Thread: Split brass

As per Grandpamacs post above sloppy headpacing and generous chamber dimensions could be part of the problem hence my asking for new vs fired shoulder lenghts.
With the abundance of old military 303s (which headspace on the rim rather than the shoulder similar to a belted magnum) around and interchangeable bolt heads a lot have excessive headspace and will case head seperate in as little as one or 2 reloads unless some care is taken.

If on the first firing a appropiately sized oring is stretched down over to the rim so that when chambered the round is firm to tight to close the bolt on and the case is held firmly against the bolt head then on first firing it will stretch out to chamber dimensions without streatching lenghways in the critical web area and from then on it can be neck sized or minimally full lenght sized so that it remains now headspaced on the shoulder.
In this way the brass can be reloaded many times till usually the necks split.

However the brass will only fit that rifle or one with worse headspace.

If sloppy headspace is an issue this could be your fix or another way to go about it is to neck up the brass from new then size the neck back down only sizing the first part of the neck creating a "false shoulder" to headspace on.....it needs to be at the point of a tight bolt close to resist primer strike driving it forward.

As for the brass you have definitely check with probe....unfortunately once it streatches in the web junction there is nothing you can do to put it back.