Thread: Brass splitting

Ive NEVER annealed.....have some .270 brass with maybe dozen loads through them...Ive seen case seperation down in web area ,also seen it in .223 but never what you have shown....at all.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

Ive NEVER annealed.....have some .270 brass with maybe dozen loads through them...Ive seen case seperation down in web area ,also seen it in .223 but never what you have shown....at all.

Ditto

Might well be one bad peice of brass with a hairline crack

anyone else notice how cracked edge is blackened??? not what I would expect from a fresh break at all

I would suggest that this is one of those unusual failures. It would be nice to find out why but in actual reality it probably won't change anything with the rest of the brass even if you did know. Personally I'd give the rest of the brass a good once over, bend a piece of wire into a small hook and slightly sharpen it and have a feel inside the rest of the brass for any other cracks or weirdities.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

anyone else notice how cracked edge is blackened??? not what I would expect from a fresh break at all

Hard to tell from a photo and not being able to move the case around to play the light over it...

Just asked him and he said some of these cases are 10-12 years old… didn’t mentioned ithis first. It would be one of my rifles I would probably not worry too much as having a better understanding of the component I’m using… It is the first time I reload for a mate and first time in thousand of rounds I have something like that happening. He will just have to get descent brass or keep shooting factory pills I can’t be fucked dealing with the consequences of a round failing on firing.

Originally Posted by tibo

I can’t be fucked dealing with the consequences of a round failing on firing.

oh man can I now relate to that comment.....

FC brass. Purchased as once fired. Looked new. FLS, and loaded with a cast bullet. This happened upon firing.

I'm now annealing all brass I buy or range brass I get prior to using.

Originally Posted by tibo

Just asked him and he said some of these cases are 10-12 years old… didn’t mentioned ithis first. It would be one of my rifles I would probably not worry too much as having a better understanding of the component I’m using… It is the first time I reload for a mate and first time in thousand of rounds I have something like that happening. He will just have to get descent brass or keep shooting factory pills I can’t be fucked dealing with the consequences of a round failing on firing.

In and of itself, the 10-12 years is not a factor. A lot of ammo is still functioning fine after 60+ years. Especially milspec, some of that is over a hundy.

Having said that, incorrect storage or handling brass with hands that are contaminated with copper solvent or the like can dezincify the brass and result in stuff not ductile cases in a very short space of time. Have had batches of factory rounds that split on first firing, some calibers are really bad for this.