I traded into an old Savage 99 in 300 savage this morning. She's pretty and in pretty good shape. Bore looks good. So I took it, among others, and went to the range. The rifle came with a box of Remington core locks that look pretty new and were marked $31.99, so they shouldn't be too old. Shot off 13 rounds and that beautiful stock with the pretty cheekpiece smacked me in the cheekbone pretty good off the bench. I think the sights are too low and a marbles tang or redfield reciever sight and taller front sight would help with the cheek slap.
When I got home and started unpacking I pulled the brass out because my dies should be here tomorrow. 4 of them were split down the neck. I reload a lot and have for a pretty long time, but I haven't encountered this problem outsiide of old milsurps, fast .22 calibers, or fireforming brass. Not with civilian rifles in factory calibers with factory ammo. Anybody got any thoughts or similar experiences? Maybe remington's qc issue is affecting their ammo too?