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Old July 22, 2005, 03:06 PM   #1
safeman
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Join Date: June 23, 2005
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303 Brit base separation, water effect?

Wednesday is machinegun day at my local club and a guy was shooting a Lewis MG using the standard drum. After each shot, the MG failed to cycle and the ejected case was found in two parts. The base had completely separated about a quarter inch above the rim and the case was in two pieces. This happened three times. Then the guy pulled out another batch of ammo and things went fine. He said that the load and bullets were identical between the two batches but that the cases were different. The separated cases came from a batch that were under water for a period of time (I don't know why). Can water affect the integrity of a brass case like that?
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Old July 22, 2005, 03:30 PM   #2
Leftoverdj
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I doubt it was the water. Your question implied that he was shooting reloads. MGs have generous chambers. .303 headspaces on the rim. Fireform out to fill the chamber and resize back to standard dimensions and you get case head separations from a combination of the repeated stretching and the work hardening. MGs also tend to have violent extraction which would aggravate the problem.
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Old July 22, 2005, 05:00 PM   #3
steveno
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most anything chambered in 303 British will probably have too much headspace.
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