Separated case in factory ammo

[m&p45acp10+1]

Well it happened to me today at the range. Was shooting some new factory ammo to recover the brass. I was shooting .30 Carbine. I will not name the maker of the ammo (I have emailed them, and wish to keep this from being a brand bashing thread.). It was new without doubt. Shot fine till the last round of a 50 round box. Last round blew spring, follower, and floor plate of my magazine out. The base of the case I found on the ground, the cut was not even, and slightly jagged.

I took the rifle home, used some CeroSafe, and a taped up drill rod to get it out. Popped right out no problem. Drove a few blocks to catch the gun smith right before he was leaving for the day. Told him what happened. It caught his curiosity. I saved the pieces of the case to show him. It did not look like a head space problem cut. Well he checked the head space of it before I bought. Knew it was fine then. Checked it again today. Just fine no problem. I saved the fired brass I could find. We checked that. All looked good. Nothing bad about any of it.

Never have I had a problem with my reloads, one bad factory round put my rifle out of service for the day. I was lucky to have the alloy, and drill rod. Most others would have had to spend money to have smith take the case out.

Ok enough with my ranting.

How many of you folks out there that reload have had problems with factory ammo?

I started reloading due to 2 squibs in 2 boxes of hand gun ammo that were of the same brand, purchased in different areas of the state.


Also any ideas about what else may have caused the case head separation? I am still scrathing my head on this one. Best I can come up with is SFL that I got that rare one that had bad brass that made it by QC.

[Jimro]

Bad brass is the most likely suspect. Doesn't sound like a double charge which would be the next most likely suspect.

Jimro

[Sport45]

I was lucky to have the alloy, and drill rod. Most others would have had to spend money to have smith take the case out.

I would of used a bore brush.

Can you post a picture of the brass? Any chance it was an out of battery fire?

[chris in va]

I witnessed a case head separation with PMC 30 carbine. The gun was a rental, with unknown history or condition. The powder blew back in his face and he was a bloody mess, but mostly superficial.

He showed me the case head, nice huge crack right below the rim. Probably fired out of battery.

[m&p45acp10+1]

Chris mine it sheared off completely. It was not the perfect around cut though. It was a jagged, and very uneven. It did blow some powder back at me. The magazine follower, floor plate, and spring all shot out. I found the floor plate at my feet.

I inspected the brass. Paper clip test, and measured for length. All were in spec. The smith sectioned a couple of pieces. Noting wrong. I am going to chalk this up to a bad round. I fired some of my reloads today. All went bang. Looks like the gas plug in my rifle is stuck though. I will have to look around to find the wrench for the gas plug nut. If you guys could be kind enough to point me to somewhere with a link that has one that is not on ebay. (I do not do pay pal.)

[zplinker]

Only ran into that once, running test loads through the chronograph, with new brass. Last round blew the primer and had me wondering if I'd messed up. However, the speed was right on the button. so I'm fairly certain that it was a defective piece of brass. I'm still running that load, and no problems for 10 years or more.

[m&p45acp10+1]

I did not have a blown primer. The case cut completely I tried the cleaning brush to remove it. It did not budge. I took it home, and used some chamber casting alloy with a drill rod to remove the stuck remains of the case. It cost me a magazine spring, and follower. I am going to chalk it up to a bad factory round.