Case Neck Splitting

[phaedra1106uk]

I have a friend (yes I know it's hard to believe!), he gave me a few hundred Remington 280 Rem (7mm Express) cases he'd bought as once or twice fired to prep for him.

 

Having picked up a die set I de-primed then SS media quick cleaned them before running them through the full length sizer, about 35% were getting split necks, they were going through the die quite easily, no force required. I stripped the die and checked it, it's fine.

 

So, I annealed a test batch and tried those, very little difference, I still got over 30% splitting.

 

My feeling is that it's old work hardened brass that's just simply past it's time. I can't see anything wrong with the die, the splits are not all in the same place (with relation to the die).

 

[gbal]

I've had these kinds of neck splits in some old 6.5 M/S brass-some even Kynoch headstamp so vintage,and unknown history-essentially corroded through...a very few also on the case body...

What is the headstamp-unlikely to help much,but the 280 Rem was introduced in 1957,name changed to 7mm Rem Express in 79/80,but soon reverted back to 280Rem . So IF brass is headstamped 7Rem Express,we can locate it as likely 30-35 years old (but headstamp 280rem could be any age).....

 

NIce cartridge-like the 270win,essentially a necked down 30-06;the 280 was lengthened a tad so that it could not chamber in the 270,but alas,the body was not increased,so the 270 can chamber and fire in the 280 Rem-potentially catastrophic....but that's not the issue here...

.....any look a bit knackered before FL resizing them...?

 

if so...bin there...bin them?

 

g

[phaedra1106uk]

Hi They're all RP Remington headstamps, came in the original yellow & green boxes of 20 priced at £9.33/20.

 

Some have obviously been reloaded as they have writing on the back, .270 50gr 150 gr Bullet. Not sure why it says .270 when they are .280 so surely a .284 bullet?.

 

No obvious signs of hard use on them, I SS tumbled them for a couple of hours to get them clean enough to lube and FLS and didn't see anything odd during the pre-sizing inspection.

[gbal]

Hmmm....and definitely (RP) 280Rem headstamped.....if these are the right boxes,I'm not sure when ammo was £9.33/20,but if the brass and boxes are not 7 Rem Express,it doesn't help much.....270 may be a simple error-a 270w fired in the 280 chamber would surely split much more than the necks !

 

Perforations rather than cleaner splits would nudge me towards corosion-though of course a weakened case might well split when reloaded and fired.....my MS came with a fair mix of 270 7x64 andd the like,from an estate-but of course no way of knowing age,though probably not reloaded....or how,storage would not have been ideal......the 270 etc seemed fine...but who knows..?

[phaedra1106uk]

Indeed, I'm fairly sure these are not once or twice fired, they are all head stamped R P 280 REM. Not to worry, all sized now just need to trim to length, chamfer/de-burr and final polish/inspect.

 

Thanks for the input

[Chris-NZ]

.....

 

Some have obviously been reloaded as they have writing on the back, .270 50gr 150 gr Bullet. Not sure why it says .270 when they are .280 so surely a .284 bullet?.

..

 

By "on the back", do you mean the packet or the case?

 

If the case, they're obviously .270s that have been expanded out to 7mm which wouldn't have helped neck life if they weren't soft enough when done.

[phaedra1106uk]

On the back of some of the boxes in marker pen, they are def 280 cases as they are all headstamped as such.

[Vermincinerator]

Are you heating the cases so that they just turn deep cherry red? If not then you are not getting them hot enough to effectively anneal them, i anneal my cases in the dark so that i can see the colour change.

 

Ian

[phaedra1106uk]

Are you heating the cases so that they just turn deep cherry red? If not then you are not getting them hot enough to effectively anneal them, i anneal my cases in the dark so that i can see the colour change.

 

Ian

Deep cherry red is over temperature, the neck should reach a temperature of no more than 850f, 650f Tempilaq applied to the case/shoulder junction or 750f applied to the neck gives a much greater accuracy.

[Swarovski1]

I would say most of these will split when you seat a bullet, best have a good inspection after and days later after theyve been under tension, I had some tired brass do that.

[phaedra1106uk]

I've already told him my best advice would be to bin them just to be safe.

[Vermincinerator]

Deep cherry red is over temperature, the neck should reach a temperature of no more than 850f, 650f Tempilaq applied to the case/shoulder junction or 750f applied to the neck gives a much greater accuracy.

I am aware of this but i am suggesting raising to a higher temp because at the temperature level you are annealing the necks are still splitting, might be worth a try, it worked for me on some very hard WW 300 WSM cases

 

Ian.

[phaedra1106uk]

Thanks Ian, I think the brass is beyond saving for safe use.

[Vermincinerator]

Thanks Ian, I think the brass is beyond saving for safe use.

Fair enough Phaedra, not such a problem binning them if they are not difficult to find cases.

 

Ian.