25 wssm Factory Brass Cracking

[Mikecr]

Annealing will not fix the damage done in manufacture.
It's obvious with WSSM that they just cut down WSM cases, and then formed shoulders/necks. That's why necks are 19 to 24thou (depending on cal). I believe they don't go through all the extra annealing to form factory ammo, as it's disposable. Always has been.

With their reloading brass, I believe they do the extra annealing with forming. The reloading brass IS better. It IS for reloading.

 

[Huntnpack]

Brass I used was bagged brass for reloading.
It was Crap !!! Lots of Split necks.

YMMV.

 

[PddPdd]

Annealing will not fix the damage done in manufacture.
It's obvious with WSSM that they just cut down WSM cases, and then formed shoulders/necks. That's why necks are 19 to 24thou (depending on cal). I believe they don't go through all the extra annealing to form factory ammo, as it's disposable. Always has been.

With their reloading brass, I believe they do the extra annealing with forming. The reloading brass IS better. It IS for reloading.

Mikecr,

So if 25WSM cases (that have no splits) were neck turned down to about .012", annealed, sized, and then reloaded all would be good?

 

[Mikecr]

Mikecr,

So if 25WSM cases (that have no splits) were neck turned down to about .012", annealed, sized, and then reloaded all would be good?

Yes. This is just what I do.
I must have been real lucky, as I have not run into splits with Win reloading WSSM cases.
I've measured some defects here & there, mostly thickness variance, & funny webs/flash holes. But with the brass being relatively cheap, I just pick diamonds out of the rough.

For instance with a 26wssm Imp (wildcat), I measured and pulled ~120 cases from a pile of ~1,000 cases. These weighed the same and matched in neck thickness and having zero thickness variance. I turned and prepped them, including deep body dip annealing. Fired formed them 3 times with no sizing and measured H2O capacities. Here I separated out ~80 that exactly matched in capacity.
Of those, I used 50 for load development, and through 2.5 barrels, 80+ reloads on them.
During this, I sold off that batch of 24wssm brass, which was 3,000 cases (paid for the gun build).
I then picked up 25wssm brass, several thousand, and started measuring through them in case I ever need them.
No problems, but I won't need them.

The original 50 cases will last through my lifetime.
So this is why I say it's relatively cheap. Hell If I paid $10/pc and threw away most, I would still get my money back on it. That is why I chose the WSSM case instead of 260 cases for the same capacity (260AI cap).