Interesting article about case life while full lengh sizing.
- Thread starter caporal
- Start date
mattyboylewis
Regular
- Location
- Oliver, BC
Saw a simmilar article in Handloader regarding the .308 last fall. The intent of the article was for 'the most accurate 308 load' it did show that conventional/cheap brass often lasted longer than the more expensive premium brass with minimal documented changes in accuracy depending on the case chosen. Beleive it or not, the primer had a more significant impact on accuracy in the control tests they ran. I will see if I can dig it out and post it on here. Good Read.
BattleRife
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
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- of No Fixed Address
Why are people so afraid of case head separations? Has anybody ever seen one that was troublesome?
I bring bronze brushes with me of different sizes. I have had only 2 over the years. One fell out with a little tapping of the butt on the bench in a downward direction. The other was stuck in the chamber. It was a 30-06case and the head came off completely leaving the body in the chamber. No problem. Simply put a .410 bronze brush on a rod, slid it into the stuck case and pulled it out. It's a bit of a bugger to get the brush out of the case! But it lets you get back to shootin'.
I'm not sure that one has to be afraid of case head stretching or separation anymore than anything else that can go wrong while shooting. But it does indicate case failure and means something is wrong. So, it makes sense to at least take some constructive action. It can indicate a headspace problem in the rifle you are shooting for one thing. Or your brass might be old, overworked and should be replaced. One old rifle I had was a 303 Savage Model 1894 lever action with the rotary magazine, round counter and safety indicator. It was my grandfather's hunting rifle. I seriously didn't want to hang it up and still have fond memories of it. But there was a headspace problem with the rifle, and it would stretch a case to the point of failure, or even crack it sometimes, with one firing.
mike shickele
Regular
Notice that the article indicated "full length resizing", and not partial resizing or neck sizing. You're bound to get case head separations when you restore the brass to factory minimum specifications after every firing. Once the case has been stretched to fit your chamber, all that you want to do is stop the shoulder from growing, not push the shoulder back so that it has room to stretch again.
Mike
Mike
