Ruptured shoulder and neck.

[super90]

I have a Browning a bolt in 300wsm that I load for.Today I shot a few rounds and noticed that the shoulder and neck was split in three places on one of the cases. These are handloads.The loads are Winn cases fl sized,55.5gr of. Varget,lr primer and a 165 gr Hornady interlock loaded to spec.Could this have been just a bad case?



EDIT! 55.5 gr of varget.

 

[Hookturnr]

Re: Ruptured shoulder and neck.

Perhaps your brass was work hardened to the point of failure? How many firings? Was it annealed? Any other pressure signs?

 

[insight3b]

Re: Ruptured shoulder and neck.

Is it a new lot of varget? I've only used two pounds of varget the 1st showed promise so I bought another. Between the two lots I had a 1.7gr variance to get the same velocity. I load my ammo pretty stout and am really glad I bought the 'fast' lot first. If it had been viceversa and I loaded the same load with a different lot it could have been really bad. Needless to say...I stay away from Varget now

 

[jdgray]

Re: Ruptured shoulder and neck.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: insight3b</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Is it a new lot of varget? I've only used two pounds of varget the 1st showed promise so I bought another. Between the two lots I had a 1.7gr variance to get the same velocity. I load my ammo pretty stout and am really glad I bought the 'fast' lot first. If it had been viceversa and I loaded the same load with a different lot it could have been really bad. Needless to say...I stay away from Varget now </div></div>

I have seen this in Varget too....
Too good to not use, and now buy in 8# jugs.

 

[Surffshr]

Re: Ruptured shoulder and neck.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Hookturnr</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Perhaps your brass was work hardened to the point of failure? How many firings? Was it annealed? Any other pressure signs? </div></div>

This info is key. 45 grains of varget in a wsm doesn't seem like much...I've run that in a 308 before.

 

[former naval person]

Re: Ruptured shoulder and neck.

I suspect tired brass and maybe a little too much bumping and necking down. Try annealing the lot. Check your neck tension. If the FL die sizes it down too much and you use a expander ball, you are working it twice as much as you would if you use the lee collet die in conjunction with a dedicated body die to bump the shoulder when necessary.

 

[super90]

Re: Ruptured shoulder and neck.

Virgin cases. I took them out of the package sorted,cleaned and sized.There are no other Pressure signs.Hell I even weigh all of my cases.I am still on the same lot of powder from two years ago.I made a mistake it was 55.5 gr of varget.Does that sound like too much?I don't have a crono yet.

 

[former naval person]

Re: Ruptured shoulder and neck.

Not supposed to happen...but sometimes cases get through without the annealing process. Try to anneal a couple and see if it solves the problem. If not, send them in to Win.