What the heck? Neck/shoulder seperation

[c-ne-elk]

Anyone have a clue what caused this to my buddies brass? This happened while he was resizing.

Neck came off at the top of the shoulder.

300 WSM, Federal brass, has not been reloaded more than twice and loads are far from being excessive.

 

[Edd]

My WAG is the brass was neck turned using a 30° cutter.

 

[c-ne-elk]

It was factory ammo originally, then loaded once, second time this happened. Brass had only been trimmed to length. Neck was not turned.

 

[Gord0]

I had some federal brass for my .300win and the necks were harder than anything I've ever experienced. My standard RCBS sizing die almost felt like I was running it dry. The expander on the way out ripped the shell out of the shell holder. That was on once fired factory stuff.

 

[Edd]

It was factory ammo originally, then loaded once, second time this happened. Brass had only been trimmed to length. Neck was not turned.

With that history, what could it be other than poor quality brass?

 

[climb-101]

the expander ball isn't set too high in the die is it?

 

[James Kiser]

What did the load consist of? He didn't double charge it did he?

 

[Trnelson]

It needed to be annealed. The neck and shoulder get work-hardened pretty quickly for some reason with Federal brass.
I just anneal it before I reload it and it isn't an issue.

 

[MTBULLET]

anneal, and make sure die is set correctly, ie: not pushing shoulder to far back

 

[c-ne-elk]

Was not a double charge. And the separation did not happen until it was sized.

Good idea on the annealing. And low quality brass...

 

[WildRose]

C is there any way you can get a caliper on it to measure the thickness of the brass in the shoulder? It looks awfully thin in your picture.

As others have said the Federal brass I've used in the past tended to be pretty hard and annealing is very much necessary with it but it looks to me like that isn't the only problem here.

 

[243winxb]

Had it happen in 223 a few times. Reason it happened, i can guess.

1 The dies are over working the brass, making it brittle. Change to FL bushing die.

2. Brass stretching on firing. Learn to control sizing, using a comparator.

3. Brass became brittle when coming in contact with a chemical. Google "stress corrosion cracking" and "dezincification". This would be when cleaning the brass. Keep the cat pan away for loading area. Ammonia and vinegar are bad.

4. Just a piece of defective brass ??

[/URL][/IMG] and

[/URL][/IMG]