Please keep in mind this is only my experience in my rifle, not “statistical valid proof testing” in any way shape or form. And if you think that I am full of crap, that is OK, you won’t be standing alone. I still buy Winchester brass. I just anneal it before I load it. Your mileage may vary.
Ok, the batch of Winchester brass that got me into annealing was new 223 shot out of a rifle that I have been loading for, for about two years, using the standard load that I almost always use. After firing all 100 cartridges I had 33 split necks. After I got my annealing setup ready this batch of 100 became my test batch. They have been annealed then loaded 4 more times. At the forth loading I ended up with 64 cases left. I will continue to load and keep track of this batch until I get tired of messing with it. It worried me because This batch was one bag of ten, and I didn’t want to lose 1000 rounds of brass. Since I have started annealing the new brass, I am not getting a noticeable amount of split necks.
And, somehow, I ended up with a few boxes of Winchester 223 target ammunition. I shot up a box trying it out. It didn’t shoot in anything I own so I pulled the bullets to try some Mexican Match. That didn’t work either, so I ended up replacing the bullets and powder. They shoot pretty well, however in the last batch of 120 I pulled, I found three split necks. This is in unfired, factory loaded ammunition. Unfortunately, this brass is not going to get annealed before firing. Annealing brass with the primer in just doesn’t work for me.
