Brass failure beside primer?

[Curmudgeon5462]

So I'm on about the 3rd-5th cycle with some .338 RUM brass (Remington brand) and using Winchester primers. I'm loading 99g of retumbo behind .250 sierra game kings and I've had 2 pieces of brass fail and allow gas to escape just beside the primer pocket.

99 grains is below max load (102) for a 250 grain bullet and Retumbo in this round, so it shouldn't be to hot. Should I look at the primer or brass as the culprit? If the primer wall is to thick I figure the brass might give out first. Am I right?

 

[matthias]

Re: Brass failure beside primer?

what velocity are you at? and how hard are the primers to seat when recapping?

 

[Curmudgeon5462]

Re: Brass failure beside primer?

Not sure on the velocity (no chrono). Should be between 2900-3000fps. Primers are easy to seat.

 

[shoot4fun]

Re: Brass failure beside primer?

Some rifles display max pressure before you get to the manual's max. I've seen this a couple of times with R700s. If your primers are seating with no pressure then you may have lost the primer pockets. That would allow gas to leak from around the primers. Measure the pockets in brass that failed against new brass.

 

[matthias]

Re: Brass failure beside primer?

my 338 lapua was 2 grains below max load and checked velocity was way high. lead me to lower the powder charge and issues i was getting went away. they were
-shiny ejector mark
-loose primers( not real bad but loose )
-some hard extraction

check velocity to absolutely know what is going on not guess then do the math and figure where you are. good luck

 

[Curmudgeon5462]

Re: Brass failure beside primer?

Thanks yall. I do get ejector marks, but I've read elsewhere (not sure how true this is) that ejector marks are a fact of life with the 700 in .338 ultra.

 

[Bigwheels]

Re: Brass failure beside primer?

Are they WLRM primers? I am waiting on winchester to test some primers that were blowing out @ the radius. Several others are having the same issue with winchester primers lately.

 

[Curmudgeon5462]

Re: Brass failure beside primer?

Yep, that's them.

 

[esromvre]

Re: Brass failure beside primer?

Look at your bolt face bet it has a ring arround the Pin hole... if they prim loose its time to chuck them...

 

[50APIT]

Re: Brass failure beside primer?

Based on the number of posts on here recently on Win LR primers, I would look at the primers causing the issues, but there still are some other possibilities.

Did you work up to this load? Did the extractor marks get heavier as the loads went up? Any stiffness raising the bolt handle? Do you have any pictures of the case heads or bolt face?

 

[DAVETOOLEY]

Re: Brass failure beside primer?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Curmudgeon5462</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Thanks yall. I do get ejector marks, but I've read elsewhere (not sure how true this is) that ejector marks are a fact of life with the 700 in .338 ultra. </div></div>

Ejector marks are a sign of chamber pressures exceeding the yield strength of the brass. That can and will vary from caliber to caliber, lot to lot and from manufacturer to manufacturer. It is the one absolute in reloading. You can't exceed that pressure limit without getting undesirable results. One of the first thing is loose primer pockets accompanied by hard bolt lift. You can't fool Mother Nature.