22/250 case life?
- Thread starter IROCZ
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janobles14
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hrmmmm....
i use winchester, rem, and lapua and am getting up to 6-10 firings. i do anneal after 3 or 4.
how hot are your loads? sounds like excess pressure or chamber space.
i use winchester, rem, and lapua and am getting up to 6-10 firings. i do anneal after 3 or 4.
how hot are your loads? sounds like excess pressure or chamber space.
243winxb
Member
Could be a few things. Hot loaded brass lasts about 3 firings for me. Your dies could be overworking the neck. Most standard dies size down more than needed, most times more than .010" , then the expander ball opens the inside of the neck back up to the correct diameter. Over working the brass. Hard brass might crack at the neck. Or you have a large neck chamber.
NCsmitty
Member
If you're using only the one rifle, I would back off the sizer die a few thou. You do not need to completely fl size every time. Info offered in the previous posts are solid too. I would consider backing off the powder charge a tad too. I have no issues like that in my own 22-250 as I use the 52 gr. A-Max at about 3500 fps. It will shoot 3/8" groups all day.
NCsmitty
NCsmitty
BoilerUP
Member
I've gotten at least 5 firings out of two boxes of brass (both RP); 1 factory and 4 reloads...no cracked necks yet.
I shoot W760, Varget and H380, and use fairly moderate loads out of a Ruger 1-V. No chrony, but shooting 40gr V-Max and 52gr A-Max.
I do, however, primarily use a Lee Collet die...
I shoot W760, Varget and H380, and use fairly moderate loads out of a Ruger 1-V. No chrony, but shooting 40gr V-Max and 52gr A-Max.
I do, however, primarily use a Lee Collet die...
rcmodel
Member in memoriam
For the 22-250, I find annealing to be very helpful to prolong case life. Moreso then any other caliber I have loaded for.
I also find it necessary to inside neck-ream them way before split necks become a problem.
rcmodel
I also find it necessary to inside neck-ream them way before split necks become a problem.
rcmodel
My loads aren't that hot. I load for mine and my buddies Rugers, so I full lenght resize. I'll get some new R/P brass and anneal it first and see what that does. I want at least 5 firings(cheap bastage) I'll try backing off the sizer next. Thanks all.
ArchAngelCD
Member.
How do you go about annealing rifle cases?
ForneyRider
Member
Shooting Hornady and Nosler brass.
I saw some resources that said Nosler brass is Federal, but saw on Norma site where they listed Nosler as one of their headstamps.
Loaded up some 50gr V-Max in the Nosler brass to try and duplicate the 3800fps Hornady factory load. The Varget powder and CCI large rifle primer resulted in 3920fps.
Brass looks good after one firing. Hoping to get 3-4 firings minimum.
I saw some resources that said Nosler brass is Federal, but saw on Norma site where they listed Nosler as one of their headstamps.
Loaded up some 50gr V-Max in the Nosler brass to try and duplicate the 3800fps Hornady factory load. The Varget powder and CCI large rifle primer resulted in 3920fps.
Brass looks good after one firing. Hoping to get 3-4 firings minimum.
redneck2
Member
Go to Varmint Al's site. All the info you need.
Strongbad
Member
High pressure is generally going to yield other symptoms. Split necks is stiff brass. Normally it's either a mfg caused problem or work hardening. However, even if you were full length sizing every time, it should last considerably longer than two. My Norma brass (which IMHO is the best 22-250 brass available) starts to split on about the 6th reload. If I take the time to anneal them they'd last a lot longer. With the cost of new brass from Norma getting up to what it is. I'm going to have to start.
As the other folks have said, go ahead and anneal it and you should be good to go.
As the other folks have said, go ahead and anneal it and you should be good to go.
dennisH87
Member
I have the exact same problem with my .22-250. I use Winchester brass. I called winchester and told them what was happening and they asked me to send the cases in so they could evaluate them. They never gave me a reason why but they did send me a new lot of 100 cases! Just because of that i don't buy any other case besides some RP cases that i got from factory ammo and some Hornady cases. I did have some of my RP's and Hornady's do the same thing, but they weren't loaded as hot as my Winchesters.
www.24hourcampfire.com/annealing.html
here's a good read on it by dr. howell, and there is further discussion in the forums (look in both 'ask the gunwriters' and 'handloading for big game').
ArchAngelCD
Member.
Thanks for the info redneck2 and dakotasin!!
Sorry for coming a little late to this conversation, but there's a few statements that need addressing.
Also, I've found that R-P cases are a little thinner than Winchester. I use R-P brass a lot in my 22-250 (Rem 788), but I don't load them hot (usually around 3600 fps with a 50 gr), and I can get 10 or more firings from each case. I neck size only.
If you have to full-length resize, the thinner case wall comes into play. If you both have Rugers, you might try neck sizing only for a couple of cases and see if they chamber ok in both rifles. Or you can keep the brass for each rifle separated so that the same case also goes to the same rifle.
I think the first statement contradicts the last one. 3800 fps with a 50 gr. bullet is certainly in the "hot" range for that weight of a bullet. How many grains of Varget are you using?IROCZ said:
Also, I've found that R-P cases are a little thinner than Winchester. I use R-P brass a lot in my 22-250 (Rem 788), but I don't load them hot (usually around 3600 fps with a 50 gr), and I can get 10 or more firings from each case. I neck size only.
If you have to full-length resize, the thinner case wall comes into play. If you both have Rugers, you might try neck sizing only for a couple of cases and see if they chamber ok in both rifles. Or you can keep the brass for each rifle separated so that the same case also goes to the same rifle.
I believe that would be wasted effort, and you might end up with worse brass than you started with. I don't think anyone was saying to anneal new brass. It comes factory annealed which is as good or better than the average reloader can do at home. Annealing after 3 or 4 firings might help prolong case life. As mentioned above, backing off the powder a little should get you 3 or more firings per case.
Strongbad
Member
Something that hadn't occurred to me before just hit me. Is this a new gun with a new problem, or an old gun with a new problem? It's probably not the cause but might be worth checking out. Measure the outside neck diameter of a fired case (one that didn't split). It could be that the rifle is loose necked. If the neck was cut a couple of thousands on the big side, that is all that it would take to split those cases on a regular basis. You'd be exceeding the elasticity limits of the brass. Almost like excessive headspace, but only in the neck area and in diameter, rather than length.
Not all manufacturers take the time to anneal their brass. In fact, I'd say that most of the major brass out there is not. It takes up more time and adds more cost to the case mfg process. It's totally plausable that you could get stiff brass from the factory.
Not all manufacturers take the time to anneal their brass. In fact, I'd say that most of the major brass out there is not. It takes up more time and adds more cost to the case mfg process. It's totally plausable that you could get stiff brass from the factory.
I have never seen rifle brass bought in bulk meant for reloading that wasn't factory annealed.
If he was talking about reloading a once fired factory loaded case, then maybe, but I didn't get that impression.
If he was talking about reloading a once fired factory loaded case, then maybe, but I didn't get that impression.
ranger335v
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Brass splits because it's too hard, not from pressure. All normal pressure loads will expand the case to fit the chamber and that's as far as it can go.
The factories are somewhat at the mercy of their sheet brass suppliers, if some lots are too hard it had to be made that way in the original alloy OR received an improper heat treatment at the factory. Either will do it, together they will make some hard cases that split early.
A second problem is that some sizer dies squeeze the necks down far more than neccessary and then the expander stretches it back to normal. This isn't helped by neck sizing unless the neck die has a larger neck diameter. An exception to that rule is the Lee Collet Neck Sizer; it only reduces the neck to the required diameter and not a thousants more.
Third element in short neck life is the chamber it's fired in. If you have a largish chamber, a smallish sizer and hard brass the necks will split in a hurry. Otherwise, it can last a long time even without annealing.
With annealing, case life is almost indefinate. I have some 22-250 brass that's always been loaded to the gills and it's on something like it's 15th trip through my chamber so I'll anneal it soon.
The factories are somewhat at the mercy of their sheet brass suppliers, if some lots are too hard it had to be made that way in the original alloy OR received an improper heat treatment at the factory. Either will do it, together they will make some hard cases that split early.
A second problem is that some sizer dies squeeze the necks down far more than neccessary and then the expander stretches it back to normal. This isn't helped by neck sizing unless the neck die has a larger neck diameter. An exception to that rule is the Lee Collet Neck Sizer; it only reduces the neck to the required diameter and not a thousants more.
Third element in short neck life is the chamber it's fired in. If you have a largish chamber, a smallish sizer and hard brass the necks will split in a hurry. Otherwise, it can last a long time even without annealing.
With annealing, case life is almost indefinate. I have some 22-250 brass that's always been loaded to the gills and it's on something like it's 15th trip through my chamber so I'll anneal it soon.
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