6.5x55 swede reloading help

[skidooman603]

I have been reloading this caliber for years. Sunday I went to the range to test some new recipes I worked up. I brought two of my swedish mausers. They were relativly mild loads. In one of my rifles the loads showed no adverse affects on the cases. The exact same load in the other rifle split every case neck. Two different loads. Equally mild. What in the world do I have going on with the rifle that the case necks are splitting? Confused and no answers from my reloading friends.

 

[rcmodel]

It has nothing to do with the rifles other then one has a larger chamber neck area then the other one.

The actual problem is old brass, or brass that has been reloaded so many times the necks have work hardened.

Anneal them before you reload them again and that should fix it.

rc

 

[skidooman603]

I would like to believe that is the case but why one rifle and not the other? Other fact is this brass was maybe only on its third loading, tops. Hmm...??

 

[Slamfire]

Measure the OD of the fired case necks and compare against rifles.

But I really don't know if the split cases are going to cause funny measurements.

Pouring Cerrosafe down the chambers would give accurate measurements.

I have one Ruger 308 that was factory cut with a reamer that allows a lot of case neck expansion. More case necks split in that chamber, than the "tighter" rifles. But it is not 100% or anything.

100% case neck splitting is unusual.

 

[skidooman603]

Going to try brand new brass loaded back to absolute min and see what I get. Never in 20 years of reloading have I ever had a neck split. Kind of freaked me out

 

[10 Spot Terminator]

I had some new out of the box S & B ammo for a Mosin Nagant case split on the first firings . I pulled the rest of the rounds down, annealed the necks using the propane torch in a 1/2 filled pan of water method and resized the cases and reassembled the rounds . Problem solved . I do anneal the necks on all of my "Amercan" made brass after every 3rd firing as have seen a couple split before with as little as 4 firings when resizing in other calibres i shoot. I do this even on neck sized only cases and have not had a repeat issue at all. BTW the Nagant chamber is a very nice and tight unit. I did the cerrosafe chamber cast to eliminate that as a possible problem first thing .

 

[skidooman603]

Thanks 10