questions about brass..............

[mikeym1a]

mikeym1a,here. I have a couple of questions about brass.

Question 1: I traded for some brass for my Argentine Mauser recently. I had excess 9mm, and he had excess 7.65. The guy had gotten it from someone else with instructions to reload. Due to the Argentines odd bullet size, and the guy's lack of money, my friend never started the reloading, and the 1st guy never came back. So I got 116ea Norma 7.65x53 brass. A good deal for me. I took them home, and threw them in the tumbler, as they were dirty, with a bit of green corrosion on them. After 24hrs in the tumbler, they came out right nice looking. And then I noticed the head separation on the one case. Examination showed that the case head was separated 3/4 the way around. With that in mind, I took a piece of about .080 wire, and bent a small hook on it and proceeded to check all the cases. The 'gap' on the inside showed up on about 1/4th of the cases. That gap was not all the way around on some, but definately there at least part way around. I realize that these cases cannot be used for full power loads. My question is, is the separation normal? I mean, it seems to start at one side and work its way around. Would this indicate that the barrel on this particular gun is not square? I got out 40 expended cases of my own, and checked them, and found no case head separation. But, I only neck sized after initial firing, and this is the only gun I own in this caliber, at present. Is this the normal course of events, or is there something not right about the gun these cases were fired in?

Question 2: I got some loaded condomed rounds for my .35 whelen for someone. They were made from 30-06 FA brass. I only fired 5 rounds. They really beat me up. I had fired this gun with factory rounds previously, and it was a very mild recoil. He must have really loaded it for moose, or something. I had been there for 3 hours, and was getting tired, and decided 5 thunderous rounds were enough. When I picked up the brass, 2 cases had split necks. The third exhibited neck separation. Only a sliver approx 1/8" wide held the neck to the body of the case. Does this indicate I need to disassemble the rest, and anneal the necks?

Thanks for any replies. mikey

[Kraschenbirn]

Question #1: Hard to make a judgement without seeing a sample or two of the brass. My *best guess* would be, though, that the brass has been fired (repeatedly) in a rifle with excessive headspace and full-length resized between firings.

Question #2: Mikey, take this advice as a COMMANDMENT from on high: NEVER SHOOT RELOADS FROM AN UNKNOWN SOURCE...'specially if they're not marked with any load data (bullet wt, powder charge, primer, etc.)!! It's one of the quickest ways I know to screw up a good gun. My advice: break down any rounds you've got left, dump the powder, save the bullets and primers, and inspect the brass thoroughly before reloading it yourself.

Bill

[MarkP]

Section one of the cases and take a look inside; Drill a hole (body diameter of the case) near the end of a 2x2 board, place case into hole in wood block, use a band saw to cut the case in half, cheat the blade slightly to the right or left of center by approximately 1 blade thickness. Next lap the section of case on 240 grit paper to remove burrs.

[dverna]

I would ditch all the Norma brass. Life is too short to take chances.

I echo the opinion of Bill -- NEVER shoot unknown reloads.

Here is a thread on forming brass if you do not want to buy it (Bill has done it):

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?134447-Need-Help-with-forming-7-65x53-Argie-Brass

Don Verna

[dilly]

Sometimes I have to ask myself when I am deciding to take a chance "if this went wrong and blew up, would I feel dumb posting it on cast boolits?"

[josper]

I'm with the other guys here that say "ditch them" It's just not worth the risk messing with junk brass.

[Down South]

Toss the brass and pull the reloads. I would not take the chance....