270 Case neck cracks

[Partsunavailable]

Fairly new to reloading. Loaded some 270 and am getting some cracked case necks. I'm using an rcbs full length die, bumping the shoulder back .004. This is the third time firing this brass. The load is 54 grains of h4350 behind a barnes ttsx 130. Remington brass has been trimmed, chamfered and deburred. The sized case necks measure .006 less than the fired cases. Do I have hard brass, a pressure issue, chamber issue, brass seasoning?

 

[FLIGHT762]

Sometimes, you get a lot of brass that will crack after a few firings. I've been reloading the 270 since the early 1970's. I use Remington, Federal and Winchester brass. On rare occasion I will get neck cracks / burn throughs like yours.

One thing with the 270 is it has a long neck and you need to lube the inside of the case necks when you F/L size.

You just might have a bad batch of brass. You could try annealing, but if you're not set up for that, I would just use the brass up. Keep it segregated from other brass. Get some new brass when you can.

You're not over pressure. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[lightman]

I believe you are seeing stress cracks from the brass being work hardened. Probably a QC issue from the manufacture. Annealing would extend the life on that batch of brass. During the Obama shortages everyones QC started to decline and many of them stayed that way. I had a bunch of new unfired Winchester 223 brass that got split necks on the first firing. It caused me to get an annealing machine.