300 BLK, a Pain in the Brass

[Ben B.]

I've been hosed 2x buying "Once Fired" 300 BLK, with many shoulders set back too far.

The first time appeared to be pull down brass, intact primers, but powder chunks and many short shoulders. Can't tumble it to clear out the occasional powder chunk without trashing the primers, bad idea to load without ensuring there's not a grain or 3 of mystery powder inside, and anyway they need to be checked for short shoulders. 1,000 pieces. American Reloading originally said they would replace it and send an RMA, then went stone silent and didn't respond to emails or answer phone calls.

2nd time, the brass is all fired Gemtech brass, and about 60% have shoulders too far back BEFORE I resized them. 1,000 pieces. Waited too long to look it over and no idea who I ordered it from.

Another time was way back in time, chopped and reformed .223, with a high % of thick neck brass. 2,000 pieces. At least that was cheap.

It's all rather vexing.

[Omega]

How much is too much? I make my own so the slotted Sheridan case gauge is my tool of choice, but maybe I need to get some #s written down of my once fired to see if I am possibly doing the same thing to mine.

Ok, mine (sized) are measuring between 1.102" - 1.105" using the A330 bushing on the hornady headspace gauge, most are 1.102", so the longer ones may be I wasn't pulling the handle hard enough.

[dellet]

Don’t feel too bad, there are a few threads running around about the Ruger Americans and light primer strikes. Then back in the early days of the forum a lot of the same complaints on the Handi’s. At some point I tested some factory ammo that had primers backing out.

That’s when I started checking factory ammo. Some was as much as .040” short out of the box. A lot of factory brass sold to reloaders is not much better.

Then there is the sizing die issues......

Quality control sucks.

[golfindia]

How do you know the shoulder is "too far back"?

Do they fire in your gun?

[rlandry6]

A Sheridan slotted gauge will be your best friend. All of my 300 brass is formed from LC and FC brass.

[Ben B.]

How do you know the shoulder is "too far back"?

Do they fire in your gun?

If they fired, I wouldn’t care.

I know the shoulder is "too far back", because I have a “Sheridan slotted gauge.”

[ironhead7544]

Yeah, I learned that lesson, too.

Best to buy LC brass to make your own.

Dies were a problem, too. Ended up using an RCBS small base sizer, Lyman M die expander, Hornady seater, and Lee Factory Crimp die. This combo works for me in a Ruger American and a S&W AR.

[10Driver]

My purchase of “reformed and processed” LC brass cost me around $1.25 a case. And for that low price, I still got to trim to length, remove primer crimps and then resize.

All of which is okay, since it gave me something constructive to do while repeatedly trying to get the vendor to respond. In their defense, they did try contacting me twice and I missed the calls. Now they’re stone cold silent.


I guess I need to open up the boxes of Hornady unprimed brass that I purchased, and start looking for any issues.

[tcoz]

My purchase of “reformed and processed” LC brass cost me around $1.25 a case. And for that low price, I still got to trim to length, remove primer crimps and then resize.

Wow, did I read that right? If so, where did you buy that brass? I just bought 600 reformed and processed LC for $90 for 600 cases and all of them pass the Sheridan gauge test.

[MMA10mm]

I've been hosed 2x buying "Once Fired" 300 BLK, with many shoulders set back too far.

The first time appeared to be pull down brass, intact primers, but powder chunks and many short shoulders. Can't tumble it to clear out the occasional powder chunk without trashing the primers, bad idea to load without ensuring there's not a grain or 3 of mystery powder inside, and anyway they need to be checked for short shoulders. 1,000 pieces. American Reloading originally said they would replace it and send an RMA, then went stone silent and didn't respond to emails or answer phone calls.

2nd time, the brass is all fired Gemtech brass, and about 60% have shoulders too far back BEFORE I resized them. 1,000 pieces. Waited too long to look it over and no idea who I ordered it from.

Another time was way back in time, chopped and reformed .223, with a high % of thick neck brass. 2,000 pieces. At least that was cheap.

It's all rather vexing.

This is why, on the first loading, I make sure the bullets are seated long. Depending on the bullet, I try to get them to just touching the lands, or no more than .005" off. This, too, can be vexing, because many bullets have very angled ogives and finding the right combo is a pain. (I've used some 170gr 30-30 bullets and some old 180gr Sierra SPBTs which I had no other use for) Then, there's whether those initial loads are mag-length or not (or feed at all, the 30-30 bullets not so much...), and then there's making sure your dies are correct and not setting the shoulder back more...