Help identifying catastrophic failure

[theWacoKid]

27 minutes ago, ByzantineBonafide said:

WacoKid, what is causing the rings? Any ideas?

Best idea so far is fatigue from multiple expansion, bells, and crimps on the same piece of brass. 

 

I think it happens a lot and people don't catch it. First time was years ago when I happened to see one fall out of my gun and I picked it up off the ground. Since then I've caught many more because I look for them. It normally wedges the gun up like a "fat" round. Recovering the ring is common, knowing which piece brass it came from isn't. I tend to get more with thinner wall brass like Federal. 

[HesedTech]

2 hours ago, Sarge said:

That’s out of a rifle. North of 4.0 is typical for a pistol 

 

Yes I saw that, but in my Stock 2 using coated 124s and 125 with 3.8/3.9 of TG my PF was 130 and 1033 FPS.  4.3 is way too much, not dangerous in any way, I would bet it would shoot close to 1200 FPS. Haven’t tested it at that level. My 40 Limited make 170 PF with 4.1 TG, using blues and ACME 180s. 

 

124 +P typically shoots around 1200fps. BTW this would be 149 PF

 

Edited July 6, 2019 by HesedTech

[HesedTech]

4 hours ago, ByzantineBonafide said:

HesedTech, I was trying to find a load to approximate store-bought defensive ammo that was cheaper to use for practice (I've heard you shouldn't put anything but factory in your carry gun). 

 

I’ve heard the same.  The idea is factory ammo is more reliable and if one were ever to have an encounter lawyers might frown on reloads. 

 

I have had a case failure and it wasn’t anywhere near your issue. Case cracked ahead of extraction groove and let a bunch of gas out but squibbed the bullet half way down the barrel. But my load was 147 with 3.2 TG, significantly less than yours.

 

My guess is overcharged. What kind of reloading press are you using? I ask because since I switched to the 1050 my drops have been very consistent. Now back in the Lee Progressive press days the only thing consistent was the lack of it. I had to pay close attention to every powder drop. 

Edited July 6, 2019 by HesedTech

[ByzantineBonafide]

I'm using a Lee single stage, just about everything I use is off the anniversary kit. 

[drewbeck]

I’d bet that was an out of battery firing or an unsupported case from a barrel that was polished or worked more than typical for that specific gun.

 

easiest way to test out of battery firing condition is to (while empty) push barrel/slide against a wall and see if you can make the trigger click.  The other way is to pull slide back and stick a cigarette but between the barrel and breech face and see if you can get it to click.

 

if either way allows the gun to “fire” / click etc, your trigger timing is way off and you need to have it fixed immediately by someone that knows what they’re doing ( you or a GS). 

 

If it wont cycle out of battery, have a GS gauge the barrel and tell you how unsupported it is.

 

thats not a stepped case failure, and if you had a true double charge of titegroup, you wouldn’t be questioning yourself whether it was a double charge with that little of damage to you or the gun.  8gr of titegroup in 9mm behind a 124gr pill is a recipe for a spectacular event.  Much like an M80!

[superdude]

I'm not familiar with Sig pistols so you folks will have to help me out.  I'll use a Glock as an example. 

 

A Glock can fire out of battery, or more accurately, when not fully in battery, but there are limits on how far the barrel can be unlocked. As the barrel unlocks it slides down the breech face, and in doing so, the primer slides away from alignment with the firing pin.  The firing pin has to hit the primer in a region that will still set off the primer, and that's not too far off center. If the primer has moved far enough away, the off-center firing pin hit won't ignite the primer.

 

I don't know how a Sig unlocks and at what point the barrel starts to move downward. You folks will have to let me know. A Glock barrel starts to slide downward very soon as the slide moves to the rear, so there is a limit on how far the slide and barrel can be 'out of battery' and still have good enough alignment for the firing pin to set off the primer.  It's not very far.  The out of battery firings that I've seen in a Glock don't produce a bulged case. The only way to know it fired out of battery is to look for the position of the firing pin hit on the primer to see if it's centered or off center. 

 

All this of course assumes that the firing pin block doesn't stop the firing pin.  

 

 

[HesedTech]

5 hours ago, ByzantineBonafide said:

I'm using a Lee single stage, just about everything I use is off the anniversary kit. 

 

Sorry I missed you already stated that previously.

 

I still use a single stage for development and rifle so the only way an overcharge could happen is a failure of the powder drop and one visually fails to notice the extra powder. Which, as you know, is very obvious with pistol cartridges and even with TGs high density/low volumes. 

 

Mystery.

Edited July 6, 2019 by HesedTech

[chevrofreak]

Sometimes you just find a weak case.  I had an Everglades case that had been used for 9major blow out in a PCC with a light 2.8gr charge of TG. 

[rowdyb]

out of battery detonation