I've run into an issue with some reloads for a friends rifle. I worked up a load of 26.4 gr of H335 under a 35gr Berger with a WSR primer. It shoots under an inch and is right in the middle of the book load min/max, but we are getting 30-40% split necks by the 2nd reload. These were super performance 40 gr factory's originally.

This is the first time I've loaded hornady brass. Is it really that bad or am I doing something wrong? I load several different small cartridges and have not seen this degree of splitting ever.

I had the same issue with Hornady 204 brass...

I ended up with somemore, but annealed them every other reload.... that seemed to help some as the casualty rate was less...

I've bought new Hornady brand brass several times in the past couple of years. Off the top of my head I can recall .17 Hornet, .243 Winchester, .250 Savage and .300 Weatherby, though there may have been one or two more. Haven't had any trouble with any of it, and overall consistency has been very good.

Did you contact Hornady about it?

I have never had any trouble with Hornady Brass

I have had the same issues with Hornady 223, 22-250, 243, 308 and 17 hornet. I now just Anneal all Hornady brass- New or once fired.

I intend to anneal the survivors, it just seemed excessive. MD I did not contact Hornady as this stuff came from different lots over time.

I was beginning to wonder if maybe the gun (Mossberg MVP) might have a out of spec chamber, but I would find that hard to believe as well as it shoots.

if you have a fired case not resized yet from the MVP measure the OD compare it to a case fired in another chamber you may have a oversized neck, I get plenty of reloads from Hornady brass with out annealing so I doubt its the brass, but you never know

Bbassi: I am guessing (because you don't say) that you are reloading cartridges in your friends Rifle which is in 204 Ruger caliber?
I have been shooting and reloading Hornady brass in my 204 Ruger's since, literally, day one (2,004) - I have yet to suffer my first split neck with Hornady brass.
I have seven Varmint Rifles in caliber 204 Ruger and the only reason I use any brass other than Hornady is simply to help keep my brass segregated (dedicated) for a particular Rifle.
I very much enjoy Hornady brass in several calibers and actively seek out "deals" on them.
Which brings me to the only shortcoming I can see with Hornady brass - its expensive.
I am guessing you have a reloading problem either with your dies or with lubrication - it is a possibility that the chamber on your friends Rifle is flawed.
Hope you solve this situation!
My experience is the Hornady brass is good stuff and lives long.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I have been using Hornady brass for my 25-06 Imp project.

Been quite good so far.

Bought a couple bags of Win brass a while back that had a few split necks in the package!

Been using it in a 7x64 and a 250 Savage.

One batch of 7x64's went 10 loadings, annealed after the 5th. I scrapped them after 10 just because.

250's are on their 2nd loading, too early to tell.

If these hold out as well, I may switch to Hornady since Remington brass seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird.

I'm running over 1K pieces of Hornady brass in 204, 223, 243, and 6.5 Creedmoor without any trouble.

Most of my Hornady brass is 2x fired and not really any problems, but the case capacity is less than Win brass for the .204. I run 29 grains of I4320 and it over flows the Hornady, not so with Win brass.

I have 20 pcs of Hornady 204 brass that started as factory ammo and now has been reloaded 7 more times with no split necks yet. I did come across 4 pcs later that had no flash hole drilled in them so they went into the round file. That was my only problem with Hornady brass so far.

15 years ago I had some V Max 22-250 in a factory load split sitting in the box. And some split when I tried sizing them, no more Hornady brass for me.

I have a bud that runs Hornady brass in his Creedmoor with no issues.

Luck of the draw I guess.

Over time you will get bad batches or pieces of brass from every manufacturer. I am only using Hornady in 308 and 300 win mag. So far no failures.

No problems in 308.

When brass got tight it seemed that Hornady was the only brass available, so I atarted using it about 2 years ago. 7mm mag, .300 win, .243, and .308. No issues whatso ever. Both the 7mm and ,.300 have 8+_full loading's and are still going.

Lefty C

I have only used Hornady brass one time and it was a problem.

The caliber is 204 Ruger. I developed an accurate and fast load, it was book max, the load was listed in several manuals.

Then one day I blew a primer and had pressure signs with various rounds.

I pulled bullets and weighed powder charges and everything checked fine.

I ended up weighing all my 204 Hornady brass and found a ten grain difference in case weight.

The reduced internal capacity put me over pressure.

Over priced junk in my book. Almost soured me on the 204 Ruger.

All the hornady brass I use works great.....all older stuff tho....sounds like either a quality problem to neck problem..

^^^ +1 ^^^

Have read about bad Win brass, and had personal experience with one
lot of Rem .25-06 split necks after first firing. Annealing took
care of that batch.

But 10gr difference in Hornady .204R brass?? OW! Think I'd better
weigh a bunch of cases prior to reloading!!

Thats interesting.

I bought a bag of 25-06 from winchester a few months ago and some of the cases had peculiar lines on the necks.

Some seemed like they were already split, or at least they were on the way.