Thread: Case head separation imminent

Good post, when I first started reloading I learned this pretty quickly, only having a few fired cases I was working with, and had setup the sizing die as per the included RCBS instructions (ie over bumping the shoulder). Saw the shiny lines appear on the brass, and felt down inside with a bent paper clip to confirm, then sectioned as you did on one to double confirm.

Then researched how to set up the die properly to prevent it again.

I have had a case head separation when firing a 223 before many years ago (caused by the same issue) nothing out of the ordinary happened, apart from the front part of the case having to be fished out of the chamber.

It's something best avoided however.

Firing a load that is loaded way over max pressure and piecing or blowing a primer in my experience was more of a fuss, and best avoided too. (don't always trust Quickload when dealing with wildcat cartridges, always cross-reference with other forms of load data, my starting load that i thought was low, wasnt.