Braxton1 Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 (edited) Since I have a pretty endless supply of it, I have always loaded once-fired Federal Hydra-Shok (now "HST") brass. A change now has me concerned. With the advent of the HST bullet, Federal started putting a cannelure in the bullet, giving the brass a place to crimp into and setting up a "shelf" for the casemouth to bear against, preventing bullet set-back. Tonight, I loaded 300 rounds. Two of them failed the chamber checker, so I pulled them. Below is what I found. It appears that a chunk of casemouth rips off the case and goes downrange with the bullet.... The lengths of these cases are 0.827" at the short section (where the mouth is ripped off). The place that appears to still be intact measures 0.867". A 40S&W case is supposed to be 0.840 to 0.850 according to SAAMI specs. Edited September 25, 2012 by Braxton1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie j Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 Those pics are bad , I can't see what the f*#k your talking about . I don't get any free le brass so maybe I won't have any problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Braxton1 Posted September 25, 2012 Author Share Posted September 25, 2012 I re-did the pics with a better camera.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junkie Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 Pics are fine for me and that does not look too very good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FightFireJay Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 HST is my carry ammo and I haven't seen anything like that yet. But you probably go through a lot more than I do. I'd say it's probably a bad batch, cull them out and keep on truckin'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blaster113 Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 wow, never seen that before with HST or any brand 1x fired nickel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrumpyOne Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 Yikes and crikey! If it is indeed pushing a piece of brass down the barrel with the bullet, I'd be worried about over pressure.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redial Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 Did you find only two? They may have come from one officer's gun and the gun may be effed somehow, rather than it being a brass issue. Never seen that type of case damage before - I hope it's not widespread! Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Braxton1 Posted September 25, 2012 Author Share Posted September 25, 2012 Thusfar, only these two, but I've only gone 300 deep in that particular batch of brass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OperationHitFactor Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 I have seen this at the LE ranges before, most likely, you can thank the SWAT guys. I haven't seen those exact markings on 40 before, but I have seen brass absolutely shredded. Those full-auto SMG's can do a number on brass, might have been a UMP-40 or something along those lines. You should see what some of the pre ban open bolt SMG's can do to brass. Might be my from something else, but that would be my guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Braxton1 Posted October 2, 2012 Author Share Posted October 2, 2012 All of this stuff comes off of my range, so it has only been fired thru Glocks. We have MP5s, but they're in 9mm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OperationHitFactor Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 We sub our range out to various State, Federal, and Military with a smidge of contract groups. Some of the agencies even allow officers to carry personal guns. So, I find all kinds of interesting brass fired through everything under the sun. Then the only other possibility is The Abominable Brass Man(distant relative to The Abominable Snow Man. I got nothing, but I am subscribed to see how this pans out. What I don't get is why federal went through so much trouble to reinvent the wheel. Have you pulled a bullet to inspect how the brass and bullet look before being fired? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin c Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 I'd like to be sure I understand: The pics are of the rounds you loaded that didn't chamber check, right? Did you find the lip of the case like that on the loaded rounds, or after you pulled the bullets? Is this separation at the same level as the cannelure? Have you seen other unloaded cases in that batch from the range that look the same? If so, I'm amazed the guns didn't choke (or blow up) on the range. I had some off brand cannelured 9mm brass that definitely didn't like taking a 147 at SAAMI OAL: the cases pooched out right at the cannelure and none of them would chamber (thank my lucky stars for that). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RH45 Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 I measure ALL of my brass, when I inspect it, before reloading because pistol brass gets shorter with each use, which is just opposite of rifle brass, which gets longer with each firing. It amazes me, the number of people that don't even inspect their brass, before reloading it. I'm really surprised more guns don't get blown up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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