case head separation

[outerlimits]

wtf? checking my zero this morning, before driving down to the winter classic @ 5 dogs. just about the last round, and failure to feed. i look in the ejection port of my ar and see about the last 1/2" of a .223 case. didn't feel any differnet. new scharch trimmed brass. load isn't even hot, around 2,945.

anyway, what's the secret to removing the other part of the case from the chamber without ruining my JP barrel? i have about 5 hours till i gotta leave.

[Dan Sierpina]

wtf? checking my zero this morning, before driving down to the winter classic @ 5 dogs. just about the last round, and failure to feed. i look in the ejection port of my ar and see about the last 1/2" of a .223 case. didn't feel any differnet. new scharch trimmed brass. load isn't even hot, around 2,945.

anyway, what's the secret to removing the other part of the case from the chamber without ruining my JP barrel? i have about 5 hours till i gotta leave.

Try a 38 caliber brass brush. Push it into the separated case and pull straight back. Attached to a cleaning rod, of course.

[outerlimits]

well, it was cake. ran a chamber brush in and it came right out. cleaned it up and i'm good. can't figure out why the sep, though. primer looks normal. maybe there is such ting as a weak case.

[TeamGE]

Very common to have case separation on used brass that has been fire with excessive head space, (resized too short or chamber too long). Each time the brass is fired with excessive head space, it stretches in the middle of the case, and eventually gets thin enough to break. Even normal head space will cause stretching, this is why we have to trim the case for overall length from time to time. The closer you get to perfect head spacing, the better it is for case life.

[Dan Sierpina]

I've not dealt with them, they won't ship to Ma. I do think that when brass is purchased that's fired out of mostly full auto stuff, it gets over stretched if it's out of something like a SAW, and possible oversized, resulting in thin sections just in front of the base.

I've had separations when fireforming brass in an Ackley Improved chamber, simply by using too slow a powder. That was brand new brass.

Edited January 23, 2009 by Dan Sierpina

[Carlos]

Bingo: "Sarch 1x fired military brass" + shot from a SAW (belt fed machinegun) = stretched brass.

It is not Sarch's fault though.

Word I hear from many of our .mil friends is that MANY of our 5.56 cal machineguns are seriously worn out. Apparently, such guns spit out brass that is stretched to the limit - even after a single firing. Problem is: buying ANY fired brass forces you to guess at that brass' history. There is simply no way to be certain.

I've not dealt with them, they won't ship to Ma. I do think that when brass is purchased that's fired out of mostly full auto stuff, it gets over stretched if it's out of something like a SAW, and possible oversized, resulting in thin sections just in front of the base.

I've had separations when fireforming brass in an Ackley Improved chamber, simply by using too slow a powder. That was brand new brass.

[1911user]

I loaded 700 rounds recently with brass purchased from Scharch a few years ago. While gaging the ammo, I found 2 cases with the tell-tale ring of incipient head separation about to happen. I would always gage once-fired military ammo to check for streched cases and damaged rims. 10-15% of the 700 rounds would not gage mostly due to case rim damage.