Grendel case trimming

[LRRPF52]

I vote for annealing Hornady, for sure. When I acquired a Grendel, I had everything I needed to load for it but brass. So, I paid too much for 200 rounds of Hornady factory 123 gr SST, with the plan or hope that I could load them 5 or 6 times to ease the pain of the price I had paid. I loaded 50 rounds with the once fired brass that I did not anneal. Of the 50 rounds, 49 cases had either split necks or shattered necks. Since then I have annealed all once fired Hornady brass, but have not reloaded any of it. I switched to Starline and have 2 reloads on 50 cases with no issues. Maybe I just got a bad batch of factory ammo.

I’ve never had a Hornady split neck yet. Early-on, I had one piece of Lapua brass split a neck, which I attribute to the fact that I was using Imperial Sizing Wax at the time and applied too much to it, overworking the neck.

I switched to Hornady One-Shot and have not had any issues since. It’s so much faster to use a spray lube anyway. I generously lube my cases, to include ensuring that lube gets inside the necks.

I let the brass dry and then proceed with the next steps in my process.

There were guys early-on here who shot their headstamps out of Lapua brass with 20+ firings.

I switch back and forth between shooting hand loads and factory ammo. I’ve shot a lot more factory ammo over the past 4-5 years I think.