case. Anneal your brass and all should return to normal.

 

[Bullet bumper]

The way I read it is it is starting from the first shot and getting worse by the 6 th shot . Try partial neck sizing , Leave a small section of the neck near the shoulder unsized . Keep the case necks really clean with fine steel wool.
Anneal the necks and shoulder after 5 or 6 shots.
Make sure the chamber / neck area is very clean.
Make sure your powder load is not too low in pressure .
Short neck cartridges with thick brass don't like to be run at low pressures.
Make sure you are not using a powder that is way too slow.

 

[7stw]

A couple of things could be going on here. If your powder burn rate is too slow, it is not providing enough pressure to seal the brass to the chamber, and / or, your brass is work hardening. ( or a combo of the both of them). It also can be caused by a more then liberal chamber, and again, any combo along with the chamber, will cause it. You may want to experiment with another brand of brass, or maybe another lot of the same as what you are using first. Annealing may or may not help if you have a over generous chamber. I have a 308 that does that, but it shoots fantastic groups, so I don't care if the chamber is generous or not, I'm not changing anything on that one. Good luck in your search, but if it's shooting good groups, don't go nuts trying to fix, or figure it out.

PS, what powder and bullet are you using?

 

[Doug Brownlee]

The powder burns starts progressing past the neck radius after 5 or 6 firings, the more I shoot the more they progress. I am using Winchester brass from different batches. I am loading Burger 168VLD with 68gr of RL17 and WLRM primers. I am hitting a postage stamp 200 yds cold bore so I am not worried about the rifle. I have annealed some cases that the powder burns were half way up the shoulder I will let you know the results. I am resizing cases that require it to achive .002 head space all other cases are being necked sized only. The gun shoots great I just want to know what is causing the progression up the neck.

 

[Bullet bumper]

There seems to be a pattern here two people on this forum having the same trouble using VLD bullets and Alliant powders .
Two people is not exactly a big sample but it is interesting.
Reloader 17 is a new powder and this is what German Salazar and Bob Jenson said about it Alliant Reloder 17
Is it possible that due to the altered burn rate and different chemical characteristics of this powder that neck sooting with VLD bullets is more likely ?
They say that the burn rate coatings are infact through the powder grains not on the outside so could that mean that the powder is more prone to dirty burning ?
They say that the powder pressure curve is sharp to rise but slower to fall so could that mean that a long barrel is required to get the best from it ?
Anyway I think you should test some other suitable powders just to see if the neck sooting stops, Sorry I can't advise another suitable powder because I don't have a listing for R 17 and can't find a burn rate equivalent for it at the moment .

 

[Doug Brownlee]

When I first started using RL17 It was with new Win cases and every thing was looking normal. the powder burns started to advance up the shoulder after 5 or six reloads using a full case die. I made an annealing set up and I am going to anneal the worst cases and start resizing the neck only. Let you know my results and I would like to thank every one for there input.