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Posted: 2/20/2015 11:51:21 PM EDT
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I had a case rupture on me today. No one was hurt and the gun seemed fine, but I think it ruined my mag. It swelled the mag body and blew the floorplate out. I was shooting Cabela's brand 308 ammo. Does this look like an out of battery shot, or something else?
I shot 30 more rounds through my FAL with no other issues after this. No more steel cased ammo for me. 
Sorry for the iPotato photos. |
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Quoted: Glad no one was hurt, but you apparently broke #3 of The 10 Commandments of the FAL. "THOU SHALT NOT FEED THY RIFLE STEEL CASED AMMUNITION". What I found out after the rupture: a) my headspace was a tad off. Checked with go, and no-go gauges. Ordered new locking shoulder. b) I don't think the FAL design can handle steel cased ammo. if you look at the ramp built into the barrel, you will see it can leave a very small portion of the case unsuported. Steel doesn't give like brass. I'd check your headspace, then think about not using the steel cased in your FAL again. |
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Quoted:
I have had a small rupture with my FAL also, using steel cased ammo. The above statement seems to be true. I put about 3k of steel through mine before I had the issue. What I found out after the rupture: a) my headspace was a tad off. Checked with go, and no-go gauges. Ordered new locking shoulder. b) I don't think the FAL design can handle steel cased ammo. if you look at the ramp built into the barrel, you will see it can leave a very small portion of the case unsuported. Steel doesn't give like brass. I'd check your headspace, then think about not using the steel cased in your FAL again. Quoted:
Quoted:
Glad no one was hurt, but you apparently broke #3 of The 10 Commandments of the FAL. "THOU SHALT NOT FEED THY RIFLE STEEL CASED AMMUNITION". What I found out after the rupture: a) my headspace was a tad off. Checked with go, and no-go gauges. Ordered new locking shoulder. b) I don't think the FAL design can handle steel cased ammo. if you look at the ramp built into the barrel, you will see it can leave a very small portion of the case unsuported. Steel doesn't give like brass. I'd check your headspace, then think about not using the steel cased in your FAL again. I think you're right. I've only got 40 more rounds of steel cases ammo, so I guess it'll get run through the bolt gun. I'll try and located or buy some go/no-go guages and go from there. |
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Yeah, no steel in an FAL.
Are you headspacing for 7.62 NATO, or .308 Win? The allowable headspace tolerance for 7.62 NATO is longer than for .308, but finding 7.62 NATO gauges is quite difficult. My recollection is hazy, so don't take this as gospel, but I think the .308 "No-Go" is approximately correct for a 7.62 NATO "Go". FALFiles has a very good sticky on headspacing. |
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Quoted:
Yeah, no steel in an FAL. Are you headspacing for 7.62 NATO, or .308 Win? The allowable headspace tolerance for 7.62 NATO is longer than for .308, but finding 7.62 NATO gauges is quite difficult. My recollection is hazy, so don't take this as gospel, but I think the .308 "No-Go" is approximately correct for a 7.62 NATO "Go". FALFiles has a very good sticky on headspacing. To be honest, I don't know what it was headspaced for: .308 or 7.62. It is a DSA STG 58. Does anyone know how they headspace their builds? |
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DSA's website says it's OK to use either 7.62 NATO or .308 Win because there's only 0.003" difference in chamber dimensions. From that I assume they shoot for a headspace in the range where the specs for both cartridges overlap, which makes sense.
My point re. headspace is that a rifle that closes on a .308 "no-go" may be completely safe and within specs for 7.62 NATO. |
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Quoted: I've fired thousands of rounds of steel through my fals. Not all steel is bad or dangerous. The recently imported Russian steel case is seems to be problematic. No need for the steel hate. I was the same way with the FAL 5k plus before I had a rupture. I don't think it's the ammo, I think it's the FAL design, at the chamber. Break down your rifle, throw a round in the chamber and look at it from the magwell. You will see an unsupported portion of the case. That's where mine ruptured. I'm not saying anything negative about the FAL, I'm just saying the design does not work with Steel. Mine was a Styer barrel, so may not apply to all. millions of rounds fired of steel cased .308 and the only system that has a large amount of issues with it is the FAL. Yes I've seen videos of other systems failing, but not on the epidemic level that the FAL does, at least by what you read on the files anyway. |
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If you want mags, see Moses over at the FalFiles. |
| There use to be a sticky over on the files warning about the use of steel cased Wolf. I tried a couple of boxes of Barnaul Silver Bear in my FAL one time. Groups were about 1/2 the size of Port and SA. Issue? It became a single shot no matter what gas setting I used. Sold the rest and have never had an issue with any surplus 7.62, new 308 or my reloads in brass cases. |
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Quoted:
Looks like mine but mine was out of an HK <a href="http://s220.photobucket.com/user/eyegun/media/photo-1.jpg.html" target="_blank">http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd74/eyegun/photo-1.jpg</a> 
I'm glad I got rid of the rest of my steel the day of my case rupture. ZQI at Walmart is cheap enough to shoot and is brass. Anyone ever had problems with it? |
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Quoted: I'm glad I got rid of the rest of my steel the day of my case rupture. ZQI at Walmart is cheap enough to shoot and is brass. Anyone ever had problems with it? I've found the ZQI to be horribly inaccurate and inconsistent. After trying several different lots, I couldn't get the stuff to group worth a damn out of my M1A, MWS, or FAL. I think their 1 MOA guarantee is some sort of cruel joke at best. It goes bang, that's about the only nice thing I can say about it. Lots of Silver Bear 145s through my FAL carbine. The little FAL seems to like the stuff. Shoots about 3 MOA at 100 yards out of the Aimpoint-equipped carbine. I haven't had any indication of blowouts like those pictured in this thread. |
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Both of the pictured failed cases look like they ruptured well out of the chamber. It looks like the steel tried to swell into the rim recess area of the barrel: a good 1/8" or more sticking out! The OP's looks like it mostly went one direction...down, into the "ramp" area. The second poster's looks like it swelled all the way around in a general OOB firing.
Rob |
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