Grendel case neck splits - solved

[LR1955]

A while back, I was griping about short case life (2 uses) in the Grendel. After consulting with you fellows, I bought some Redding FL Bushing Dies and several sizes of bushings. The plan was to select some new cases (Starline and Lapua) and load, shoot, and reload and shoot till the cases had split necks. The Bushing Die, and thereby working the brass much less, has solved the problem. After 4 uses of the brass with no splits, I decided to quit wasting powder, primers and bullets. No worries about the barrel now either. And I should mention that I was also bumping the shoulder too much, so I adjusted for that

I used a 0.287 bushing and no expander ball.

This was a good learning experience. Even old guys like me, with 40+ years of reloading, can learn new stuff. And, I’m going back to a bushing die for my 223.

The Lapua brass, with its thicker case neck walls, will need one size bigger in the bushing when I start using that brass.

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions.

603-C:

You jogged my memory here. We would buy a .286, .287, and .288 bushing to start with. The .286 was decent for the PPU brass of the time which was thin, .287 for the Lapua, and .288 for the 7.62 X 39 brass we used to neck down and blow out to make Grendel brass.

Can't remember the brand of dies you were using that caused the neck cracking problems. Normally it was the Lee sizing die that caused the majority of brass problems but yours was of another make.

You are set up now.

LR-55