what happened to this round of 308?

[MErl]

guy next to me at the range was shooting a FAL and having ammunition problems. He left this round on the bench when he was done, all the other brass he shot was some brass cased 308.

Case is copper washed steel, bullet is also steel jacketed. What looks to be an excessively long neck is not part of the case. it is a separate piece of metal that is not magnetic. It pulled off easily with pliers and is too stiff to be lead.

I suppose the scariest part is the firing pin indent.

(pictures next to a normal round of South African)

 

[mberoose]

Pretty sure that's old Chinese steel cased 308 from the early 90s. Corrosive. Cheap. No idea about its' cute bracelet.

 

[JohnKSa]

Looks like the "collar" is the neck (or possibly part of the bullet jacket) from one of the brass cased rounds he fired.

For whatever reason, the piece of brass/jacket broke off and remained in the chamber. The next round chambered, but not fully due to the interference from the piece of material in the chamber. The failure to go fully into battery caused the light firing pin strike.

When the round was manually ejected, the piece of material came out with the round.

 

[MErl]

Quite possible John. Doubtful it is a neck from one of the brass cased stuff as it almost looks nickle plated. He may have had other stuff mixed in as well though.

 

[Hacker15E]

That does look a lot like a broken neck from a different cartridge...

 

[stubbicatt]

That firing pin strike is to me confirmation that the FAL without the safety sear that was engineered into the design initially, but removed at the insistence of US regulators, is an unsafe firearm.

Just saying.

 

[moxie]

Interesting the headstamp has the NATO cross and circle.

Sure that metal ain't lead? Put a magnet on it.

 

[krinko]

The headstamp on the left is a British mark for Radway Green L2A2 made in 1960. Hence the NATO mark.
I am unaware of any steel cased ammunition from Radway Green, but I am unaware of many things---and I assume you put a magnet to it?
The oldest RG I am currently running is dated "72" and it doesn't sport any steel, even in the bullet jacket.

+1 for the wedding band being a sheared-off case neck.
-----krinko

 

[jonnyc]

"That firing pin strike is to me confirmation that the FAL without the safety sear that was engineered into the design initially, but removed at the insistence of US regulators, is an unsafe firearm."

Not necessarily unsafe, M16s, M1As, M14s with inertial firing-pins all do the same thing.

And the ammo in question is exactly what was posted above.....Chinese knock-off of Brit ammo.

 

[WardenWolf]

It's a copper-washed steel case. You see it a lot with some new Russian commercial ammo. It solves most of the extraction and corrosion problems that can happen with steel. Somehow the copper wasn't properly applied to this section, most likely because it wasn't intended to remain on the case in the first place. The machine that was supposed to cut it off failed and didn't completely remove the excess neck.

 

[moxie]

It isn't Russian if it has a NATO cross on it.

 

[Z-Michigan]

The NATO cross makes me doubt steel cased. I notice the casehead has "L2A2" on it, which just happens to be the designation of a British FAL-variant used as a light machine gun or SAW. Maybe this ammo was intended for that rifle? Also, there's either a 60 or 09 at the top, and I don't think this ammo was made in 2009 - if it was made in 1960 it's very old and the odd color might be corrosion/aging of the brass.

 

[Z-Michigan]

"That firing pin strike is to me confirmation that the FAL without the safety sear that was engineered into the design initially, but removed at the insistence of US regulators, is an unsafe firearm."

Not necessarily unsafe, M16s, M1As, M14s with inertial firing-pins all do the same thing.

Exactly. Many AR's make worse indentations on the primer than that. Don't use benchrest primers and don't fail to fully seat them. Military spec primers are harder to minimize the risk of a slamfire. It's not an ideal design, but has its reasons.

 

[MErl]

case and bullet are surely magnetic. I too thought Radway at first but am going to go with Chinese knockoff.

neck extension is non-magnetic and too hard to be lead. Whacked the extension with a file, nickle plated brass. Pretty sure JohnKSa nailed it. Previous round was nickle plated and got the neck ripped off. Be pretty easy to do if it was an oops 7mm-08 (or just some bad brass)

 

[yzguy87]

That stuff looks suspect to begin with. I'm no ammo snob but I won't feed my guns slop.

 

[mrcylinder]

I agree that it's a case neck that was left behind and that cartridge grabbed it. If you look close, magnifying glass, I bet you can see where that cartridge started the left over piece up into the throat of the barrel probably rounded it, maybe even touched the rifling a bit then smashed it down hard enough to latch onto that cartridge for the piece to come out when he ejected the round!

 

[243winxb]

Looks like the "collar" is the neck

Sure is. Neck from the round before it, that fired. Happened with my M16A1. Very scary when the hammer drops on the next live round.

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[jonnyc]

The ammo in question has already been 1000% identified above. If you don't have any idea what it is, stop speculating.
It is Chinese made knock-off ammo, copied from British ammo. It is not British, it is not Russian. It is Chinese, and all the headstamp markings, including the Nato meatball, are spurious. It was made in the late '80s/early 90s, and the '60 means nothing. Like most Chinese ammo, it isn't pretty, but it is very reliable and shoots pretty well.