Thread: What happened ????

Had the same issue years ago with my 308 Browning BAR, big bang action jammed open, heaps of smoke and shit blown back but no damage to me or rifle. Primer pocket enlarged and shell black from gases. Same as Viper weigh each load, shells trimmed in RCBS trim die, never ever figured that one out. Scary stuff when they wrong.

Originally Posted by Sideshow

Just came out as 50 cases of Nosler brass £107.00
20 rounds Hornady 140gran £37.00
Seemed a no brainier but......?

False economy mate. You'll get at least 6 loads off those Norma cases, more if you're running sensible pressures. In my experience with the Hornady you'll be pushing your luck at three. Nosler is about as expensive as it gets. Can't you find some Norma factory ammo to start with?

Case failures do occur due to faults during manufacture that are not visible during inspection. First firing is ok but the stress of 50k psi makes the fault pop out so to speak. When reloaded it will let go. Probably a 1 in a million accident. Federal cases are the ones that have given me trouble when reloaded so i avoid them now.
I see your comment on heat discolouring on a chambered and extracted round. A cook off would raise pressure quite a lot but probably not rupture the case, and anyhow the primer itself didnt show pressure signs, so i suspect it was just a one off. Most of us have had them, my most memorable was a case head split that needed a rod to get the case out and plated the bolt head and mag well with brass. Scary.

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

Case failures do occur due to faults during manufacture that are not visible during inspection. First firing is ok but the stress of 50k psi makes the fault pop out so to speak. When reloaded it will let go. Probably a 1 in a million accident. Federal cases are the ones that have given me trouble when reloaded so i avoid them now.
I see your comment on heat discolouring on a chambered and extracted round. A cook off would raise pressure quite a lot but probably not rupture the case, and anyhow the primer itself didnt show pressure signs, so i suspect it was just a one off. Most of us have had them, my most memorable was a case head split that needed a rod to get the case out and plated the bolt head and mag well with brass. Scary.

Thanks Marty, yeah with a lot of knowledge on this forum and no one able to offer any firm explanation and with several other guys suggesting what you just have I think it was just one of those things that happen. I am have 1500 odd 223 reloads ( not on the same cases) and sooner or later something will not go quite right.
It's actually been a good thing in a way as it's made me go right through and double / triple check my gear and methods and that can never be a bad thing.
It has also made me look at my safety while shooting and I now use shooting glasses behind the 223, I don't like them but I like my eye's a lot more. It doesn't feel comfortable or natural at this point but I can see a stage where it won't feel right not shooting with them.
I have spoken to the guy's at H&F here in Cromwell and Stu at Central Sports in Alex and they all have seen it happen with both reloads and out of the box factory stuff.
So with that said and other guys like yourself with similar experiences it has been an interesting occurrence in my reloading career, hasn't put me off , new brass arriving soon and back into it .

Things like that happen from time to time so far I've had the back of a 22rf case burst open on firing a primer pop open in the 223 and the head come off a factory 22 hornet round some people will never have these things happen others will

[QUOTE=viper;550220 So with that said and other guys like yourself with similar experiences it has been an interesting occurrence in my reloading career, hasn't put me off , new brass arriving soon and back into it .[/QUOTE]
Good onya

Hi
rebarreld a rifle .223, for a guy and after about 3 years use he came back and said there was something wrong with the chamber because some cases were hard to extract ( yeah a real thinker) so I asked him to bring in some of his reloads which he did complete with loading info .. well his load was similar to yours so I took the gun and his ammo to the range and fired 4 and found what he said was true of the 4 two were very hard to lift the bolt handle and extract ... So pulled the remaining projectiles and weighed the charges ,nothing wrong there so I the weighed the cases and found that the 2 cases that were giving trouble were a lot heavier than the ones that were ok then I ran the figures over my ballastics calculater and found that the volume of powder in the heavy cases put the pressure way over the safe pressure for that cartridge .. Soooo I would weigh some cases and see what you come up with heavey case means smaller internal space and to put it in simple terms he was using more than a maximum chard in the heavey cases ..I suggest that he reduce the charge but he said stuff you it kills things so i wont change a thing and forget weighing cases thats for geeks . I told him to buy a funeral plot and enjoy the time left to him .. havent seen or heard from since Rob

Originally Posted by 7x64

False economy mate. You'll get at least 6 loads off those Norma cases, more if you're running sensible pressures. In my experience with the Hornady you'll be pushing your luck at three. Nosler is about as expensive as it gets. Can't you find some Norma factory ammo to start with?

Thanks for the reply 7x64 I'm reluctantly inclined to agree with you but I think I'm going to have to take the steep and buy the expensive brass bloody rabbit hole, no one here sells Norma factory ammo here in that caliber. I'm starting to look at the US as the wife may need to go there in a month so I can wait. Sooo much cheaper there plus it's a more common round, now I wonder what else I can add to that shopping list

Yep well used case primer came out under pressure primer doesn't look flat or anything