Don't feel Stupid... anyone who reloads has been there.... doesn't matter how much experience one has had...
I'd bet based on experience that the brass you have may have been old and just with time, hardened some..
Anneal would have probably helped out by softening it...
I've been annealing a long time now... and now I do it every reload.... Prepping, I do that in my spare time... like when the wife has the TV on and is all wrapped up in a blanket on the couch.. so that is time to myself, and that is when I do that sort of stuff...which is usually after its dark outside so I can't get anything done...I love "spare time" its my time..
but back on topic... annealing it highly worth the time...
another thing I have had to do loading this 17 Fireball stuff I've been playing with, is to polish the expander ball...
can't find my drimmel, so I just called up RCBS and they are sending me a couple at no charge..
for 223, I just had one of my F/L sizing dies reamed out so that I don't have to use an expander ball when I full length size it...
In addition, I have a couple of Lee Collect neck sizing dies, so as not to work the brass as much..
a grain or a grain and half, less powder than max load, also doesn't expand the neck as much, so that also works the brass less,
and with annealing, in a test, I reloaded 10 cases of Rem range pick up brass, 101 times...no neck splits.. in that test, they necked sized only,
and about every 8th to 10th reload, I have to bump the shoulder back..
this was a Bolt action, so the ammo was loaded at around 45,000 CUP...
doing a light lube on the brass necks with a bore brush also helps the neck not being pulled on so much, when using the F/L expander ball...
Took a lot of casualties to get to the point, experience has me eliminating deal with much along the lines of neck splits anymore.
so passing it on to anyone who is interested...
