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Hornady brass

diamond hitch

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I pulled the eld-x bullets I had loaded after seeing how poorly they performed. When I punched the primers out of two of the shells, the rims pulled off with very little pressure. These were new shells that had never been fired. Has anyone else experienced this?
 
Not that particular issue, but 3 out of 10 rounds of 300 Weatherby handloads had the spent primers fall out after shooting. They were not max loads. Haven’t been able to warm up to Hornady brass after that.
Moved on to Nosler brass and couldn’t be happier.
 
Diamond,

Your not mentioning what cartridge your loading for.
While i've never run accross that issue, perhaps changing to a different manufacturer is in order.
 
I handload 7-08 and use a lot of hornady cases. They perform well for me and I have never had anything like that happen. I did recently buy 250 Starline cases.
 
I've not had good luck with Hornady brass, unfortunately. It seems a bit brittle & overly hard. I've not had the issue you have with that brass, but I have had loose primer pockets & case head separation after only a couple of loadings. Neck splits happen quite a bit as well.
 
I fought with their 280AI brass being out of spec. They sent me replacements after I had to cull 20% of the original batch. So far the replacements are good enough however I am seeing some case head separation on the 3rd firing and my loads aren't too hot. I've started to toss a few and will replace with something else.

In my 7mm08 (old brass I've had hiding away) they have been great so maybe it's old stock vs new stock.
 
I fought with their 280AI brass being out of spec. They sent me replacements after I had to cull 20% of the original batch. So far the replacements are good enough however I am seeing some case head separation on the 3rd firing and my loads aren't too hot. I've started to toss a few and will replace with something else.

In my 7mm08 (old brass I've had hiding away) they have been great so maybe it's old stock vs new stock.
What was out of spec on the brass?

Case head separations don’t have much, if anything, to do with hot loads. Case heads separate due to excesses case growth. Cases grow when you fire them, and when you size them. Cases with limited body and shoulder taper like an AI grow MUCH less in firing than cases with lots of taper like 220 Swift. Being an AI you shouldn’t be gettin separations in so few shots. It’s possible that you’re sizing your case excessively, or perhaps that Hornady just really sucks.

Case head separations can be dangerous. You can usually see that one is right around corner before it happens. Most of the time there will be a visible light colored ring where the case has stretched. If you tumble your brass after every firing, you should inspect it for that sign before you tumble it. You can also feel the ring on the inside of the case if you bend a a hook on a paper clip and run it up and down on the inside of the case. Your storage container can rub a ring on your case that looks similar, but A) you can’t feel it in the inside, and B) when you drop your case in the box you will see that the box is rubbing right where the ring is.

I attached some pictures. In the pic with five cases, it’s faint, but the three cases on the left would probably result in case head separations on the next firing. In the pic with two cases it’s actually just a rub mark from the ammo box. The other pic shows the ammo box and how it rubs on the cases right where the mark is. The mark looks concerning, but unlike in the first case, it’s a false alarm.
 

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I haven't had that problem I did have a problem with some of my hornady brass not firing out of my 45-70 and went and bought a new box and had no problems.
 
What was out of spec on the brass?

Case head separations don’t have much, if anything, to do with hot loads. Case heads separate due to excesses case growth. Cases grow when you fire them, and when you size them. Cases with limited body and shoulder taper like an AI grow MUCH less in firing than cases with lots of taper like 220 Swift. Being an AI you shouldn’t be gettin separations in so few shots. It’s possible that you’re sizing your case excessively, or perhaps that Hornady just really sucks.

Case head separations can be dangerous. You can usually see that one is right around corner before it happens. Most of the time there will be a visible light colored ring where the case has stretched. If you tumble your brass after every firing, you should inspect it for that sign before you tumble it. You can also feel the ring on the inside of the case if you bend a a hook on a paper clip and run it up and down on the inside of the case. Your storage container can rub a ring on your case that looks similar, but A) you can’t feel it in the inside, and B) when you drop your case in the box you will see that the box is rubbing right where the ring is.

I attached some pictures. In the pic with five cases, it’s faint, but the three cases on the left would probably result in case head separations on the next firing. In the pic with two cases it’s actually just a rub mark from the ammo box. The other pic shows the ammo box and how it rubs on the cases right where the mark is. The mark looks concerning, but unlike in the first case, it’s a false alarm.
The cases didn't fit in Hornady shell holders. I don't remember what diameter of the case head but many were out of round. I suspect they were damaged by a machine as some had squared off. Others had missing chunks of brass as if they used poor quality brass to form. I have pics somewhere because I don't really know how to describe it but it's been a couple years so I may have deleted.

I had the rifle (Kimber Hunter) inspected thinking it the cause of the case head separation as part of Kimber checking the chamber for a burr (there is a post about that somewhere). They found the bur and the chamber was within specs. I've been doing a shoulder bump process with these so it's more of a psuedo full length resize. I considered maybe my dies were wonky but I'm trying to size them as little as possible to get them to last. I'll probably switch to Peterson brass after I fire all of the loaded ammo.
 
The cases didn't fit in Hornady shell holders. I don't remember what diameter of the case head but many were out of round. I suspect they were damaged by a machine as some had squared off. Others had missing chunks of brass as if they used poor quality brass to form. I have pics somewhere because I don't really know how to describe it but it's been a couple years so I may have deleted.

I had the rifle (Kimber Hunter) inspected thinking it the cause of the case head separation as part of Kimber checking the chamber for a burr (there is a post about that somewhere). They found the bur and the chamber was within specs. I've been doing a shoulder bump process with these so it's more of a psuedo full length resize. I considered maybe my dies were wonky but I'm trying to size them as little as possible to get them to last. I'll probably switch to Peterson brass after I fire all of the loaded ammo.
Interesting. You can definitely end up over sizing when the chamber and the sizing die aren’t good matches for each other. The brass I posted that was nearing a case head separation had been fired 6-8 times, and the sizing die was definitely not a good fit for the chamber. I have changed dies and expect longer brass life. I’ve had cases go over thirty that were usually neck sized, and occasionally body sized.

None of my experiences involved Hornady brass. It sounds pretty awful. The only thing I recommend from Hornady is prairie dog bullets.
 
I bought a rcbs case puller that worked well on the first one but on the second the tap broke. Brass too hard or tap too weak? Seemed strange using a 3 inch cresant. First time I have seen any problems in 50 years of reloading. I have plenty of casings but should I get the urge for more I think I will shop from a differant stack.
 
I’m not a huge fan of Hornady brass. The Hornady brass that I have had has been hard and has had rims that were out of spec.

I like their bullets though
 
I bought a rcbs case puller that worked well on the first one but on the second the tap broke. Brass too hard or tap too weak? Seemed strange using a 3 inch cresant. First time I have seen any problems in 50 years of reloading. I have plenty of casings but should I get the urge for more I think I will shop from a differant stack.
Taps are brittle. Tap wrenches have two handles to keep you from putting side loads on them. Side loads are bad from the standpoint of cutting threads in the correct line and from the standpoint of not breaking the tap. You can also end up with problems if your drill bit was too small in diameter.
 
If you reload enough, you will become more proficient at removing stuck cases. Every now and then, for no apparent reason, the rim comes off. Things are moving along fine and poof, there she goes. Slows the operation down a little. I have had problems with Hornady developing loose primer pockets as well.
 
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