first case failure...

[jeffsoward]

I went shooting yesterday at lunch and had my first case failure from a reload.

I was shooting and I after about 80 rounds, I got sprayed in the face with something pretty hot when I fired.
I cleared the pistol and checked the mag, barrel and rest of the gun. I couldn't find any issues. Wall thought it was probably oil from the gun. It didn't feel like oil though.
I couldn't find the shell that had just ejected so I just put the mag I was firing from in the bag and went onto some other loads.
I swept my brass up and sorted it last night. I found one case that had cracked along the bell of the case. A-HA!

I figure it could have been a weak case, but it could have been seated to low, too much powder (would have expected something a bit more catastrophic though) or something.
It was odd and unpleasant. Thank God for eye protection.

 

[NikatKimber]

How bad was this split? What were you shooting it through?

I've had a number of split cases, (I use a lot of old and/or range brass for plinking loads) but none actually sprayed me. I've noticed some flash from the ejection port on a couple of them, but none that affected me in any way.

 

[jeffsoward]

How bad was this split? What were you shooting it through?

I've had a number of split cases, (I use a lot of old and/or range brass for plinking loads) but none actually sprayed me. I've noticed some flash from the ejection port on a couple of them, but none that affected me in any way.

The split is about .25" total length. The center of the failure is "uglier" than the rest of the crack. I'll take a pic of it tonight and post the pic.
It felt like a ton of hot specks hitting me in the forehead and the right eye area.

The round is a 230gr Berry's plated with 5.4gr Clay's Universal.
Where it gets kind of odd is that the load data for Universal says to seat to an COAL of 1.200" for either FMJ or cast. Neither my gun nor mags like the short length (alot of 3 point jams with the round that short) so I increased the COAL to 1.25"
Also, Berry's states that their bullets fall between cast and FMJ so you should never load magnum, only medium using plated.
5.4gr is the max load for LRN (4.5 to 5.4) but medium for FMJ (5.1 to 5.6). I figured with the longer COAL, the velocity would be sufficiently reduced iwth the med-high load but I don't have a chrono yet so I can't tell what it's doing specifically.
I had shot a whole bunch of these before the failure, so I don't know. I'd like to chrono them to see what the round is doing.

 

[NikatKimber]

I've never had a split with the .45s, but then I don't shoot near as many of them.

Don't have any pictures of mine, but in both 9mm and .38 spl mine look much like this, some as bad, some much smaller.

[Broken External Image]

In 9mm I've also had some split from the mouth of the case down.

 

[jeffsoward]

I've never had a split with the .45s, but then I don't shoot near as many of them.

Don't have any pictures of mine, but in both 9mm and .38 spl mine look much like this, some as bad, some much smaller.

[Broken External Image]

In 9mm I've also had some split from the mouth of the case down.

Ouch! Mine's not like that at all. It's split along the bell at the back of the case.

 

[NikatKimber]

Ah... That would explain why you got blasted and I haven't.

 

[jeffsoward]

Ah... That would explain why you got blasted and I haven't.

it was unpleasant.
But I'm just glad it wasn't .40 cal or .357sig when it happened. those would have been even less fun.

 

[Karat]

I think something like this is my #1 fear in reloading and of reloaded ammo. But how many thousands of reloaded rounds have you fired before something like this happened? Like you said if it was a .40 cal it could have been much worse.

 

[jeffsoward]

I think something like this is my #1 fear in reloading and of reloaded ammo. But how many thousands of reloaded rounds have you fired before something like this happened? Like you said if it was a .40 cal it could have been much worse.

i've loaded and fired about 2400-2500 .45acp rounds and about a thousand 9mm rounds.
I'm fairly new to reloading but i'm also pretty meticulous about my brass, powder charge, etc. since i'm not very experienced and "comfortable". I hope I never get so comfortable that a catastrophic failure will occur. I go over every piece of brass that I sweep. I mark every round that has medium or higher loads. magnum loads get an X so that they aren't reused. Medium or medium high loads get reloaded twice, then they are done. My 9mm subsonic load cases are inspected but I don't worry about them too much.
I don't just turn and burn with the reloader; I watch the primer cup and the powder charge in each load (I've had a couple of primers seat upside down or the primer didn't get dropped). So it takes me a while longer to make my loads, but i'm not in a hurry.

I really don't know what happened other than either metal fatigue in the case or the round somehow got seated too deep or a combination of things.
I know that the 550B has some variation in charge per round (something like .2 grains) and I set the dies up without having the shellplate full (so the shellplate had a little play, correcting tonight), so it could have been a combination of a little extra powder, a little short COAL and brass fatigue that caused it.
Basically, I'm at the point where i'm trying to find recipes that are right for me and my guns rather than just plain old book data. I figured that I'd have a round or two that didn't act right, but the whole taking one to the face thing kind of caught me off guard.

After it happened, I heard in my head, "IN THE FACE! IN......THE......FACE!" from The Hangover.

 

[Karat]

We were at one of the many gunshows at the fairgrounds and there was a guy selling reloaded ammo out of his trunk in the parking lot. My buddy bought some, but I was like "you don't know what he put in there or if he even knows what he is doing." I don't think he has ever fired any of that stuff.

I have been hit in the face by a couple pieces of copper jacket at H&H, that was bad enough, I couldn't imagine a case exploding.