Okay, guys I saw a new condition yesterday that I haven't encountered.
The rifle is a Savage 111, heavy barreled rifle in 7mm Rem Mag. It's probably got 500 rounds through it and we long ago settled on a load of the 140 Nosler BT bullet with IMR 4831 powder.
The rifle is my son's. He's a shooter and averages 1/2 inch groups with the rifle. He's scary accurate with the darned thing and the rifle likes that handloaded ammo very much. About six months ago I loaded a batch of ammo with new, sealed Winchester brass. I prepped it by trimming and camfering and checking primer pockets, etc, etc. I loaded it to the specs we've set for the ammo, sealed the box and gave it to him. He was working through some old handloads.
Yesterday we were at the range and he unsealed that box. After 12 rounds, the target looked like this.
That's a 12 shot group, and while not bad, it's way outside what this rifle normally does. SO, we inspected the brass and found some splits in the shoulder that traveled to the neck. There were maybe five or six rounds that exhibited this split. I know it's hard to describe and couldn't get a good photo, so I made a quick drawing to show what the split looked like.
We probably won't use any more Winchester brass in this rifle, but I'm wondering if any of you have seen a split like this and could tell me what causes it? Again, this was new brass from a sealed bag, hand loaded with good reloading practices. Can anyone shed any light on this problem?
The rifle is a Savage 111, heavy barreled rifle in 7mm Rem Mag. It's probably got 500 rounds through it and we long ago settled on a load of the 140 Nosler BT bullet with IMR 4831 powder.
The rifle is my son's. He's a shooter and averages 1/2 inch groups with the rifle. He's scary accurate with the darned thing and the rifle likes that handloaded ammo very much. About six months ago I loaded a batch of ammo with new, sealed Winchester brass. I prepped it by trimming and camfering and checking primer pockets, etc, etc. I loaded it to the specs we've set for the ammo, sealed the box and gave it to him. He was working through some old handloads.
Yesterday we were at the range and he unsealed that box. After 12 rounds, the target looked like this.
That's a 12 shot group, and while not bad, it's way outside what this rifle normally does. SO, we inspected the brass and found some splits in the shoulder that traveled to the neck. There were maybe five or six rounds that exhibited this split. I know it's hard to describe and couldn't get a good photo, so I made a quick drawing to show what the split looked like.
We probably won't use any more Winchester brass in this rifle, but I'm wondering if any of you have seen a split like this and could tell me what causes it? Again, this was new brass from a sealed bag, hand loaded with good reloading practices. Can anyone shed any light on this problem?