Split case necks - Hornady brass

[603 Country]

I just use a vibratory unit and the walnut shell media to polish up cases. Back when I just had bolt guns, I wondered why everybody talked about brass polishing. I’d just shoot, cycle the bolt slowly and take the brass from the gun. Deer hunting, I only needed one bullet. My idea of polishing brass was cleaning the neck with steel wool. But, with the addition of ARs to the family armory, I now have dirty brass.

For many years I never annealed, but started a couple years ago on my Lapua 223 brass. I wanted it to last a bit longer, and I wanted more uniform neck tension. It seems to have worked, though annealing is not my favorite task. And now that I have ‘good’ brass, we’ll see how many reloads I can get before neck splits. I’ll just hold the spent Hornady brass for possible future use. I just don’t think that brass is up to spec.