ajgunner
Member
I have posted these pics and information before---maybe 5 years back.
I have been reloading 44mag since the early 80's when I realized this was the only way I could afford to shoot any volume. I pretty much load middle of the road of what the books show and use mostly the older powders like Unique and 2400. I shoot mostly lead and in the past few years coated lead. When I load "hot" but still "book" loads I am using mostly H110 and jacketed bullets. All of my 44's are Redhawks in different barrel lengths. One day I had a few split cases, so as most would do I just trashed them and moved on. I have never been one to try and keep a count of how many rounds a revolver has been fired or how many times a piece of brass has been loaded. If/when the most common visual brass defects start showing up (tiny mouth splits), these go into the recycle bucket. I generally tumble in walnut and if I really want them shiny will then run them in corncob with a tablespoon of Dillons blue polish. The last little bottle lasted me over 10 years.
Next trip or 2 out shooting I had more of the brass split so I started saving it aside. For those that don't know this---if you eject the spent brass into your hand and jingle it, if there is even the smallest split or crack it gives off a distinctive different sound. Some were difficult to extract but nothing hard enough to use anything other than a palm hit. Well on yet another trip I had a few more so stated to investigate.
First though was the possibility of a chamber being out of spec but this had happened with several different revolvers. The actual loads varied a little but for the most part were all just middle of the road loads with 240gr lead semi-wadcutters. It took me probably 3-5 shooting sessions until I quit seeing the problem. Of course by then I had a bunch, and at around 20 cents each I was bummed at loosing a bunch of brass. Then I noticed the head stamps---yep, every single piece was WWW. I gave them a call but without having the original box the ammo came out of, and because it was my handloads, I was pretty much told I was either tumbling them in the wrong chemicals, or it could have possibly come from a bad batch of their brass. With no lot number or knowing anything about the original loadings, the conversation ended there. Of course they offered nothing other than good luck.
So say what you want about what might be causing your issue, but ever since I weeded out all of the WWW head stamped brass, I have never loaded another single piece of it. And guess what---I have also not had a single piece of brass split like this since. In all I came up with around 120 pieces all similar to what the pics show.
I am now an exclusive user of Star Line in 38sp, 357mag, 44mag, and never going back. Anything other than Star Line that I come across, II either sell or give away.
I have been reloading 44mag since the early 80's when I realized this was the only way I could afford to shoot any volume. I pretty much load middle of the road of what the books show and use mostly the older powders like Unique and 2400. I shoot mostly lead and in the past few years coated lead. When I load "hot" but still "book" loads I am using mostly H110 and jacketed bullets. All of my 44's are Redhawks in different barrel lengths. One day I had a few split cases, so as most would do I just trashed them and moved on. I have never been one to try and keep a count of how many rounds a revolver has been fired or how many times a piece of brass has been loaded. If/when the most common visual brass defects start showing up (tiny mouth splits), these go into the recycle bucket. I generally tumble in walnut and if I really want them shiny will then run them in corncob with a tablespoon of Dillons blue polish. The last little bottle lasted me over 10 years.
Next trip or 2 out shooting I had more of the brass split so I started saving it aside. For those that don't know this---if you eject the spent brass into your hand and jingle it, if there is even the smallest split or crack it gives off a distinctive different sound. Some were difficult to extract but nothing hard enough to use anything other than a palm hit. Well on yet another trip I had a few more so stated to investigate.
First though was the possibility of a chamber being out of spec but this had happened with several different revolvers. The actual loads varied a little but for the most part were all just middle of the road loads with 240gr lead semi-wadcutters. It took me probably 3-5 shooting sessions until I quit seeing the problem. Of course by then I had a bunch, and at around 20 cents each I was bummed at loosing a bunch of brass. Then I noticed the head stamps---yep, every single piece was WWW. I gave them a call but without having the original box the ammo came out of, and because it was my handloads, I was pretty much told I was either tumbling them in the wrong chemicals, or it could have possibly come from a bad batch of their brass. With no lot number or knowing anything about the original loadings, the conversation ended there. Of course they offered nothing other than good luck.
So say what you want about what might be causing your issue, but ever since I weeded out all of the WWW head stamped brass, I have never loaded another single piece of it. And guess what---I have also not had a single piece of brass split like this since. In all I came up with around 120 pieces all similar to what the pics show.
I am now an exclusive user of Star Line in 38sp, 357mag, 44mag, and never going back. Anything other than Star Line that I come across, II either sell or give away.


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