Casing Blew Apart (Help Please) Pictures

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joedjr

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I reloaded some 40 S & W.. I am almost certain I didn't double charge the casing due to the casing being 2/3 full with a normal charge. Also I did not seat the bullet deeper than instructed. Can anyone give a good reason why the rim blew off this casing. I was shooting a Beretta 96FS which will need to go back to beretta because of the damage to the gun.

Powder is Unique 6.5grs, bullet is uni-cor 180 gr TMJ seated 1.124 with federal small pistol primer

I am using a single stage RCBS Rock Chuckar and RCBS Uniflow Powder Measure

Winchester017.jpg

Winchester014.jpg
 
Looks as if the round wasn't properly seated in the chamber when it went off - otherwise the portion of case that has bulged outwards should have been contained and just the rim would have torn.
 
The only reloading manuals I have beside my computer are the Lyman 48th Edition, and the Sierra 50th Anniversary Edition. Both manuals list a maximum load quite a bit under what you're loading in your cases. I know there are some others that go up as high as your load, but firearms are individuals, and some will stand less pressure than others.

It could have been an out of battery discharge, but I think it may have been aggravated by some high pressures. The Speer data lists your load right at maximum, which doesn't give much room for error in this caliber.

I've never had good luck at metering Unique, which is why I use other powders much more than Unique. It's possible that you got a heavy charge in that case, and it wouldn't take much to push it over the top.

Just some thoughts.

Hope this helps.

Fred
 
I don't load for a 40, and don't shoot one in a Beretta. But that sure looks like high pressure to me.

Could you post a picture of the inside of the case head. It looks like it blew in the extractor groove.

My suggestion is to call the bullet and powder manufacturer. Some combinations have been tried, and for whatever reason, they develop pressure variations that are unsafe.

Maybe your load was one of these.
 
Alliant shows 6.4 Unique as a MAX load with a 180 JHP seated 1.125".

Lyman #49 shows 6.5 Unique MAX with a 180 Sierra.

Speer shows 6.7 Unique MAX with a 180 TMJ plated bullet

SO, it would seem you are at or near a max load, and happened upon a weak case.

Or that round had a powder measure malfunction and got more then the prescribed max load.

And it does look like the case fired out of battery.
I don't think the Beretta 92 has near that much unsupported chamber at the feed ramp, and your case clearly blew down the feed ramp.

BTW: When I load max loads in high-pressure rounds like the .40 S&W, I weigh them all.
The powder measure throws directly into the digital scale pan, not the case.

rc
 
BTW: When I load max loads in high-pressure rounds like the .40 S&W, I weigh them all. The powder measure throws directly into the scale pan, not the case.
Click to expand...

Great advice.
 
As others have said you probably just found a weak case. 40's are know to have case blowouts, esp in Glocks and cases previously fired in Glocks with under supported chambers. If you shoot range pickups or at a range where you could get cases shot in other pistols you need to examine the cases carefully for bulging at the base (Glock smile). I'd suggest relagating these to mild target and start loads only.

Personally I'd never reload a .40 case with a top pressure load. If I wanted to use a maximum load I'd hand load virgin brass and use the exact components listed in the data.
 
I think that if the gun was out of battery then the OP would have come home wearing the slide just over one eye. .40 is such a high pressure round that just the recoil spring alone wouldn't have held it.. Agreed, over pressure and a weak case. You can see the 'pot belly' down into the feed ramp in the pics.
 
Not at all.

Once the case blows, pressure is released equally in all directions and is no longer concentrated rearward on the breach face.

I have seen several blown cases like that in .45 ACP match guns, and there is usually not enough energy transfered to the slide to pick up another round out of the magazine.

What you do get is the magazine blown out of the gun, and wood splinters in your hand if you have walnut grips.

rc
 
I've also seen handguns that have fired out of battery. The magazine blows out the bottom of the grip and the extractor usually ends up in the next county. Depending on the makeup of the grip frame, the grip panels may blow off if a skeleton frame, or nothing will happen with most polymer frames. The energy is expended in a 360 degree radius.

Hope this helps.

Fred
 
I'd say that case had been fired too many times in an undersupported chamber. Even if it's only been fired in your gun, it wasn't much better supported than a Glock. Here's a comparison pic I grabbed from somewhere, might have even been this board:
chambers.jpg

peace.
unloaded
 
I'll third the previously fired in a Glock theory. Glad the gun went back to its maker, instead of you:)
 
One of the many reasons I don't mess with the .40 anymore is the whole high pressure/unsupported case issue. I experienced a case failure in a Glock 22 using factory remanufactured ammo. It only blew out the web where it wasn't supported, blew the magazine out of the gun, and made my hand sting. No damage to the pistol, but that was the last straw for me.

.40 pistols of more recent design seem to have much better case support, but the Beretta 96 was one of the first .40 pistols, and it seems to suffer from the same case support problem many others do.

I'm going with the overstressed brass/unsupported case camp on this one.
 
If I recall correctly from reading engineering comments on the 9x series pistols, OOB firing by the hammer is impossible because of the hammer and slide relationship. Even if the slide is retracted a mm (still locked), the hammer will not make any/sufficient contact with the firing pin extension. It would seem the only way an OOB firing is happening is a forward stuck firing pin.

Also, since the barrel and breech face stay pretty much in line during actuation, there would be little/no off center firing pin hits during an OOB situation... This pistol like the P38, does not have a barrel that cams up and down (Browning type as with SIG, Glock, HP, CZ75, etc) during locking/unlocking. IMO, it looks like somthing other than an OOB condition.
 
I won't attempt to guess what happened to your Beretta 92 in 40 S&W, but the same exact thing occured to my son shooting a Glock 21 in 45 ACP. The pistol went back to Glock for repair and the Glock people claimed it was a double charge that caused the "kaboom." Funny thing though, he was firing fresh factory ammo in that piece. For obvious reasons, I will not mention the name ofr this major ammo maker. :uhoh:
 
BTW: When I load max loads in high-pressure rounds like the .40 S&W, I weigh them all.
The powder measure throws directly into the digital scale pan, not the case.
Click to expand...

That's right. But I also try not to run hot ammo in 40 S&W for this very reason. I don't shoot it very much as I am still trying to decide if I really like this caliber or not.

LGB
 
For good measure I load 40SW at 1.130-1.135. It is not that unusual for a bullet to get set-back on occasion. At 1.124 there is not much room for error with set-back. Also a 165gr bullet will give you a little more room for safety.
 
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