Rick

Just for grins, how exactly does all that cleaning pay off in the long run? In case you have an accident and have to take the ammo to the ER, its clean

Big-- I had it in my sig line for that one reply so you'd get a grin, now I took it off my profile and its gone from that post too.....

Jeff

See rost, we just like to have fun on here, nobody would bust yer chops too bad unless you acted like a total d*&^. And I see you have a sense of humor too!! Trust me after reading hundreds of posts about "I get .50" groups at 300 yards", you learn to develope a sense of humor. The only two you gotta watch out for is when Big Country and Stubblejumper start going at it, you just kinda sit back and watch and see how the dust settles. And I dont think they really are that bad, they just differ on some of their opinions.

p.s. since you have an auto trimmer, Ill just mail you all 2,856 casings I need trimmed next week and you can do em for me ok?

Rost, glad you take it as a joke. So many folks shooting have a corncob up the hind end. They make a great hobby into an unhappy experience being too serious.

I know why cleaning doesn't help you shooting smaller caliber material. I would either. But for "hunting calibers" like I or mossy shoots, it pays off. The 300RUM and even 300Win mag brass cannot be shot near as many times as your 223. I believe it has much more potenital to have case erruption or cracked necks. I have loaded 223 brass upwards of 10 times with no issues. I have loaded 300RUM 3 times and started getting cracked necks. Cleaning helps me identify that. Also keeps build up of carbon in my dies from happening.

Lastly during load developement, I have a habit of using a sharpy to separate out my loads. I have a horrible habit of trading and buying new guns every month it seems. So I spend 90% of my time in load development. But I love working up the loads. So cleaning helps me get all that writting off which confuses me after a few times. I note a check for runout and the load. I used to use mineral spirits but don't like that crap on my hands, and end up its easier dropping it in some media and being done with it.

Big

Thanks for the info. On the cracked neck issues-- I'm sure its metallurgy issues and RUM is not the best brass. I may have to look at getting a batch of 100 good pieces of RUM brass and then annealing it on every firing. Food for thought anyway. Though there will be no way to save the primer pockets. Unless the pockets are an issue of soft brass in the head area which is extremely possible. The case is so big, they may have the metalurgy engineered to where if you tried to push way up into 70kpsi or more pressure ranges the pockets expand. A bunch of us are totally in agreement thats what Federal is doing with their 223 brass. It may be a company CYA issue.

Jeff

With talk like that Rost495 it sounds like you must shoot alot, what da ya think? 15k per year or so? I was just wondering you didnt say this post how often you shoot?

I like Federals brass for consistency but find the loose primer pocket also. I just picked up 1000 pieces of gold metal brass from armorer for my 308. I just wonder how much shooting I will get out of it over the loose primer pockets.

One thing I can say about remington brass. I really have loose primer pockets. I crack necks before. I used to anneal but found I only got one maybe two more firings from the 300RUM or weathby. Usually my accuracy started falling off too, so even without cracked necks or stretched webbing, I sold or tossed.

How do you anneal? I use a "lazy susuan spin stand and bucket cut in half with water to the shoulders. Very time consumming. I figure since you load alot, you might use a big olepan so you can put several pieces of brass in at a time.

MO-- actually I rarely fire over 8k a year. I just get stuck with loading for juniors and the wife. And sometimes for an 8 man shooting team......

Bigcountry

I anneal so much that all I do is sit on the floor watching tv. 5 gal bucket of water about 3/4 full. I spin the cases in my fingers and drop the cases in the water when I can't hold em anymore. Guaranteed not to mess with the metallurgy of the head. And even allows red necks almost in 223. I normally have the lights down and once I see the necks even starting towards straw to red color they are gone. Not scientific. Accused that it cannot be even. But in the feel of seating they are much more even than non annealed ones.

Its strange that you still crack necks even with annealing-- I may have to research some more. It may just be the beast. Curious though-- is your neck dimension in the chamber a factory chamber and possibly you are sizing the neck too much. Wrong neck bushing etc..?? Of course with loose pockets the necks are a non issue anyway.

Jeff

Yea, I overowork the brass from the start on these cases. Right from the start, I expanded the new necks so I could neck turned them down to .014". Then, neck turned. Then with all that working, I FL sized them all cause some of my bullets had little to no neck tension. Then my necks started getting thicker, which I hoped for after 3 firings. Then started getting thinner. I was told at a point the shoulders would quit providing brass flow. When they got thinner, cracking even after annealing. It only cracked on say 5 pieces out of 100. I got like 600 pieces of 300RUM I didn't neck turn and has been shot 3 times. I planned on annealing them, but just don't have the time yet. I use the welding cayon for heat. I havn't mastered the feel. Don't know if I ever will. I am unfortunately diabetic, and feeling on the ends of my fingers and toes vary quite a bit.

I really should invest in a bushing die.