.280 Rem Incipient head seperation?

[deerkiller]

Thanks, gonna pull the bullets(have a press mounted puller) and try another round of hopefully, properly sized brass, don't want to destroy my rifle or me for that matter

assuming RCBS collet puller … MUCH better than the kinetic

 

[ndsportsman]

assuming RCBS collet puller … MUCH better than the kinetic

Yes sir!

 

[cornfed]

The hopefully in the above post isn't where you need to be. This is rocket science. You need to be able to measure EVERYTHING, and when that sinks in you'll be making better and safer ammo. The hornady stuff is cheap , and you need it. Good luck.

 

[ndsportsman]

Picked up the Hornady headspace comparator set last night, gonna put it to use this weekend. Watched a couple youtube videos, seems pretty simple to use, but very important tool for precision loading. How come I been reloading all these years without one????

 

[07yzryder]

Very good tool to have. Especially if you dont want to ruin 100 peices of 338 lapua brass....... ended up starting with a FL sizer, die touching the shell plate like the directions said.

This is what they are talking about when they said feel inside the brass for a ring. You can take a dental pick and slowly drag it. if they catch toss the brass its done, if you cant shoot it but keep this batch of brass seperate from any new batches.

 

[Osteodoc08]

Brass is relatively cheap. Trash the lot and start measuring at the datum from a freshly fired shell to see where you need to size.

If money is tight, use a small pistol case that rest on the datum as a tool to measure where your shoulder is. The pistol cases mouth will be on the datum. Be sure to remove the primer of the pistol case first.

As far as expanding the neck of a 284 cartridge to 308 and then back (if I read that right) is a recipe for split necks and over worked brass. Don’t do that. If you want to purchase a nice tapered expander button and some graphite lube, feel free to. Haven’t needed it in over 30 years of loading but I’m also not loading extra long range precision ammo with the best Redding and Fosters have to offer.

 

[deerkiller]

Brass is relatively cheap. Trash the lot and start measuring at the datum from a freshly fired shell to see where you need to size.

If money is tight, use a small pistol case that rest on the datum as a tool to measure where your shoulder is. The pistol cases mouth will be on the datum. Be sure to remove the primer of the pistol case first.

As far as expanding the neck of a 284 cartridge to 308 and then back (if I read that right) is a recipe for split necks and over worked brass. Don’t do that. If you want to purchase a nice tapered expander button and some graphite lube, feel free to. Haven’t needed it in over 30 years of loading but I’m also not loading extra long range precision ammo with the best Redding and Fosters have to offer.

what about expanding for 338/06 and the like ?

 

[Osteodoc08]

what about expanding for 338/06 and the like ?

Now you’re talking about making custom brass. Then you should anneal and that’s another subject all together. I’ve made plenty of brass that requires patience and multiple steps out of parent cases and final fire forming. The OP is not attempting that. He shooting run of the mill 280 Remington. There’s no need to expand to 30 and back to 28 to produce good ammo.

If a chamber is suspected to be off dimensionally it needs to be checked for headspace and a chamber cast made to make accurate measurements

 

[ndsportsman]

Just finished up preparing properly sized cases with the .002 bump, pulled bullets from the old brass, which has been discarded. Measured the improperly resized cases after pulling bullets, they were .006-.007" undersized from the current correctly sized brass. Everything charged, bullets seated and waiting for the damn rain to quit so I can head to the range and see how things perform.
Thanks again for all the advice and suggestions, made things much more understandable!