Brass case split

mballai

What's the cause of a split mark (not all the way through) running lengthwise on straightwall cartridges? I had several of these when I tumbled a batch of 357 brass. My loads are not any hotter than what the book says. Relatively new brass.

Three Precious Metals: Gold, silver and lead

daddo

Reloaded too many times.
Cheap brass.
Fits loose in chamber.
I don't think it a psi problem.

Nighthawk

I have been getting a bunch of junk brass for my 22-250 and had to throw it away.



Best

Rugster

Xracer

Straightwall rimmed cartridges tend to do that after a few reloadings...particularly .38 Special and .357. They stretch and should be trimmed-to-length for each reloading....that seems to increase their life just a bit.

Auto pistol brass which headspaces on the case mouth lasts a lot longer....particularly G.I. brass, which is heavier than the civilian stuff.

Tailgunner1954

All brass work hardens from the sizing / firing cycle. Straight wall cases are worked even more as they are sized, mouth expanded, crimped, than fired. Annealing the mouth area will slow down the process but isn't used much in the pistol rounds as 1x fired brass is so cheap and the ranges are short, on rifle brass however there is a noticable life (and often accuracy) gain from anealing (important if your doing full prep and sort on your brass).
Or you might have a burr / scratch in either your chamber or die thats scratching the brass.

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Some guys like a mag full of lead, I still prefer one round to the head.

Edited by - Tailgunner1954 on 07/03/2002 10:11:45

aby80

I have been reloading straight wall handgun cases since 1960. I have never trimmed a single case as the stretching is negligible. Once fired cases are cheap to buy and most can be loaded 15-20 times as long as you do not bell the cases too much. I have even loaded 38 Spec cases that don't have over a 1/16" split in the mouth area. Most of my reloads are low velocity plinking loads.

If you don't care where you are going, you can't get lost.

mballai

Chambers are clean and the brass isn't cheap (Starline) or old. My guess is that you just have to expect to lose some as you go.

Three Precious Metals: Gold, silver and lead

SSG ZAG

Belling the mouth just enough to get the bullet started will get you two more loads out of most cases, but everyone needs to realize that the machines pumping out these cases by the thousands are not infallable. Sooner or later, your going to get a few weak ones, throw em out and be glad you caught em when you did.