Split case

[Blakenzy]

So I was shooting my reloads in once fired .45ACP S&B brass and when I got home and started decapping what I had shot I noticed that a case (of a lot of one hundred or so) had a vertical split from the case mouth down to about the mid section. This once fired case (now twice fired), had been loaded with a very light "starting" powder charge. I didn't even notice it had split while I was firing.

What would cause an intact, correctly loaded case to split like that on its second firing? Is this common with S&B brass?

 

[ReloaderFred]

It's in the metallurgy. If there was any imperfection in the brass when the case was formed, it will cause a failure. I've had cases from factory ammunition fail on the first firing from just about every manufacturer. It would be impossible to xray each and every case and there are going to be some that aren't perfect.

Some brass is also more brittle than others and won't stand up to reloading as well. That said, I've had good luck with S&B in .45 acp, as well as other calibers I've loaded from this manufacturer.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[The Bushmaster]

Hey!! It happens...What can ya say?? I just tumbled and resized a bunch of brand new cases the other day after loading them with a mild powder charge and found one split just like you discribe...ReloaderFred said it...

 

[Mark whiz]

I had a batch of S&B in .38Spcl that had several split cases in it. These started off as factory loaded ammo that had one split the entire length of the case. I since reloaded the rest of that batch several times and experienced maybe 3 splits before I chunked the whole lot of them.

 

[Paul "Fitz" Jones]

THE BEST .45ACP BRASS

As a commercial police reloader after the vietnam war I learned theat the Navy was ordered to ship its small arms ammo supply to Nam because it was convenient to be shipped there from the west coast.
Consequently it was lost and the navy ship shooting teams had to buy their ammo from the army at almost twice the price.

I contacted them and offered to trade Star reloaders and Original Saeco bullet casting tools for their excess Army GI brass and when it arrived from the fleet post office I tumble cleaned it and my scouts sorted it by maker and year. I favored Winchester over Remington and sold many thousands to Top competitors who desired a long lasting isentical lot of brass.

Some of my customers reported usung the brass for over 20 years for bullseye competition

 

[Empyrean]

Would an x-ray work to check brass? i have one in my lab for x-raying cellphones.

 

[ReloaderFred]

They routinely xray welds on high pressure containers and pipelines, so I would say it would probably work, but I'm thinking the xray would have to be configured properly to do it. I don't know much about xrays, from a technological standpoint, but do know they're used by bomb squads to see how a bomb is designed before blowing it up. I've seen that done, when I was still working.

Fred

 

[The Bushmaster]

Are we going to have to buy an x-ray machine and mount it on our benches now? Aah me....Sigh...Now I'll have to build a bigger reloading room or move my guns to the bedroom and the wife will have to move to the barn and sleep with the horses.

 

[JDGray]

Shooter till it splits