I have  a round 250 rds of 223 55GR  reloaded ammo that I got from pro reload I got last fall. I finally rotated my ammo to this batch and I've been having a lot of issues with failure to feed or fire. It seems to be more of an issue when the rifle is hot.
When I looked at the spent casings 1 out of say 5 had a crack or split on the neck casing.
I don't know a lot about reloading. What would causes this and should the rest of what I have be scrapped? Could it damage the rifle or be dangerous to shot?  From all outside appearances the ammo looks uniform.

It's a fairly new rifle build but everything runs smooth as glass on AE green tip and factory 223 ammo.

Necks are splitting due to being reloaded to many times before annealing..most likely you can shoot them and they won't hurt anything, but they should be unloaded, cleaned annealed resized and reloaded...

I agree, just shoot them, and throw away the brass.  A neck split isnt catastrophic.

I wouldnt bother pulling them down though.  If the brass is that work hardened that youre seeing splits, that means this brass is ready for retirement as its had a hard life.

I'm going to see if I can get out this evening and do some more testing to see if the failures to feed, extract and fire are an ammo issue or rifle issue.
I'm thinking there's more going on with this ammo then just being over used. It's was advertised as once fired brass so I'm wondering what else isn't up to spec.

Is there anyone here I could send a few rounds to, to break down  and inspect?

Chances are its wasnt sized correctly, thats why its having issues, unless you have an excessively dirty chamber.  What is your failure rate?  10%?

Agreed; .223 brass is common as dirt.  Trying to recover and rescue already loaded brass, is not worth the time.  Just set aside for practice use, shoot, and toss it.

Looks like pro load is out of business.  The BBB has 6 complaints listed, only 1 answered.  See high pressure problems with there ammo here.  Bad Ammo link   With photos.

You have 2 issues.  Failing to fire  and split necks.   Both are not a good thing, if using ammo in a auto or semi-auto firearm.

Fail to fire could be surplus powder that is  deteriorating.  The bad powder can also attack the brass over time.

The military sells  LC 5.56 brass as scrap. Commersal reloaders buy it. Some brass has been chemically treated to age the brass, as a test for long term storage.

I would save the projectile and scrap the rest of it.  Sorry.



A piece of  neck left in the chamber will allow the next round to almost chamber. The disconnect keeps the AR from firing as the bolt is not fully closed.  When you hear the click of the hammer/firing pin, with no bang, and extract the round, its very disturbing to me . Even more so, when firing a vintage M16A1 carbine. One of the reasons i sold it.

I bet that's what was done with one batch of brass I bought.  The primers were left in, and when I de-capped them, the bottom of the cup separated way too easily and left the sidewall in the primer pocket.

The term "once fired" does not mean the seller is claiming the brass was only fired a single time before being reloaded.  "Once fired" should always be taken to mean "previously fired", perhaps multiple times.

The only way to have any assurance previously fired brass has, indeed, been fired only a single time is to buy military brass which has a crimped primer pocket and still has the primer in place.  All other cases should be assumed to have been fired as many times as the prior owner thought they could stand and that's why he/she walked away from them at the range.  That's not always the case since there people who buy new rounds and leave the brass because they don't reload, but there's no certain way to tell them apart and if you are going to make an assumption regarding the condition of used brass, it is safest to assume it has been used a lot and proceed from that assumption.

That is well past "split" and up to major fracture failures.
That brass is scrap.

I would unload it all and recyle the metal and fertilize the lawn with the powder.

Remove bullets, dump powder, pop primers, scrap brass.

I’ll be darned, I didn’t know that (about chemical cleaning)
Thanks for the info

Normally I'm an If-it-fits,-it-ships kind of guy, but whatever that ammo is, is at real risk of damaging or blowing up a gun - I'd probably pull that.

And at VERY low levels and exposures.

Look up 'seasonal cracking.'
Brass ammunition in a jungle environment gets enough exposure to cause cracking under long term storage.

Even if you clean the surface once the exposure occurs some ammonia remains attached to the metal surface.