From mikew@hpbs701.boi.hp.com

I've been forming 7mmTCU brass for about two years now. I use a Dillon RL550B press and find that it feels difficult. I've done with and without lubricating the inside of the neck. I've used both graphite and mica as the lube and can feel no difference. The number of split cases in the press is less when I use mica than when I don't so I now use the mica when I form the cases.

After the cases have been formed and fired I use a neck size die for subsequent reloads.

About one in a hundred rounds that I fire, the brass separates. I can pull the primer-end of the case out, but the front half gets stuck in the chamber. Usually I can pull the front half out with a small screwdriver but a few times I've had to take it to the gunsmith to have it removed.

What causes the case to break? Is there something I can do to prevent it? Is the a tool available to remove the broken brass without damaging the chamber?

From: Michael Phelps <mjp@wa.fc.hp.com>

I've been told that a cleaning rod with the appropriate size brush on it can sometimes be used to push the remainder of the case out. Did I put enough weasel words in that sentence :)

Seems like it might be worth a try.

From: njohnson@nosc.mil (Norman F. Johnson)

This called head separation and is due to excessive case stretching. It can be predicted by examining fired brass for incipient head separation.

In a normal firing sequence, the initial primer explosion sets the primer back to the face of the bolt. Then as the powder ignites and the pressure rises, the case obturation seals the case against the chamber walls. Since normal pressures are not high enough to cause obturation in the thick case head area, the case is stretched in the vicinity of the case head-case wall juncture until the case base comes in contact with the bolt face.

If the headspace is great enough, (or the case shoulder has been set back excessively) incipient, or even total case head separation will have occurred.

Excessive headspace, or in your circumstance where the case shoulder has been set back too far, can be corrected. To do this, fire form your cases so that headspace clearance is virtually zero:

1. Make sure ALL cases are trimmed to correct length. Degrease thoroughly. Chamber EACH unloaded case to assure ease of chambering.

2. Use a reloading manual to find the lightest load for the powder of your choice. I prefer the faster powders for this job as it makes for a more economical approach but find that any reasonable choice will produce good results. Charge 10 cases.

3. Seat bullets out so that they must be forced into the lands for the fire forming load. DO NOT DO THIS FOR FULL LOADS. Do not extract a chambered round unless necessary as the bullet may remain in the rifling and powder will be strewn throughout your action. Fire.

4. The above will properly blow out the shoulder instead of stretching the case at the base/wall juncture and will set the headspace to zero for your rifle.

5. If full forming is evident, load the rest of your batch and fire. If not, increase one grain and try again.

I find that even new cases, because they must be factory sized to fit the smallest chambers out there, need to be prepared as I have detailed if long brass life is to be expected.

After completion of the five steps above, my practice is to set the full length resizing die so that only 90%-95% of the neck is resized. Using this approach I have not ever had a case head separate -- and that is after scores of thousands of really heavy loads in all sorts of guns.

After a number of reloads, should one noticed that the brass is becoming difficult to chamber, set the resizing die down a hair at a time until chambering becomes normal. STOP THERE! Also at this time check for incipient head separation, over-length cases and brass flow that has caused excessive neck wall thickness.

When the fire forming method that I explained is used, headspace clearance is set to zero because the case is formed to completely fill the gun's chamber. It does not set headspace or change it in any way - it merely sets the CLEARANCE to zero which, in effect, makes that (fire formed) brass/chamber independent of headspace.

It may coincidentally improve accuracy because of the closer tolerances that result - it is not done to accurize the load but to improve brass life - and particularly to prevent (or at least drastically reduce) head separation - an occurrence that can be hazardous to the shooter.

God Bless!

Norm

From major@rodent.ecn.uoknor.edu

Case head separation is usually caused by the brass flowing up into the neck area of the cartridge, thinning the web area just ahead of the case mead (it's called the "head", but it's at the *bottom* of the case). You can make a feeler gage out of a long, thin piece of wire, sharpened at the end and bent 90 degrees. You can feel when the web area starts to thin and develops a ring that the feeler will "catch" in. You can also make a broken case extractor out of strong spring wire. You form it into a long, thin "U" shape, with hooks at the ends of the "U" to grab the mouth of the stuck case. The "U" needs to be long enough to pass through the broken case and have a little left over to be able to pull with.

From: mkilpela@mtu.edu Mark E. Kilpela

Try annealing the cases before resizing. Start with the cases in a frying pan (low pan) filled with water, so the water level is about half way up the case and heat each to a cherry red with a propane torch then push it over in the water to quench it. The cases should be deprimed so there isn't any air trapped in the case when it's quenched.

From: Bob Hopf <Spool@gnn.com

I've have this problem with 22 Hornets, always with older brass. It doesn't happen often but it's a real pain a the range. I 'rubed' a broken case extractor by using a tap sized to the neck and a plastic tube around the tap to protect the chamber. I screw the tap in a couple of turns and give the 'T' handle of the tap a sharp pull to extract the broken case. This is kinda-like what a stuck case extractor does for a sizing die

From: njohnson@nosc.mil Norman F. Johnson

Glenn,

> But case life and stretch is not that great. After shooting > factory ammo (Fed 120 Flst points) the case varies in length at > about 2.032, the limit is 2.040 trim to 2.030 and shoulder dia > had grown .007 - .008. Still within limits but this shows how bad > the case stretches. I'm only getting 2-3 reloads before I have to > trim, and 5 - 6 loads total. Is the 7-30 Improved any better?

It is not at all unusual for the long, thin necked cases to stretch more than others, depending on your chamber dimensions and sizing habits. The first firing generally lengthens the case the most because it forms to the chamber dimensions. Then the standard resizing method, when the expander button is pulled out of the case, lengthens it even more than does firing.

To counter this, and for other reasons, I switched to the Lyman "M" die many years ago and find that it causes almost no case lengthening. It also makes starting the bullet a pleasure rather than an exasperation.

I remove or grind down the regular expander button so that it has no expanding action.

As for case life, you should be getting many more than 5-6 re- loads. I do not know what you use as a case life indicator, but I have loaded the same .30-30 cases for years.

The way to vastly prolong brass life is to make sure that sizing and firing actions make only minimal case dimensional changes. The answer that I have found to work well across-the-board is controlled (partial) sizing using a full length resizing die.

For those who have read this before please excuse but the question seems to come up often.

Fitting your lot of cases to a given rifle will pay off in case life increase. To do that I use a little known, but not original, technique:

Using a light charge of powder, seat a heavy (long) bullet into the case just enough so that it will not fall out during normal handling. Single load. The intention here is to cause the bullet to be jammed into the origin of the rifling by the bolt. When the round is fired the case will not be pushed forward by the firing pin but rather the shoulder will be blown forward thereby forming the case to the chamber, resulting in zero headspace clearance.

Then, using a match or candle, smoke the case neck and shoulder of one fired case. Back off your sizing die several turns and size the fired case. Turn the die down in steps until you have sized the case (as indicated by the removed carbon) 90% - 95% of the neck length. Be sure that you stop short of the point where the die touches the case shoulder. Once the proper amount of sizing is determined, lock the die at that position in the press.

The above should be done using the MINIMUM recommended charge for any given powder. This technique has been used many years and it works. DO NOT use maximum charges with this method as pressures can become excessive. I use reject cast bullets to do the forming.

The above has an additional advantage in that with 90% - 95% resizing, the case base (pressure ring) is reduced back to normal diameter, a feature that the neck-only sizer does not offer. This is particularly important to those that do relative pressure testing according to the Ken Waters' method.

I have had only one rifle that required slightly touching the shoulder with the sizing die after each firing. It was Model 94 Winchester.

I have been an active shooter for a lot of years and have not ever had a case head separation. Maintaining a zero headspace clearance condition by this method is the reason. My old Lee- Enfield No. 1, Mark 3* has about .020" extra headspace when measured by conventional methods but has effective headspace clearance of zero because of the above practice. I have been shooting it since 1957 without the first problem. All my rifles are set up this way.

For semi-auto lever action rifles and the Contender, partial resizing after firing works only some of the time. The problem is, depending upon that particular rifle's design characteristics and idiosyncrasies, case dimensions may increase enough after a number of firings that they will no longer chamber reliably. If this is the instance with your gun, lube a case that hesitates to chamber reliably and tweak your sizer die down about 1/16th of a turn at a time then run the case into the die. Attempt to chamber between each 1/16th turn and resizing. When the case chambers with just the slightest resistance (or ideally, with zero headspace clearance) lock the sizing die. It is doubtful that you will ever have to change that die setting again (using the same press, of course). I have even used the above for my T/C Contenders, which have no camming action to close them, with 100% success. Standard full length resizing is OK, but this method will in- crease case life quite a bit and, more important, practically eliminate case failure due to head separation.

God Bless!

Norm

>From what I have seen written here, evidently Bullberry barrels have very tight chambers. My 16 1/4" Bullberry .223 will not chamber ammo prepared for my two .223 bolt rifles.

However, the very bright ring that you experienced is called incipient head separation. It is due to excessive headspace clearance - NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH EXCESSIVE (chamber) HEAD- SPACE. Bear with me.

The most important early warning of case failure is that bright ring at the juncture of the case wall and case base. This is where case stretch that is due to headspace tolerance or sizing die dimensions/setting occurs and is referred to as incipient head separation. The bright ring that I refer to is pretty recognizable in that it has a crystalline appearance and is likely to be about 1/8" or so wide. Do not confuse this with the abrupt ring that appears at the same juncture when a relatively sloppy chamber is encountered. One can check to see if incipient head separation has occurred by using a bent paper clip to feel inside the case. If it is present, an abrupt, easy to feel ridge will be apparent and these cases must not be used again.

A rimless bottleneck case, when loaded with relatively low pressure loads, can have its shoulder set back by the healthy blow of the firing pin. This results, effectively, in that case generating an excessive headspace condition. A subsequent firing then, will result in one of two situations. It will either fail to fire, or will stretch the case at the base/wall juncture which is denoted by that "very bright ring above the base" that you described; incipient head separation. This ring can be observed immediately after firing. Once this warning sign is observed, the case must not be used again because the next firing will almost certainly result in a head separation.

The .35 Remington is particularly susceptible to the above described events because it, even in factory loads, is a low pressure load that occasionally exhibits these tendencies. I have had it happen in both my Contender .35 Remington barrel and in a Marlin lever .35 Remington.

Once one understands the problem, the cure is simple.

Prepare brass to fit your particular chamber. This is done as follows: (apologies to all of you who have read this before)

1. Make sure ALL cases are trimmed to correct length. Degrease cases and chamber thoroughly. Chamber EACH unloaded case to assure ease of chambering.

2. Use a reloading manual to find the lightest load for the powder/bullet of your choice. My reject cast bullets are used to accomplish this for sake of economy. I prefer the faster powders for this job as it makes for a more economical approach but find that any reasonable choice will produce good results. Charge 10 cases.

3. Seat bullets out so that they must be forced into the lands for the fire forming load. DO NOT DO THIS WITH FULL LOADS. Do not extract a chambered round unless necessary (carefully) or the bullet will remain in the rifling and powder will be strewn throughout your action. Fire.

4. The above will hold the case base back against the breach face and properly blow out the shoulder instead of stretching the case at the base/wall juncture and will set the headspace clearance for your chamber to zero.

5. If full forming is evident, load the rest of your batch and fire. If not, increase one grain and try again (I have yet need to do this).

Even new cases, because they must be factory sized to fit the smallest chambers out there, need to be prepared as I have de- tailed if long brass life is to be expected.

After completion of the five steps above, my practice is to set the resizing die so that only 90-95% of the neck is resized. Using this approach I have not ever had a case head separate -- and that is after scores of thousands of really heavy loads in all sorts of bottleneck chambers.

After a number of reloads, should one noticed that the brass is becoming difficult to chamber, set the resizing die down a hair (1/16 turn) at a time until chambering becomes normal. STOP THERE!

A tip:

When using some lots of once fired military brass, a somewhat similar technique can be used. Many military rifles have over- length chambers and brass fired in them will not chamber in sporting chambers because the case has been stretched. Take advantage of the situation when preparing the brass for reloading. Back off your die as mentioned above, then, in steps, size the empty brass case until it will just chamber. Subsequent firing will fit it perfectly to your chamber.

Another tip:

Some once-fired military brass is so stretched that it is dangerous to reload under any conditions. I once had a lot of about 1000 .308 cases that were so stretched (about 30% of them). Use a bent paper clip to examine the inside of the case immediately forward of the base. If incipient head separation is present you will be able to feel the stretched (thinned down) ring because it is very abrupt. DO NOT use brass that has this condition. You may want to section one of these cases to see the very thin region that has been stretched excessively. It will impress you that the case is not safe to reload!

When the fire forming method that I explained is used, headspace clearance is set to zero because the case is formed to completely fill the gun's chamber. It does not set the gun's headspace or change it in any way - it merely sets the CLEARANCE to zero which, in effect, makes that (fire formed) brass/chamber independent of headspace. It in effect, makes a "tight chamber".

It may coincidentally improve accuracy because of the closer tolerances that result - it is not done to accurize the load but to improve brass life - and particularly to prevent (or at least drastically reduce) head separation - an occurrence that can be hazardous to the shooter.

God Bless!

Norm