300 WSM and split necks.........

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I was wading through a bunch of brass sorting and what not and I noticed several of my 300 WSM had split necks. I found this odd as none of it has more than 2 loads through. I then remembered a box of factory fired I picked up at the range last summer and 2 of those necks were split. All brass is Win, but I use almost exclusively Win brass in all cals and have not seen any other caliber with this many split necks. I have cases in 300 Wby (made from W-W 300 H+H)and 243 that I know have had 6-10 loadings and I might get a split neck out of 200. My problem has always been loose primer pockets not split necks. LOL ;)
Anybody else having issues with the necks on the WSMs, or insights into this situation?
 
I also found 7 split necks out of 60 WW brass in 300 WSM that had been reloaded once (2x fired). I thought it was quite odd so I started measuring fired brass to see if there was a chamber issue causing the brass to be overworked, but, no chamber issues that I can tell. I haven't hunted down the reason yet and had pretty much forgot about it until I read this.
 
Can't give any insight on the 300 wsm but on my 22-250 with ww brass annealing puts an end to split necks.
 
I use Winchester brass for my 300 wsm. No issues with the 100 pieces I bought. Some of them are 5x fired.

I also had a bunch of 270wsm brass from a prior gun that was 2x fired in the 270 and then I resized it to 300 and no issues there so far yet either.
 
Winchester components are just about the last brand i would buy today, split necks, oversized primer pockets,undersize across the web and rim+ primers that are undersize. All this is new in the bag/box junk.

Do yourself a favor and switch to Lapua brass, it will even hold the undersize winchester primers firmly in the pocket, no need the use primer sealant to keep the primers from falling out and split necks are unheard of.
 
I own 300WSM my self too and have used win brass at first and yes i completely hated it. unless you anneal the brass, it will give many people truble for reloading since they are very soft to begin with.
I ended up buying Nosler Custom for 300wsm and that fixed the problem for me.
 
kimmer82 said:
I own 300WSM my self too and have used win brass at first and yes i completely hated it. unless you anneal the brass, it will give many people truble for reloading since they are very soft to begin with.
I ended up buying Nosler Custom for 300wsm and that fixed the problem for me.
Click to expand...

Annealing makes the brass softer, so how would that help if the brass is too soft to start with?
 
I have a lot of Winchester brass for my 300WSM, and some has been fired 4 times.
I have yet to encounter a split neck, or any of the issues JJ65 talks about in his post.
If they are splitting, it usually means the brass is a bit brittle. Annealing will solve that.
Regards, Eagleye.
 
Very common in my old 300wsm especially the nickel plated brass. Don't know what the deal on it is. I can get 10 firings out of most other caliber a so I don't think it was me
 
I have annealed sub standard brass in the past. Good quality brass has been annealed at the point of manufacture. Lapua brass has been annealed at the factory. Even Remington does this.

When Lapua made their loading manual, the lab guys reported loading the same lot of cases 200 times with no mention of re annealing. Why bother with winchester if there is no need too.

As for nosler brass, it is made by either Norma or Federal depending on the cal.
 
I get about 4 reloads with win 300wsm brass usually and then I get the split necks too. Never had the problem with 270wsm. I think annealing will fix it but I have never bothered
 
I have some 8 or 9 year old Winchester 300 wsm brass - both plain and nickle-coated - that are on their 7th or 8th loading. I also have some current-production Winchester cases that have split after only 2 loadings. I also bought a bag of recent-production 30-06 Winchester brass that had a noticeable percentage of "wrinkled" necks right out of the bag. To me it seems either their brass alloy and/or annealing procedure has changed in the last while.
 
I aneal my 300 wsm brass every other time i shoot it. I probably have 15 shots fired out of every piece of my current batch, never had a piece of cracked brass and have bin shooting the cartridge for 10 years.

I would have to say, if your brass is cracking after firing it twice that is odd. Im assuming there trimmed to length so there's no chance of the neck touch the end of the chamber creating exsessive pressure.

Just a thought ... I have noticed that win brass the wall thickness is very inconsistant. I trim my outside necks down to .014 like benchrest shooters do. if you have a batch of brass that has thicker necks, they will have much less elasicity and wont flex ... hence the cracking. The thicker walls will also increase the pressure of your load compounding the issue. Check your primers for pressure signs.

The more i think about it im almost sure thats your problem. If you aneal your brass and trim your outside necks im almost certain that will solve your problem and give you far better accuracy... I think you just have a bad batch of brass.
 
Among reloaders that I know, including myself, it was concluded that Winchester brass was thinner at the neck, hence the splitting of the neck area. I know that Lapua is limited to manufacturing cartridge brass, however it is the best. Norma is very good brass as well followed by Nosler.
 
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