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Posted: 9/22/2012 7:40:10 PM EDT
Now I feel like a veteran reloader. So there I was, shooting reloads, pulled 62gr m855 on 25gr of H335, in a suppressed 12.5 AR and felt a strange recoil impulse. I canted the rifle and saw 3/4 of a case stove piped in the ejection port. It took me a second to realize it was missing the case head and after that realization I thought "Cool, my first case head separation" and took pictures. The case is LC 06. No idea how many times that particular case has been reloaded, can't be more than three or four. I feel a little let down that I didn't get to use my broken shell extractor that I bought years ago when I got into loading 223.     The rest of the day went great, got to shoot my partners new RRA LAR8.  |
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Thanks for that. I've heard the description, but have never seen one. |
| The op's 223 separation in the body needs to adjust how much the shoulder is pushed back on FL sizing. The others, 45acp & 223(range pickup) are signs of over pressure. Photos |
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Quoted: I had a nasty kaboom with a 45acp a few months back. Wasn't a hot load or anything, just a worn out case. Didn't do any damage to the gun (XD 45), but sure gave me a good scare. http://www.btfh.net/posting/kaboom.jpg Damn dude, that is a nasty one.  Only problems I've had so far with 45acp is one americ case that slipped through and got loaded and it wouldn't chamber and one federal that I missed with a cracked case mouth that wouldn't chamber. |
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Quoted:
The op's 223 separation in the body needs to adjust how much the shoulder is pushed back on FL sizing. The others, 45acp & 223(range pickup) are signs of over pressure. Photos While I'll agree that over pressure was the cause. That case head is still split in two place's. |
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We had a guy several years ago who had a case failure in a 1911 .45ACP.
Didn't hurt the gun much. Blew out the magazine and cracked a grip panel, but a little sliver of brass blew down the left rail past the ejector and directly into his right eye. He wasn't wearing glasses and lost the eye. Jeff www.FirearmsCoalition.org www.GunVoter.org |
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Quoted:
We had a guy several years ago who had a case failure in a 1911 .45ACP. Didn't hurt the gun much. Blew out the magazine and cracked a grip panel, but a little sliver of brass blew down the left rail past the ejector and directly into his right eye. He wasn't wearing glasses and lost the eye. Jeff www.FirearmsCoalition.org www.GunVoter.org Idiot  Always wear eye protection. Its not like they cost very much.
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I have had two separate in my AR. Most recent was rather interesting. Last local 3gun match of the season and we had a man vs. man shoot off. First two rounds were fine. Third round nothing, pulled the charging handle thinking I had a bad reload. Still nothing so take a look and I see two cases. One sticking out of the chamber about an inch or so and the other wedged into the barrel extension under it. Clear the gun and get the second round out. Drop the bolt and nothing. Took a couple of tries but got this to extract.
Sorry for the poor quality of the picture, it is from a cell phone. Figure the back half of the case extracted and the gun fed a new round into the chamber but with half a case there, bolt wouldn't close. When I pulled the charging handle, the stuck case didn't extract but did pick up a new round from the mag and pushed that into the barrel extension. I do look at my brass for pending separations but on an AR it seems to happen way up the case. Have had this problem in my Hornet but it was always just above the rim. I need to do a better job of brass inspection. Kind of hard to be competitive when your gun is choking on your ammo. And you know you shoot with friends when they all comment on how creative I was in figuring out how to lose in a shoot off. |
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Quoted:
Here's another one to watch out for: http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d13/drshame/DSC_0767.jpg http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d13/drshame/DSC_0770.jpg http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d13/drshame/DSC_0765.jpg First time reload of a commercially-reprocessed LC Case..probably machinegin fired. Goes with the territory. Who processed the brass? In the past, a company that sized their brass with rollers. Some of them shows the case head failure like yours. 'Borg |
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Quoted:
Here's another one to watch out for: http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d13/drshame/DSC_0767.jpg http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d13/drshame/DSC_0770.jpg http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d13/drshame/DSC_0765.jpg First time reload of a commercially-reprocessed LC Case..probably machinegin fired. Goes with the territory. Those are the dangerous ones. Otherswise, separations forward of the web are held together by the chamber dia. and the bolt face during max. press. Those rounds that show structural damage through the case head are incipient case head failures that dump hot plasma out into the bolt face, upper receiver, bolt cavity, bolt carrier, and magazine well at max.press. |
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No idea how many times that particular case has been reloaded, can't be more than three or four. Why aren't you tracking how many times rifle cases are fired? They have a definite lifespan, you need to keep close track of rifle calibers and keep them segregated. You can get away with not tracking on pistol calibers, NOT RIFLE CALIBERS. |
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Quoted: No idea how many times that particular case has been reloaded, can't be more than three or four. Why aren't you tracking how many times rifle cases are fired? They have a definite lifespan, you need to keep close track of rifle calibers and keep them segregated. You can get away with not tracking on pistol calibers, NOT RIFLE CALIBERS. Because it's a pain in the ass and my memory sucks and sometimes I forget to label coffee cans or buckets and...well you get the picture. I've got brass I've kept up with but I also have brass that got "forgot". I may need a bucket marked "fuck if I know" for those. This is a reminder though that I need to make extra effort to not forget and keep up with loadings and pay extra attention when inspecting brass. |
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From the pictures I see, it appears like it's a 'head spacing' issue. It could also be just old brass, but how many people check head spacing on their loaded rounds? I have a Wilson head space guage that every round goes through before I shoot it. Too little head spacing causes excessive wear on the action, and too much head spacing will result in case failure, like the pictures in this thread show. Buy a guage, they're worth it.
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