Case separated 556

[ubet]

This happened several months ago while shooting a prairie dog. It is cfe223 24.1grs cci41 and 77gr smk. Bullet exited, I didn’t feel anything wrong with the shot. Bolt wouldn’t go into battery and was a little tough to get open. The shoulder part was stuck in the chamber, it ejected the body. The sober that was stuck I just tapped with a cleaning rod and it fell right out, with almost zero pressure. Any ideas?

 

[DIBBS]

Case head separation. Is there a ring around the case in the same spot on the other cases? How many times have they been reloaded?

You can also use a bent paper clip with a sharpened tip to slide inside the case and "feel" for a groove or rough spot that indicates the case should be retired to the scrap bucket.

 

[FatBoy]

If you bought range pick up, or pick up yourself, this can happen. Could also be from heavily fired lots of your own brass, but it’s easier to catch before it’s all shined up and bagged. Just old brass. If it was serious over pressure from the load it would probably have been a lot harder to get the case out. I suspect that if you found the case head there is no flow into the ejector or heavy swiping, burrs on the rim.

This is easy to miss if you used plastic boxes too, as they mimic the ring around the body, though in a different spot.

 

[TonyTheTiger]

I've got probably 30 of those in my scrap brass bin. Once you know what to look for its pretty easy to catch. The case will have a faint discoloration ring on it, when you stick a pick or bent paper clip in you'll feel the thin spot. Nothing lasts forever, especially brass cases that get stretched and then smashed back into shape.

 

[232593]

If you bought range pick up, or pick up yourself, this can happen. Could also be from heavily fired lots of your own brass, but it’s easier to catch before it’s all shined up and bagged. Just old brass. If it was serious over pressure from the load it would probably have been a lot harder to get the case out. I suspect that if you found the case head there is no flow into the ejector or heavy swiping, burrs on the rim.

This is easy to miss if you used plastic boxes too, as they mimic the ring around the body, though in a different spot.

Can a sizing die create a similar false positive?

 

[wvfarrier]

I had a big issue with this several years ago after purchasing a bunch of "reconditioned" brass from Xtremebrass. If I recall correctly, like 1 of every 5 of the first 100 reload did it. I ended up getting a refund and returned the remainder

 

[FatBoy]

Can a sizing die create a similar false positive?

They can leave a little bright area at the bottom by the case head but it should be very low, just above the groove where the brass would be solid for the primer hole. I started cleaning my brass in walnut before lube/sizing so I don’t see that anymore.

 

[FatBoy]

I had a big issue with this several years ago after purchasing a bunch of "reconditioned" brass from Xtremebrass. If I recall correctly, like 1 of every 5 of the first 100 reload did it. I ended up getting a refund and returned the remainder

I load 1000 at a time. I’d be fucking pissed.