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head separation

01 Nov 2019
@ 11:23 pm (GMT)

Charles Mitchell

i own a shultz and larsen 3006 AI
Fire formed hornaby factory loads 150 grain bullets
reloaded with 208 eld match 53 grains 2209 and every case had head separration
had used norma factory 178 grain to fire form no problems
i normally use brand new case s and load to fire form
i think the problem was that the 150 grain bullets were not were near the lands so case,s stretched

Replies

10 Nov 2019
@ 08:37 am (GMT)

Quote this

Nathan Foster

Re: head separation

Hi Charles, sorry for the late reply, been a bit behind the 8 ball here. You may already have this rectified by now.

Ok, there are two possible conditions here:

1. Excessive head space in the rifle. This will need to be corrected by a gunsmith.

2. Generous headspace which then becomes somewhat excessive as a result of full length case sizing to tolerances less than SAAMI minimum. This may occur when using a full length sizing die of tight tolerances which is also turned down to touch the shell holder. Excessive case sizing will weaken a case. If you have been sizing in this manner, you may want to instead try a Lee neck die to see if this makes any difference. The neck die will not set the case back.

I do however suspect that this rifle may have excessive head space. If the rifle is second hand, it may have suffered lug set back from a heavy charge of incorrect (fast burning) powder. It will most likely need to go to a gunsmith to have the headspace checked.