JohnH
11-15-2006, 11:27 PM
On another thread about annealing, several responses included concerns about neck thicness, so I ran some testing that I was going to do but hadn't yet. I reformed a batch of 10 Winchester 30-06 cases to 25-06, I then resized once fired Remington and Frontier 25-06 cases, and resized a reformed Winchester case that had been fired at approximately 50,000 psi according to the book 3 times, and then reformed a once fired Remington 30-06 case and measured the neck wall thickness. I did this by gaging the inside neck diameter with a small bore gage, measuring the outside of the neck with a mic, subtract the ID measure from the OD measure and divide by two. This method will not reveal where a neck may be thicker in one area than another. The results follow...
Newly reformed Winchester 30-06 cases have a consistant wall thickness of .0135
The once fired Remington 25-06 case measured .012
The once fired Frontier 25-06 measured .013
The 3x fired reformed Winchester case measured .013
The reformed once fired 30-06 Remington case measured .0135
This testing is very limited, but only reveals a .0015 difference between reformed and factory 25-06 cases. Obviously different lots may and will give diferent measurements, but it is interesting to note that the once fired 30-06 Remington case is one I picked up on a range about a year ago. What I see is that the brass is surprisingly consistant.
The rifle is doing just fine with the reformed cases, no excess pressure signs on the brass or on opening, I am reluctant to consider neck turning at this point, it could well be that the extra .0015" is helping rather than hurting, but one thing is certain, only measuring can tell what is happening to the brass, best not to leave things to an assumption.
Newly reformed Winchester 30-06 cases have a consistant wall thickness of .0135
The once fired Remington 25-06 case measured .012
The once fired Frontier 25-06 measured .013
The 3x fired reformed Winchester case measured .013
The reformed once fired 30-06 Remington case measured .0135
This testing is very limited, but only reveals a .0015 difference between reformed and factory 25-06 cases. Obviously different lots may and will give diferent measurements, but it is interesting to note that the once fired 30-06 Remington case is one I picked up on a range about a year ago. What I see is that the brass is surprisingly consistant.
The rifle is doing just fine with the reformed cases, no excess pressure signs on the brass or on opening, I am reluctant to consider neck turning at this point, it could well be that the extra .0015" is helping rather than hurting, but one thing is certain, only measuring can tell what is happening to the brass, best not to leave things to an assumption.