Thread: What happened ????

i go with @R93 advice , it looks like loose primer , if it was too much oomph the primer would be flattened ....

I agree about the loose primer but I don't know how, I clean the pockets each time just to remove fouling from spent primer but that's only pocket bottom, the side walls don't get cleaned as such.

Originally Posted by PERRISCICABA

@viper, i live in Glenorchy and will be heading to Queenstown sometime soon, very big maybe today but quiet sure tomorrow. I am not an expert t all but i can drop in and have a chat and look at your set up for just some advise.
As i said, not an expert but i have quiet few K's of reloaded rounds without any trouble. R93 has a lot more experience than me i am sure and many others here can and will give very valuable feed back too.

Hope you are well thou…

Mac

Thanks for the offer Mac
I have family down at the moment and we are doing trips all over the place so not sure where I will be either. If I have further issues I may let you know and arrange to catch up sometime.
All the best and thanks again .

Sorry Viper but your case to me has been subjected to a massive overload.

How many times have you loaded this particular case? Was this a first time reload for it?
How close to max is your load?

If it was a loose primer pocket and you hand prime you will have felt that when you primed.

Measure the case head with a micrometer or vernier and compare to a newish case, if you have one. If the head has expanded greater than a new case by 1 - 2 thou it has been overloaded. Anything bigger and wow!

Weigh that case and compare with others. If a lot heavier that would cause elevated pressure. BTW I don't like Hornady brass. Found it to be all over the place weigh wise and neck thickness wise.

Yeah, bloody difficult determining cause with one event.

You were brave continuing shooting. I would have brought my loads home and stripped them and checked everything.

Re safety glasses. I don't wear safety glasses out and about but do wear them when doing load development and also with some of my ancient guns that have for example sloppy firing pin holes. Also wear them for black powder muzzle loading.

I certainly wouldn't discourage anyone who felt happier shooting wearing safety glasses ot proper shooting glasses all of the time

had a similar explosion with one of my reloads 308 thought it was a lose primer it was hornady brass as well

I would pick it's the case, and loose primer pocket too. Certainly not too hot, you couldn't stuff enough 2206h in a 223 case to really get in trouble. You would need a considerably faster powder to really get into strife. And you can under load 2206h quite considerably without issue too - the manufacturers recommend it for reduced loads, it is very easy to light so no detonation issues.

Hornady brass is horrible shit. It seems hugely variable. Weigh any empties you have and see what I mean. I believe they make some cases themselves and these are fine, but also outsource to every Tom dick and Harry when under pressure, so you never know what you'll get. I have once fired Hornady 308 cases you can nearly push a primer into with your fingers. Bin it.

I have measured factory rounds of Hornady in 7x64 and compared them to New Norma brass - you can almost visibly see how undersized the Hornady is. It shoots fine, but forget reloading the case afterwards. I thought I had a headspace issue for a while, but just utterly shit brass.

Did I mention Hornady brass is shit?

Thanks Zimmer , I know what you mean but like 7x64 says, you can't get that much in to really be way over, plus I am running less than recommended max loads.
Very interesting about Hornaby brass, it is on it's 4th reload so I think I will finish this batch off and bin it all.

I now have some nice new shooting glasses that turn the world a shade of yellow but I am glad to be able to see still.
The Tikka action gained some major respect after this also, seems plenty strong.

fWIW I use use 223 brass when making cases for my 6.5TCU,

I neck them up. They are fireformed the first time, loaded again and shot, loaded again and then biffed as I'm driving them quite hard.

I like the Lake city Brass, Federal is OK too, Geko also works well.

I have a good source of scrap brass though

If the primer pocket is uniformly oversized then you would be able to feel the difference when priming but if the pocket is slightly oval then you will still feel that resistance like a normal pocket, so I would rule it out.

Dude I am not ruling anything out, that's the problem with this dark art. Like using a Ouiga board, 99% of the time it's just a bit of edgy fun but 1% of the time it turns nasty .

'Wouldnt'

Viper if you still have the case try seating a primer in it to see how it feels. Sorry if this has already been suggested.

+1 for looking at the Hornady brass. I loaded 7mm rem mag cases and one separated after only a few firings. Lucky I noticed it when I was giving the rounds a polish after loading so avoided a nasty surprise! The other cases seemed fine so guessing one weak one. I binned the lot anyway to be sure. Primer pockets were not great for tightness compared to Norma which I changed to. In fact if I hadn't of found the separating case they were due to be discarded after the next firing for that reason.

Originally Posted by Dermastor

Viper if you still have the case try seating a primer in it to see how it feels. Sorry if this has already been suggested.

The primer pocket is so expanded mate you can drop it in and it has up to a 1mm free space round the outside and oval not uniform. Looks like a bull elephant has fucked a Chihuahua.

Originally Posted by r87mm

+1 for looking at the Hornady brass. I loaded 7mm rem mag cases and one separated after only a few firings. Lucky I noticed it when I was giving the rounds a polish after loading so avoided a nasty surprise! The other cases seemed fine so guessing one weak one. I binned the lot anyway to be sure. Primer pockets were not great for tightness compared to Norma which I changed to. In fact if I hadn't of found the separating case they were due to be discarded after the next firing for that reason.

I am with you mate, I got 60 rounds to go, one failure so been a trill seeker once I have these 60 shot off they are going in the bin.