Reloads

[roashooter]

Just curious...when shooting reloads...what do you do when you find a round with a split casing neck?

[briandg]

Trash.

[Bayou]

That happens. Pitch it...

[mineralman55]

Bad brass in one coffee can, spent primers in another. Take them to the local scrap yard and get a couple bucks for them.

[roashooter]

If the split is just barely there, would you go ahead and reload it, just to get one more use of it, then toss it?

my first question was if the round was already resized, reprimed, repowdered, and bullet seated and crimped, when you see the crack,

[jojo4711]

Trash it. Not worth the risk, in my opinion.

[dahermit]

If they are your hand loads and you have been shooting those cases as a lot, toss the case that split, anneal the others. With bottleneck cases, it is usually the primer pocket getting too large that determines when to toss the whole lot of cases.

[Nick_C_S]

If I'm understanding the question, our OP is asking what to do with a loaded round with a split at the case mouth when discovered at the range. . . . That's how I inferred the question.

In that situation, if it's a semi-auto round (pistol or rifle), it comes home with me for dismantlement, and the case gets its mouth crushed with pliers and is donated to my range (they sell the brass for recycling and the money is reinvested to the range).

If it's a hot revolver round - same thing.

If it's a light revolver round (like a 38 Special), it gets discharged as usual and then the case goes straight to the recycling bucket.

When reconditioning brass, I'm constantly on the lookout for case mouth splits (or any other type of flaw). But sometimes, they manage to get through my quality control. It happens.

[Sure Shot Mc Gee]

If the split isn't to bad? You could trim such cartridge case mouths to the Minimum Length Suggested_such information is found in a reloader's or powders manufactures brochure.

[Don Fischer]

Originally Posted by mineralman55

Bad brass in one coffee can, spent primers in another. Take them to the local scrap yard and get a couple bucks for them.

I keep thinking that is what I really should do. My concern would be how long will it take to fill a coffee can with spent primer's? Coffee can of bad brass I suspect might weight quite a bit less than primers.

[Don Fischer]

OK, screwy idea just came to me. Why not set the case aside and when you have a few, silver solder the crack together again. After all, we're talking about $.14 per case! :-)

[Jim Watson]

Pistol ammo:
A .1" split at the case mouth from repeated crimping? One last bang.

A crack in the sidewall from repeated sizing/shooting? Take apart and save bullet, powder, primer.

Rifle ammo:
Pull down regardless. Unless the zombies are very bad this month.

[cw308]

You should have a record on how many times you fired your cases. That's what you look for , splits & loose primer pockets. I fire the same cases over & over , when something happens to even one in the group , I dump them all. I will get 20+ reloads out of my 308 cases.
I reload two lots of 30 , shoot 30 each week , clean & size . shoot the next group of 30 the following week . switch each week , but its important to keep records. If your loading hot your cases won't last as long. Clean & inspect your cases before reloading , will keep you & you die's trouble free.

[mikld]

When do you find the split? During the after firing inspection? During pre-reloading inspection? After sizing? Final reloading inspection?

[RC20]

OK, screwy idea just came to me. Why not set the case aside and when you have a few, silver solder the crack together again. After all, we're talking about $.14 per case! :-)

Definitely a screwy idea, to be consigned to the round bin.

[RC20]

Someday maybe the OP will get back to us?.

[ShootistPRS]

I find defects before the cleaning process, after the cleaning process but I have never found that I loaded a round with a split. You are not doing a good job of reloading if you find a split neck after the round has been loaded.

[RC20]

OP has not returned and has not stated if before firing or after.

Frankly it can be taken either way with a bias to its been shot and split.

[lamarw]

While sorting out my new reloads of 5.56 Lake City brass, I found one with a slight crack. I broke it down and saved the powder, primer and bullet. Threw the casing in the recycle tub. If I had a 300 Blackout, it would of been a perfect candidate for cutting down. Maybe, I will retrieve it for future hopes of a 300 Blackout.

Might just be a good excuse for a new rifle/pistol. Hey, I don't need much encouragement.

[T. O'Heir]

"...find a round with a split casing neck..." Pitch that one and anneal the rest of your cases. Absolutely do not shoot it if it's live though.
"...Take them to the local scrap yard..." Cost you more in gas than you'll get.

[roashooter]

the question is this, after reading the response.....you find that you split the case during reloading....after you have resized...reprimed...repowdered....seat and crimped the bullet....do you toss it or go to the trouble of pulling saving the powder

or do you find the split before you reprime , repowder, seat and crimp

[Reloadron]

OK, screwy idea just came to me. Why not set the case aside and when you have a few, silver solder the crack together again. After all, we're talking about $.14 per case! :-)

I would have to agree, sort of a screwy idea.

Alloys that melt between 180 and 190 °C (360 and 370 °F; 450 and 460 K) are the most commonly used. Soldering performed using alloys with a melting point above 450 °C (840 °F; 720 K) is called "hard soldering", "silver soldering", or brazing.

Going to get a little toasty on those cases.

Ron

[Chainsaw.]

With 44mag cases that split I chop em off and turn them into 44 special cases. 223 with split necks fet made into 300bo.

Everything else gets pulled down and chucked.

[BigJimP]

I reject the round....pull bullet, reclaim powder...reclaim primer ...and toss the brass case in the brass recycling tub( to go to local brass recycler )....I get about $0.90 to $1.00 a lb ..price flucuates. I go to recycler when I get about 150 lbs...

( I catch these rounds before I get to the range by case gauging every round before I box them up ).

[Unclenick]

Roashooter,

If the round is already loaded and it is a rifle cartridge with a bottleneck case, and if you load it singly and not from the magazine, it probably won't do any direct damage to fire it. Worst case, the split grows down and then around the neck and you wind up with the back of the case ejecting and leaving the rest inside. You should then be able to push the rest out with a cleaning rod, though occasionally it requires a broken case extractor to get hold of it well.

The main problem is you just can't expect the bullet pull and therefore the start pressure to match the rounds that are not split. The round pressure will probably peak a little low and the bullet will get out of the muzzle a little late and may not group with the others. This is also the reason not to feed it from a magazine, as the bullet may get pushed deeper into the case by feeding forces, raising pressure rather than lowering it. These are the main reasons for taking split case out of circulation.