whatnickname
Member
Just wanted to follow up on the conclusion of my previous rant. I did check all of the remaining Hornady brass and saw no indication of any pending head separation. I also checked all of the remaining twice fired Federal brass that was fired in my rifle. There were no signs of head separation with any of this brass either. I then miked all the remaining once fired Federal brass to the datum line on the case shoulder and saw something I didn’t like. Seven of the fifty once fired cases showed considerable stretching on the order of .012” to .016” longer when miked to the datum line on the case shoulder than the remaining brass. I have also confirmed that in most instances, my dies match the dimensions of my rifle chamber with setback of the case shoulder not being greater than .0015”. Unfortunately the shoulder of the seven long cases were set back .014” to .017” upon resizing these cases which is a problem waiting to happen. The “No-Go” headspace gauge I ordered from Brownells (Clymer Mfg.) came today. Unfortunately my rifle will close up on the gauge, which is disappointing as from all indications, my rifle has a low round count. Now, before I start getting trashed again for going off on Hornady, I will share this with you. The once fired, resized and trimmed Hornady brass was on average, 18 grains lighter than the Federal brass, which was also resized and trimmed. While the case head separation was indeed the result of excessive head space, that Hornady brass is too light IMO...bad combination of factors!