Lateral line around the brass

[gamestalker]

I'm in the middle of a large batch of .243 win, the brass is on it's 6th or 7th loading. When I say large batch, I'm referring to 500 pieces of brass, which is a good sized batch on a single stage press.

I started resizing them on Saturday, and immediately noticed a perfect line just below the neck / top of the shoulder on about 30 or so pieces of brass prior to, and after resizing, and after tumbling. I can feel it on the inside and the outside, much like what incipient case head separation looks and feels like. I'm working with R.P., Winchester, and Federal brass, and it's only on the Federal brass.

BTW, I have annealed this brass twice, once one the first loading, and then on the last loading.

My question isn't about the integrity of the brass, given the depth of the anomaly, I know it's a pretty certain bet that the necks are probably going to separate. My question is if anyone else has been having problems with Federal brass. Up until recently, I haven't ever had a problem with Federal brass, that has all changed. Over the last year-ish, I've had some issues with Federal brass, so I wouldn't be using this Federal brass if not for the fact that this batch is from about 3+ years ago, but I'm think now that they're problems started further back than 3 or 4 years ago. I've been using Federal brass for my entire reloading life, and it's always been good to me, so this is really bumming me out.

GS

 

[SwaneeSR]

Gamestalker

Has this trend in Federal brass been across all rifle calibers?

My Federal .30-06 Brass is my favorite. I do NOT have a long enough reload history, I have some brass ready for its third shooting.

 

[gamestalker]

So far I've had problems with 243 and .270. Prior to this, I have used buckets of Federal for many years, and for many different calibers, and never had any problems. But any more, I cringe at the thought of using Federal.

Just keep an eye on it, look for signs of incipient case separations from the head to the neck.

GS

 

[FROGO207]

On my rifle brass I have so many casings in reserve that reloading through it there are not a lot of reloading cycles yet. Other than 5.56 and 7.62X51 military brass that is. That is what I shoot the most centerfire rifle ammo in. I do not sort by years so I will begin watching mine as well. Just throwing something out there for thought. I wonder if your annealing process in combination with the traditionally thin Federal brass is somehow to blame for the stretched bodies as per your description. Have you been annealing this way long before the rings appeared? Annealing is a relatively new phenomenon in mainstream reloading these days it seems, with component shortages of late and all. I do anneal my frequently used (NATO spec) brass (every 5 reloads)and have had no such problems to date.

 

[amlevin]

Case head separations can occur anywhere along the side wall of the case. I've had some brass separate right at the shoulder itself.

The key is to religiously inspect cases before reloading them-period. It can happen to all brands of brass and in all calibers.

 

[gamestalker]

I'm adamant about inspecting my brass, thus the reason why I spot problems before they ever make it to the rifle.

But what I'm referring to here, is problems that have been very specific to Federal brass. I have lots of bottle neck brass, and a lot of it is older Federal and it has been reloaded multiple times without issue. It's the newer stuff that's having problems. I have bags of older Federal 7 mag brass that's been loaded at least a dozen times, and I wouldn't hesitate to load it again.

Maybe it's an issue of over pressure factory loads that's leading to these unusual premature failures. I had an older nice Rem 700 in 7 mag that the bolt was extremely difficult to open after firing factory Federal. And it wasn't with every cartridge, some were fine, some were showing obvious over pressure.

I suppose annealing could have something to do with this lateral line at the neck / shoulder junction, but I don't personally think so. I'm just seeing too many varying issues involving Federal brass, annealed and not. And granted this is reloading, we are all subject to error, but after 3+ decades of uneventful reloading, it just doesn't add up that I'm having some issues, and they're related to Federal. I've had the now and then ugly piece of Winchester brass fresh out of the bag, but nothing that was failure related, just a cosmetic type thing.

GS

 

[stoky]

In my experience, Federal brass is some of the worst, with regard to reload-ability.