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Help with split brass

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44 mag

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I loaned a buddy a youth model CVA Scout in 243. I also gave him a box of factory new ammo for his son to use the rest of season. He took it to the range today to confirm zero and one of the 6 rounds he fired had a split case. This gun has not been fired in several years due to my oldest outgrowing it and my youngest not being big enough. I have never had a problem in the past.

My question is, is this one case just a fluke or bad case? Or is it something to be concerned with.
 

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I'd want to see the other cases as well to see if there were any tell tale marks of other possible splits. How many rounds had been fired thru it since you've had it? Do you still have brass for those firings to check also? I would hope that it's a bad case, but you can't be too careful with this issue bc you may have a chamber issue that's just now becoming apparent. Look the bore over well, with a borescope if possible, to check for abnormalities. I would not fire it again until I was sure I knew what the problem is/was.
 
MUP said:
I'd want to see the other cases as well to see if there were any tell tale marks of other possible splits. How many rounds had been fired thru it since you've had it? Do you still have brass for those firings to check also? I would hope that it's a bad case, but you can't be too careful with this issue bc you may have a chamber issue that's just now becoming apparent. Look the bore over well, with a borescope if possible, to check for abnormalities. I would not fire it again until I was sure I knew what the problem is/was.
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I do have the other brass that was fired through the gun prior to today, but I will have to find it rifle. Probably hasn't had 20 rounds total fire through it. I told my buddy to save all the brass so that I can look at it so hopefully I will have that as well soon.
 
Pressure. Ive got a tikka 25-06 that i needed a load for. Back in the spring, I loaded a progression and left it in a casegard over the summer. In October I was getting a few ready for possible hunting out to 400yds. I took the 26-06 and shot the progression. To my amazement, 3 out of 12 pieces of brass split down the side. I shelved it til after season. A couple weeks later I was working on a subsonic suppressed 45-70 load. The bullet seater die did not work properly. Upon further investigation, the bullet seater dies had been swapped between 45-70 and 25-06. That was od as I never have more than one set of dies out at once. It had been several years since loading for either one. Then it hit me. My grandson would hang out with me in the hobby room when he was 5 or so yo. He must have swapped them. Apparently the bullets were seated at a slight angle and some made excessive pressure. If I had checked them on my concentricity tool it would have shown up.
 
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jlanecr500 said:
Pressure. Ive got a tikka 25-06 that i needed a load for. Back in the spring, I loaded a progression and left it in a casegard over the summer. In October I was getting a few ready for possible hunting out to 400yds. I took the 26-06 and shot the progression. To my amazement, 3 out of 12 pieces of brass split down the side. I shelved it til after season. A couple weeks later I was working on a subsonic suppressed 45-70 load. The bullet seater die did not work properly. Upon further investigation, the bullet seater dies had been swapped between 45-70 and 25-06. That was od as I never have more than one set of dies out at once. It had been several years since loading for either one. Then it hit me. My grandson would hang out with me in the hobby room when he was 5 or so yo. He must have swapped them. Apparently the bullets were seated at a slight angle and some made excessive pressure. If I had checked them on my concentricity tool it would have shown up.
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Over pressure was my first thought as well. That's why I had him send me the head stamp
picture, and it looks fine best I can tell in the picture.

This is factory loaded Hornady Custom Lite ammo. Supposed to be reduced recoil. I will admit that the box of ammo I gave him was several years old and I didn't open it to inspect the brass for corrosion. But it is stored in a cool dry location with the rest of my ammo.
 
jlanecr500 said:
Maybe the powder went bad. It can go bad in 2 ways. It can burn slower or it can burn faster than designed. Powders with a high nitro content tend to burn faster as they go bad, making them hotter.
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I just had to take down several loads that were using AA 4350, that had been recalled a few years ago. I was sent some military literature regarding powder and it's longevity after being loaded, best I can tell as an attempt to convince me, without outright telling me, that the loads that I had already loaded would be ok. They weren't. This year, as I was getting ready for the season, I noticed some of my 06 loads, that I had been using for a few years, were seeping corrosion, and some had split the necks out also.
 
I vote for a defective case. I've inspected many thousands of once-fired rifle cases over several decades and an incident like this can happen with any mass manufacturer of ammunition. A flaw in the brass or even a hairline crack that would not have been noticeable could cause this when a normally dimensioned case in a normally dimensioned chamber expands radially. The defect could have been in the brass the case was drawn from or in the drawing dies. Other flawed cases could have ended up in other boxes of cartridges, so the rest of them in the box may not crack when fired. I don't see any corrosion near the split that looks like the brown and green pitting type of corrosion that would weaken the brass.
 

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