Rimmed Cartridges- Hard on Brass?

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Mauserguy

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Recently I've been shooting more rimmed brass cartridges in my guns. I've noticed in my brass, and other odd cases found at the range, that the rimmed cases show more stress than rimless cases, such as a 30-06.

Is there something about rimmed cases that make them more prone to case stress?
Mauserguy
 
Going strictly on my (somewhat) fuzzy memory....

Rimmed cased ammo in MOST rifles, headspaces on the rim. So if the headspace is well....generous, but still safe, you will stretch the case a bit more that a rifle with less headspace. Rimmless ammo, like the .30-06 (again, going from my fuzzy brain) headspaces on the shoulder or mouth of the case.


Not sure if that is entirely correct, just what I sort of vaguely remember
 
I think improper reloading and the long side of headspace have much to do with it.

.303 British is well known for very short case life, but much of the problem can be easily resolved-

Fire form the brass with the bullet jammed into the rifling, this will cause the shoulder to move forward rather than the casehead to stretch as the rim moves backwards. Set your resizing die to just slightly bump the shoulder back or use a neck sizing die. In effect whatyou are doing is making the brass headspace on the shoulder instead of the rim. many of the enfields have a chamber with grossly oversized dimensions (and often out-of-round) where there isn't much you can do about it (I have a MKII isapore enfield like this).
 
cracked butt hit it right on the head. after fire forming neck size & keep the brass rifle specific untill it you start to get hard chambering or bolt lift then full length size & start over
 
When full sizeing a rimless case you can control the headspace by using Redding Competition Shellholder Sets. There are five shellholders with which one can lengthen the case shoulder in .002 inch incrments from +.002. +.004, +.006, and +.008 0f an inch. The set can also be used to reduce the amount of the neck resized and when have the botttem of the resizing die contaction the shell holder. I dont know if Redding makes the Set for rimmed cases.
 
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