Case exploded today !!!

i'll stick with the case being a major component of the failure.
a '86 case has been in circulation for of a dozen years.....how many time do you think it could have been reloaded in that time ??

for those that do not know, the 223 brass can go thru a "remanufacturing" process. special dies and triming to get it back to oem /like new condition. volume production equiptment, not your home reloading press stuff.
with one big exception....hardness and interior....lots of material can be pushed forward, and trimmed off over time.......

i understand that black hills gets current use once fired lc brass, remanufcures and reloads for thier line of reman ammo. this is a sound practice. random use of unknown brass is asking for issues.

again '86 brass is a large part of the issue.

mike in co
 
Case Explosion

Thank God there was no serious injury--we should all wear safety glasses!!
It only takes a little bit of powder or brass in the eye to cause a serious problem. Take it from someone that wasn't wearing his glasses when a case blew up--the brass went clear thru the eye and hit the Retina. It has been corrected but will never be the same and all damage could have been prevented with safety glasses.

Paul Ryan
 
I think that case is a LC 98 not a 86. The letters and numbers would be upside down from each other if it was a 86.

Joe
 
Dave Tooley said:
I'll add my 2 cents worth.

I don't see an ejector pin mark on the casehead. It should be there shining like a new penny. I don't see the smear you would get on the case head when you open the bolt. Puzzling.
I see very little brass in/on the bolt face. I would expect more if it was pressure related. Also looks like a hell of a chamfer on the firing pin hole.

My guess is a case failure, probably not due to excessive pressure. probably brass related. The expansion of the rim came from the crack running back into the primer pocket area. In fact all the way to the rim. Case ruptures usually don't run length wise up and down the case. They are normally just a pucker that opens up. On a Remington it's usually right at the end on the bolt nose to the end of the barrel. That's wear the case is unsupported and the brass is the thinnest.

I don't think it was pressure related.

Question Did the bullet go into the group?

Dave
Click to expand...



Hey, Tooley Fred and the others are right about the actual FACE and lettering looking un-marred! No smear, perfect lettering, no ejector mark........... In fact NO SIGNS of pressure at all except the rupture and expansion. The only thing I can think of that could MIMIC over pressure without the slightest sign of face-pressure would be an annealed casehead.

al
 
I could be completly wrong with the possible problem but...I have seen this exact thing before. Split long ways. Also, look at the massive failure inside the primer pocket and how a lot of the web is missing on the inside. I don't remember the year exactly but it was sometime around 1996-1998 Lake City production. Several lot#s were recalled by the army/military. So much so that several support units couldn't even qualify that year (especially national guard and reserve units). A couple of these failures caused the bolt head on M16A2 to explode also. I don't remember the exact finding but I do believe it was traced to the brass itself (I remember there were also a lot of jams with this ammo, both feeding and extraction). I wonder if this ammo was pulled down and scrapped for metal but somehow, some of the brass made it through as surplus instead of metal scrap. It was the largest recall of ammo that I ever knew of. Wish I could remember more.

Hovis
 
I'll bet the extractor could have been saved.

Here's a trick I learned along the way somehwere.

Do not do this with a loaded round.

If you lock the bolt downwith a high pressure load, do not beat on the bolt handle. Instead get two blocks of wood. Set one on a hard surface, concrete floors work great. Place the muzzle on this block of wood.Take a 3 lb hammer and the other block of wood, place the block against the bolt shroud. Now knock the hell out of it. Several times. This drives the case back into the chamber far enough to take some of the pressure off the bolt face. Lift the handle up until it makes contact with the action camming surface. While continueing to lift on the bolt handle have someone use a cleaning rod down the barrel and drive the case out. Now after thinking about where the extractor is touching the rim, peel the case out of the bolt face.

Dave
 
Dave your a Neanderthal

Sometimes that is all that will work.

If the general public were to see who the factories beat and baged on guns with lead hammers and babbit they would never send one back for repairs.

You give us a whole new definition of needing a bigger hammer.

Nat Lambeth
 
liljoe said:
I think that case is a LC 98 not a 86. The letters and numbers would be upside down from each other if it was a 86.

Joe
Click to expand...


way to go liljoe......i still would not reload unlees i actually knew its history...

i have some 88 still unfired...

but brass that old thats been fired x numbers of time scares me....
and out of a commercial reloader..

mike in co
 
Spoke with Hornady today and they are issuing a call tag for the ammo so they can inspect it.
 
The first 50 rounds.

hornadyprimers10001.jpg


hornadyprimers20001.jpg


hornadyprimers30001.jpg


hornadyprimers40001.jpg
 
Holy Cow!

If these were my reloads I would have stopped shooting after the second shot!

Might as well have the firing pin hole bushed while you are at it.
 
Hovis and Tooley are definitely on the right track. Bad brass.

I don't like the way those primers look but that's another (and unrelated) story.
 
primers

If you look at the ouside radius of the primer, it doesn't appear to be that flattenned.

As for the crater, that is typical Remington. Big firing pin, sloppy hole to pin fit..........jackie
 
I think it will prove out, as I mentioned earlier that prior damage
to that case is the problem. Strangely raw brass can be seen in the fracture,
normally it would all be blackened. Dave tooley is right, in that there is no ejector mark on the head of the case. Also the firing pin hole is well
champhered. Remington does not do that, they are big and sloppy, but never chamfered. The chamfer also does not have the same finish that the bolt face has. The expansion line on the rest of the cases is not way back, as it
would be with high pressure. What appears to be brass cancer on that case
is just that.
 
Hmmmmm.....

Looking closer, I think Dave Tooley is correct. No overpressure...the case failed through the primer pocket and caused the enlargement.
 
How many have seen this type of bolt face "texture" to primer face transfer? Is this also another possible indicator of high pressure loading?.........Don


2m7u4pw.jpg
 
Don I wondered the same thing..... I just assumed that dude had a wicked pitted boltface! I've never seen it and I run some freakin' HOT loads........

(Actually, I've never seen a BOLT that rough in my life! The whole thing's pitted out.....)

al
 
The finish on the bolt face is common to the economy grade
Remington sold today at the low end. That same finish
covers the bolt and barreled action and bolt face. It is a textured
mat finish, but very durable. It transfers at normal pressure. What
can be seen of the bolt shows this
 
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