Do I have a chamber problem?

[303Guy]

That kind of splitting or cracking looks like age embrittled brass. I've had cases that split before firing.

Five rounds in a white box (reloaded?), came with the rifle.

the white box ammo had two long cracks at the neck area.

Reloading without annealing or very old cartridges. Lack of annealing usually splits the cases from the mouth down but not always. I've only seen the shoulders split from age embrittlement.

Those cases have some serious expansion above the web. The Remington cases look the same. Are those nickel plated or cupronickle? Those do not look like reloads - those cases are factory fresh.

The chamber does seem to be generous - that's a lot of web expansion and it's visible on the Remington cases too (can't see how much on them). Only measurements will say for sure. You can measure the base of the case and compare that to a drawing. They should be around 0.4554 inch just below the expansion ring (0.2 inch from the rim). The diameter of the chamber at the expansion ring can be found easily and compared to those cases.

[Bindi2]

Those cases are typical of undersized commercial cases with the cases expansion showing FLS marks and spilting in the neck shoulder area on firing nothing new just tired brass from being undersized fired and FLS often. The FLS die is made to the same under size specs.

[WarPig1976]

The Remington cases look the same. Are those nickel plated or cupronickle? Those do not look like reloads - those cases are factory fresh.

Since when did Remington use Nickle plated bullets? I have to disagree none of that brass looks remotely factory fresh, look at the 3 still in box, one can see spots and stains and dirt under the rim. Could they be "new" surplus of some kind? Maybe, a picture of the headstamp will tell the tail. Whatever they are a little blow by at the neck is a none issue. Nothing is wrong with the Op's rifle the reloaded ammo brass is just plain wore out.

[Mk VII]

In the past commercial reloaded .303s sometime made use of Canadian surplus Boxer cases, often from tracer or other loadings that were unlikely to be useful in a civilian context. Mush of this brass is 70 years old now and i don't care to use it.

[Peter Laidler]

Not that I know anything about reloading, on the basis that if the Queen didn't stock it, I didn't shoot it but knowing a bit about brass then surely, if the brass - any brass - is annealed fairly frequently after being subject to the extreme and almost instantaneous temp change then it could be used indefinately. So long as it hasn't started its natural structural breakdown to constituent parts of course. JM and Paul B, you're the metallurgists........ what say you?

[Mk VII]

It will still lengthen after every use, and get trimmed, until there is plastic failure towards the rear end. All the annealing in the world won't stop that. And spending time and heat-energy annealing it is money - there comes a point where the effort involved in preserving its usability is more than it's worth - especially with common calibres like this one.

[breakeyp]

Regarding brass cartridge cases:

I have an elderly box of Kynoch .280 Ross cartridges that have split case necks from just setting in the box. These are not reloads. Drastic and or repeated forming of cartridge cases will work harden the material resulting in spits. Possibly chemical interactions from the powder breaking down over time may also alter case material properties. Poor annealing procedures may also cause problems. I have seen case failures when guys tried to neck down a case neck from .30 to .22 without proper annealing or trying to do it in one go. My friend tried to make .280 Ross cases from Weatherby caliber cases. The necking down issues resulted in 1 in 5 being correctly formed. Certainly most cases will not last forever. Some may last five or six reloads and some requiring full length resizing even less. Optimum usage would suggest that the same cases are used in the same rifle with no full size forming---just the neck.

[Peter Laidler]

Mk7 and others............ Why do the cases lengthen? You can only lengthen at/to the detriment of something else surely? And surely, if they DO lengthen, then lengthening in this context is simply stretching. And in that case they'd lengthen uniformly along the total length - yes?

As I said I'm not and never have been a reloader but.......... Maybe there's more Q's than A's in the reloading game!

[ssj]

Peter, reload! a whole new world of fun awaits you! I mean bugger it your only young once...

From re-reading this and reading splits, burns etc and I think we all suspect age. On top of that they could have been overloaded, having that many split in one go.....I be petrified of that old ammo. Do the primers look flattened? if they have lost the small curve on the outer rim of the primer they could also have been overloaded, lots of morons think a full case is best...

I'd clean the chamber and take a close look see if its got any nasties . If she looks good, buy 20 Highland AX / Privy you can get them in 150gr and 180gr....SP. These are good brass, if these also split.

Id bin those rounds....

Do ppl find the no4 is hard on brass? everyone I talk to thinks so....P14 on the other hand is far kinder....

I want to get into casting as my next project....this winter I hope....apparantly a bit of an art to get 2400.....

[bigduke6]

I just aquired a lot of reloaded 30-06 recently

Is this for a hunting rifle ? or just a closet fan of the M1903 ?