Purchased a new lot of 44-77 brass from Captech. Brass prep consisted of running each case through the neck sizing bushing die and expander plug to iron out the necks.

Loaded 100 preped cases with 70 grains of OE, CCI200 primer, .060 vegetable wad and a 400 grain patched bullet for nothing more than fire forming. Fired the first round and it ejected properly and had fully formed to the chamber so I dropped it in the water jug, wiped the bore. The second round fired and ejected normally but noticed it had separated half way around the shoulder/body junction but did not leak gas into the chamber. To shorten up the story I fired 20 rounds and nine of them had case separations, from very minor to one that I opened up by pushing the neck over with my thumb. Eleven fired and formed without and signs of issue on the outside.

While inspecting the loaded rounds I discovered that the necks are not concentric with the case, at the bottom of the neck where it meets the shoulder there is a slight bulge around half of the shoulder below the neck and the other half flows into the shoulder flatly.

I also had fifty rounds of the older Jamison brass, virgin, loaded up that also needed fire formed so got them out and fired all fifty with no issues. None of these had the bulge at the neck shoulder junction either.

After some thought I remembered asking the lady who answered the phone about rim thicknesses, she had checked with someone and stated that the new brass was the same as my older Jamision brass which rims measure .077-.078. Now, after checking the new brass it measures .070 and the primers look good but are totally flush with the case head. Should have been the first thing I done upon receiving it. With rim thickness and the off center necks is there anything else you fellows can think of? Calling Captech in the morning.
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