Federal Brass Problem

[barnesuser28]

These were two of the worst.

 

[Shortmagman]

I bought a 300 WSM shortly after they were offered for sale, so I do have a little experience with the round.

My first 300 WSM was a Winchester Model 70 Coyote and I still own that gun and it shoots great, but my first few shots with it were not so satisfying. I think that Joe King is correct when he says that the factory loads are very hot. I shot some 150 grains Winchester Silver Tips out of my gun and they were much too hot, 3300 + ft/sec.. If my memory serves me correctly the factory recalled some of those loads. The bolt lift was heavy and the primer pockets were stretched. So yes 3300 is way too hot for a 165 grain bullet, so something is going on for you to get that number.

The factory load could just be loaded too hot for your gun! Federal brass is known for being soft so with too hot a load and soft brass you get what you are experiencing.

I have been shooting the 300 WSM for 10 years or more, and have never experience a blown primer or a heavy bolt lift since. The only other time I have seen too high velocity for the load and gun was when a friend bought a brand new Remington 700 in 243 Win and shot it across my chronograph and it was way too hot. We found that he had not cleaned the grease out of the barrel and this produced the hot load. After the barrel was cleaned every thing was fine.

I now load most all my 300 WSM loads with Norma brass. It is heaver than Win, and Fed brass so the volume of the brass is a few grains less, this means that you need to start low and work up. I have brass that I have loaded more than 10 times.

 

[Sully2]

Federal brass is pretty commonly known to be substandard, at least for reloading.

Get Winchester or Remington, and avoid nickel plated cases.

Or if you really want the best, Lapua is the way to go.

FC cases are too soft for repeated use, for most applications...

Those marks you saw on the case head are over-pressure signs. The FC cases can't stand a lot of pressure, and will often show extractor smudges with less than SAAMI spec pressures.

Dan

A friend that shoots a 204 in a Savage...bought 6 boxes of factory loads to use sighting in...etc...and keep the brass to reload. About 1/3 of the casings had the primer VISIBLY off center!!!! So much so you couldnt run them into a loader to deprime for reloading. Not just a few thousanths off...but much more so that it was visible they were junk. Fired nice though..??

 

[northernexposure]

Yeah... I read this now... now that I have reloaded some 300 wsm. ARGH!
Using Federal once fired brass... I too noticed that primers seemed to slide in too easy on one box. Box 2, seemed tighter (different lot number). Both were same brand 150 grain Federal vital shok (nosler balistic tip). Seems it's not just the 168's that have the issue.

EDIT: Reloads are neck sized... winchester magnum primers... Berger 185grain vld's with 59.1 grn of H4350.
I wonder if I should be worried.

 

[Sully2]

Yeah... I read this now... now that I have reloaded some 300 wsm. ARGH!
Using Federal once fired brass... I too noticed that primers seemed to slide in too easy on one box. Box 2, seemed tighter (different lot number). Both were same brand 150 grain Federal vital shok (nosler balistic tip). Seems it's not just the 168's that have the issue.

EDIT: Reloads are neck sized... winchester magnum primers... Berger 185grain vld's with 59.1 grn of H4350.
I wonder if I should be worried.

Pull the bullets; dump the powder and keep it of course.....toss the rest in the trash. Buy new brass of a different brand...prime those and re-use your powder and reseat your bullets!

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

Yeah... I read this now... now that I have reloaded some 300 wsm. ARGH!
Using Federal once fired brass... I too noticed that primers seemed to slide in too easy on one box. Box 2, seemed tighter (different lot number). Both were same brand 150 grain Federal vital shok (nosler balistic tip). Seems it's not just the 168's that have the issue.

EDIT: Reloads are neck sized... winchester magnum primers... Berger 185grain vld's with 59.1 grn of H4350.
I wonder if I should be worried.

If your primers aren't leaking you could shoot 'em up and pitch the brass. If the primers weren't really loose they'll seal well enough for 1 pass.

 

[northernexposure]

There was SOME friction pushing in the primers... but it seemed way too easy (using a Lee Auto Prime) compared to loading for my .243 cal. I had thought it was just the primers and was gonna switch to a different brand.

Staying on topic... I also noticed that if I wasn't watching, I was able to seat the primers beyond the base of the case about .040". I guess this is what they call a "learning curve".

 

[KRP]

Federal bottleneck brass goes in my scrap bin. Not worth the effort for maybe one loading.

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

I've got several hundred federal loaded in various calibers here. I treat it like any other brass; if it's bad it goes in the scrap pile, if not it gets used. 5.56 nato, 270, 7mag, 300 win.; not all of my brass in those is fed., but enough, especially nato(I've got 1,000 fed brass loaded in 5.56 and it's been going multiple firings in a semi-auto).

 

[JeffP40]

Don't worry about the primers seated below the brass. They should be seated snug to the bottom of the pocket. If they are left with space between the primer and the base, they can absorb some of the impact of the firing pin and that can cause ignition problems.