Reloader 17 and storage effect on brass? - 10/12/16
I had not shot my 6mm-250 for awhile so I pulled two partial boxes of ammo that I had loaded 10/14 and another box loaded on 3/15. Looking them over, I noticed that all the necks of the loaded rounds had a crack. When I held the bullet in one hand and the case in the other, and applied a slight side pressure, the brass fractured along multiple lines, not only along the original crack. The necks appears to have lost all malleability. The 10/14 box is 2x fired R-P .22-250 brass with Berger bullets. The 3/15 box is 1x fired WW 22-250 brass with TSX bullets. The two boxes of ammo only had RL-17 and CCI 200 primers in common. I've checked other stored ammo loaded around the same time frame with CCI primers but with a different powder. Those appear normal.
I've taken several empty brass cases from each 6mm-250 box, resized them and seated a bullet. The cases behaved normally.
The above observations seem consistent with a WAG that RL-17 out-gases something that makes brass under bullet tension brittle over time.
Wondering if what happened is an isolated case or has happened to any others.
I've taken several empty brass cases from each 6mm-250 box, resized them and seated a bullet. The cases behaved normally.
The above observations seem consistent with a WAG that RL-17 out-gases something that makes brass under bullet tension brittle over time.
Wondering if what happened is an isolated case or has happened to any others.