Discuss handloading, reloading and presses here.
 #95284  by stephpd
 
Owen wrote:I was building up some more 300BLK loads and I noticed an odd 'ripple' or bulge in the cases right under the shoulder. It turns out that the bras I annealed was soft a little to far down and actually buckled and shortened when I seated a bullet. :shock: I pulled the bullet out of them and threw the brass out. I'll have to be more careful heating the case necks if I make any more brass. I need to heat them for a shorter time so the heat affected zone is smaller.

Reloading definitely has a lot of opportunities to learn. :D
I had that happen to a couple .223 rounds. Seating/ crimping die was set up too tight. My fix was to use a separate Lee factory crimp die and loosen up the seating die so that wouldn't happen again.

Annealing brass is a true art and something I don't even try. But they do make heat 'paint' to let you know when it's hot enough. Cherry red would be way too hot. Unlike steel, brass doesn't have a noticeable red color change at the temps you're looking for when annealing.


If it were me I'd be using one of the machines verses any hand type method for uniformity.





 #95289  by Owen
 
stephpd wrote:
Owen wrote:I was building up some more 300BLK loads and I noticed an odd 'ripple' or bulge in the cases right under the shoulder. It turns out that the bras I annealed was soft a little to far down and actually buckled and shortened when I seated a bullet. :shock: I pulled the bullet out of them and threw the brass out. I'll have to be more careful heating the case necks if I make any more brass. I need to heat them for a shorter time so the heat affected zone is smaller.

Reloading definitely has a lot of opportunities to learn. :D
I had that happen to a couple .223 rounds. Seating/ crimping die was set up too tight. My fix was to use a separate Lee factory crimp die and loosen up the seating die so that wouldn't happen again.

Annealing brass is a true art and something I don't even try. But they do make heat 'paint' to let you know when it's hot enough. Cherry red would be way too hot. Unlike steel, brass doesn't have a noticeable red color change at the temps you're looking for when annealing.


If it were me I'd be using one of the machines verses any hand type method for uniformity.
Where were you last week!

j/k :D

I am using the Lee FCD and set it to just keep the bullet from moving, but good point for sure. I've seen annealing done many ways and I agree that I went over board. Live and learn I guess. I'd buy a machine but they aren't cheap and I need that money for bullets and powder. I have plenty of brass and access to more so a few lost for the cause is no biggie me.

Thanks for the pointers! I am still learning this stuff and need all the help I can get!
 #95993  by Owen
 
Update: I think that my failure to feed issues have been from my over-soft brass after my over-zealous "annealing".

I shot a few more rounds Monday and noticed that the reloaded factorry 300 AAC Blackout brass was working while the brass I converted was not. My guess would be that the softer brass was actually expanding too much thereby not directing the energy forward and instead "swelling" in the chamber. The swelling could have caused too much friction when the brass moved back also.

I remade a batch with nikel plated factory 300 brass to test tonight. If I am right, then I think I am on the road to a better load. :D

I'll just have to throw out my "burnt" batch and make some fresh. Sounds like my popcorn skills. :roll: :lol:
 #95994  by cj45lc
 
"burnt batch"...lol
 #96010  by Owen
 
I shot the new loads in the factory brass last night and they cycled fine. I'm going to call my suspicion 'confirmed'. Now I need to make some more converted brass and load it up. 8-)
 #96364  by Owen
 
Update: Last night after AP shot off some loaded factory brass and some converted brass (non-annealed) and .... they all worked! :pbjtime:

Actually, I think I may be able to bring the load down a little. :roll: Or I could just stick with what works! :mrgreen:
 #96404  by cj45lc
 
Good deal Owen, glad you didn't burn that batch lol
 #96405  by Owen
 
Thanks for the kind words guys!
 #97869  by Owen
 
I haven't updated this for awhile so I figure I'd post something.

I put a free float rail on my 300BLK upper but misaligned the gas port to the low profile gas block. fast forward to a week or two ago and I go that sorted out with some better alignment and a fail zero bolt from Viper (nice bolt!). Now I cycle factory and hand loads just fine.

I've been shooting a mixture of reloaded factory 300BLk and reformed .223 brass. I got lucky one day and the guy before me at Ommelanden was shooting factory 300BLK and let me have his spent the brass! :pbjtime: Weird though that 300 whisper he left had crimped primers? :roll:

I'm still having an occasional failure to feed with the reformed brass. I caliper measured about ten loaded reformed brass rounds last night and compared to factory and the SAMMI specs sheet it seems good. I'll have to hand cycle a few loaded through to see if I have one bad piece of reformed brass or if it is something else. All the reloaded factory 300BLK brass works fine with the same bullet/load so I am thinking I need to check my shoulder forming. I really need to get a case gauge but I've had a hard time sourcing one so far. Calipers get old. lol