Bottleneck brass does get worn out!

[SLT223]

I have for years thought that although we gun owners don't want "Big Brother" in our business, we need mandatory education for new gun owners and perhaps even beginning handloaders. I see examples of uneducated gun owners at the private club I frequent most so often it's scary.

One guy used a folded pocket knife to hammer on the safety lever of his bolt-action rifle because it was stuck in the "On" position with a live round in the chamber. Another forgets how his safety works and needs his reading glasses to read the markings so to see if it is on or not, he just pulls the trigger after loading the gun. And a young member shooting his AR-15 for the first time was putting more bullets into the 2x4 target backer frames than into his silhouette target at 15 yards and thought that was "good enough."

Then there are the handloaders striving for the biggest fireball from their handgun loads, 9mm shooters apparently only concerned with how quickly they can empty their gun's magazines instead of where their bullets are going and rifle shooters thinking that putting five rounds into a 9" pie plate at 100 yards is sufficient for deer hunting.

We are a politically incorrect bunch that needs to be concerned about people like that giving us a black eye when their bullets wind up in places other than where they were intended. The news is too full of "bad gun" stories now.

Rant over.

Ed

New or old, if you don't shoot enough or have never shot enough, then you just don't know enough. It's not just the new guys. Here in CT there's a ton of arm chair know it alls because theres so few places to shoot i guess? Heck I didnt know how much i didnt know until I started shooting for the sake of reloading (about 1000 rounds a month double action).

The volume tought me how to tune a progressive press, how to tune a double sction revovler so my trigger finger wouldn't bleed, and how different propellants and projectiles behave. No replacement for experience.

 

[fredj338]

Max loads are NOT really the issue with head seps, it's how the rifle & dies are setup. If you run min headspace, by neck sizing or partial FL sizing &/or min spec chamber, you can run max loads & never get a head sep, I have done it with most of my hunting rigs & my best precision rifle never gets reduced loads. Some of my 260ai case in that rifle have been loaded 10x, full power loads. Primer pockets will fail before I get any signs of a head sep.
Flanged cases are a sim problem. I have a Ruger #1 in 338x74K. If I FL size, I can get a head sep in 5x reloads. Set the dies up for min headspace, by partial neck FL sizing, I can get 10x reloads before I start seeing signs of head sep & even that is just with Norma brass. I doubt you can 100% prevent it in a flanged case, especially with one that has a very small shoulder, but going form 5-10x reloads is quite an improvement.

 

[M29since14]

Max loads are NOT really the issue with head seps, it's how the rifle & dies are setup. If you run min headspace, by neck sizing or partial FL sizing &/or min spec chamber, you can run max loads & never get a head sep... Primer pockets will fail before I get any signs of a head sep.

My experience too. Never have had a .300 Winchester or a .300 Weatherby separate, but I have thrown more than a few cases away owing to a worn-out primer pocket. Thrown a lot more away due to cracked necks.

A friend was concerned about head separation with his .416 Remington. After adjusting his dies he reloaded a single Remington-brand case twenty times. (Yes, that's what he said, and I believe him.) Then he sectioned the case. No sign of oncoming separation. There's not much of a shoulder there, and I don't know how his primer pocket held up that well, but apparently he found the sweet spot with his die adjustment.

The adjustable Wilson gage has been a big help to me.

 

[Geno44]

Some actions, especially those that lock up at the rear of the bolt certainly aggravate the case stretch problem. Examples of this would be the Savage 99 and the British Enfield. I try ro stay around the starting load shown in the manual on those actions.

 

[fredj338]

Some actions, especially those that lock up at the rear of the bolt certainly aggravate the case stretch problem. Examples of this would be the Savage 99 and the British Enfield. I try ro stay around the starting load shown in the manual on those actions.

Only because they tend to develope excessive headspace. Rifles like that still benefit greatly from prope die setup.