Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Split necks- doing damage?

So I recently loaded up a couple boxes of rounds that I knew were probably getting close to the end of brass life expectancy. They been resized and shot five or six times. About a half dozen shots into the first box, I noticed I was getting some minor split to the necks. So I stop shooting them. My question is, can I go ahead and shoot up the rest of these without risking damage to my rifle, or to me? Or should I just pull the bullets and chuck the brass? I think I know the answer but pulling is kinda a pain in the ass since all I have is an inertia hammer.

Also, can the inertia hammer weaken brass? As previous to firing these rounds I pulled bullets from the brass.

My first thought/response is no! I guess that you “could” get some “flame cutting” similar to top strap “flame cutting” on a revolver, but.....it would take many rounds fired and the split would have to line-up (orientate) to the same spot every time. The biggest problem that I see, would be inconsistent “neck tension” and would open-up your group size!

Maybe someone will show me the “error” in my logic though! memtb

if they are not split before shooting, I'd shoot them up then toss the brass.

Same here...

Pull them. Not worth the risk of damage to chamber, face and eyes. You would probably see no ill affects until you do see them.

What cartridge are you shooting? I frequently get 264 win mag necks that develope a split when brass is on its last leg. Annealing the brass has helped this not happen so often. Also, I assume the reason I see this more often in the 264 than my other rifles is that the 264 burns alot of powder out of a skinny hole (over-bore).

Besides not annealing often enough it's also likely you have excessive gap in the neck chamber causing excessive stretch each time you fire. Anneal more often to extend brass life and shoot what you have. Not likely you'll cause any chamber damage with neck splits, particularly since the splits will be on a different orientation every time anyway.

The neck splits won't hurt anything. The inconsistent bullet pull won't do anything for accuracy, however. I'd shoot them for offhand practice.