# 22-250 case cracking prevention



## coyote22250 (Jan 20, 2005)

I have been reloading for some time, and have a hard time with streching and cracking of my 22-250 cases. Has anyone heard of annealing to prevent cracking of the neck. I read about it in a reloading book, and want to know what you thought. Feed me back


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

The most common problem is the chamber is a little on the large size. There is two things you can do. Back you die out about ½ to one full turn so that you neck size only. This will reduce brass stretching. It will take some experimenting. Back out a full turn, resize a case, check to see if it chambers easily. If it does back out another ¼ turn and try again. If it doesn't chamber go in ¼ turn and try again.

The second thing is anneal your brass. I do this by using a large shallow pan. Fill the pan with about ¾ inch of water. Set a couple dozen cases in the water. Do the next step in a dark room so you can see the color better. Use a propane torch and concentrate your heat on the neck of your case. When it turns cherry red tip it over into the water. Quenching in this manner softens the brass so it stretches instead of cracks.

Setting your dies correctly so as not to overwork your brass may be all you have to do. If that doesn't do it then anneal.


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## coyote22250 (Jan 20, 2005)

Thanks for the input, ill try it.


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