diff --git a/str.c b/str.c
index 17a9361..b338213 100644
--- a/str.c
+++ b/str.c
@@ -41,8 +41,9 @@
 #include "banned.h"	/* include after system header <> includes */
 
 
-#define STR_TABLECHUNK	(1<<10)	/* how often to reallocate string table */
-#define STR_CHUNK	(1<<16)	/* size of string storage allocation */
+/* XXX - reduce chuck size to a tiny amount in order to trigger realloc bug early */
+#define STR_TABLECHUNK	4	/* how often to reallocate string table */
+#define STR_CHUNK	16	/* size of string storage allocation */
 #define OCTET_VALUES	256	/* number of different values in a OCTET */
 #define STR_UNIQUE	(1<<7)	/* size of string to allocate separately */