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Odd case failures with Hornady 308 match brass.
bpost
Member Posts: 32,669 ✭✭✭✭
Almost every case is showing neck splits and parts of the neck almost falling off when sized. These cases were fired once in a BULLBERRY match barrel on an Encore frame. I contacted Hornaday to see if they have any warranty on these cases. We will see how they respond.
Comments
The potential for something being amiss with the brass from Hornady is very good. We've seen this occur with other brass manufacturers every few years. I had it occur with Winchester in brass rifle cases and shotgun brass. After reviewing the metallurgy, my Winchester rep stopped by with a check o replace everything I had purchased in that category.
Bear in mind though that you could be experiencing a problem with that break action firearm or the metallurgy from Hornady. Given your description I would taking the Encore to a T/C gunsmith to qualify both the chamber and the headspace. Be especially sure to double check your reloading set up for an error in sizing. I realize that we're all perfect when it comes to reloading practices but it always pays to check just to be sure.
Best.
BPost, I know you know your way around reloading. I have never heard of parts of the neck falling off when sizing. Does this happen when the neck is passing thru the expander ball on the down-stroke after the case is FL or neck sized? I am sure you already checked neck thickness and would have mentioned it..
I have a large amount of HDY match brass and have been firing it out of several AR 308s and it has worked great for me.
Agree with nononsense on metallurgy issues. I too have seen problems with batches.
Empty so-called MATCH cases.
I have head space gauges and all is well. Other brass, R-P, LC mil match, Winchester and some oddball stuff is fine. I had used the Hornaday brass for some load developments not at or near max loads. One case had the entire almost neck pulled off the case body. From the feel of things I think it is a metal issue or they never got annealed from the factory.
Met thinks it is a metal issue for sure, I do lube the inside of every five case necks to ease it over the expanding ball. I can see hints of the cracks barely visible in the fired brass even before resizing.
Sounds like you nailed it. I have some HDY Match 308 apparently from a different batch never reloaded. Will keep you post in mind when I use it.
I have had problems you described when forming brass. Annealing before hand prevents it.
The rifle has a heavy taper Bullberry stainless barrel on it. I shot some oddball lots of other 308's loaded with the same charge of RE-15 and the 168SMK this afternoon, no issues. I then reloaded those cases and all went well. I did notice on the Hornaday brass, even with lubing the inside of the case mouth were hard to get over the expander ball. The odd thing is there is no telltale line of annealing as you would expect on brass cases near the upper third of the cases. I think this is a issue with the cases, either lack of factory annealing of the necks or with the metal itself. I will keep youins informed on what Hornaday says about the issue.