.45 ACP Brass Cracks

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uofaengr

uofaengr

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I recently was given a bunch of range pickup .45 ACP brass for almost nothing that had been tumbled. As I was inspecting the cases, I found several cases (all RWS so I'm assuming loaded by the same person) possibly appearing to be reloads with cracks around the case head as shown in the pics. What would cause this sort of stress? Overpressure load fired from unsupported chamber? I know I've discarded at least 10 of these, but at least some of these have some pretty deep primer indents as shown.

RW4Wl5iaMF4T71yaligTs-OAhQXHKusHefRt0Cl7xY4VCsU-YmvGpcS4jM-5ZOh0HzyI6Sz8M8Qu0kKYjdY=w708-h944-no.jpg

2MoSgGfdlQ8RUytO85vsPcz2stkXwHdi970-hb5deh6a7uuVPl6E4zprnkQC3O_8IOR0H5zB5iPZIn0AU1s=w708-h944-no.jpg
 
Those are strange—almost like the end of the crack is indented as if it hit something sharp on its way out of the pistol. Primers look strange, too. The one on the right is flattened and the left one has a really large indentation.

Too many good brass available, dump them and move on.
 
Can't really tell from the pics, but the cracks are almost always around the entire circumference of the case so these cases will have 3 to maybe 5 cracks in this area. These have long been in the trash, but I finally remembered to take a picture of them before they were all gone so I could post it here to get some opinions.
 
It's not from being in an unsupported chamber. Unsupported chamber cases are bulged. No bulges there.

It looks like defective brass failure.
 
I guess a manufacturing issue.
drband said:
Primers look strange, too. The one on the right is flattened and the left one has a really large indentation.
Click to expand...
Of interest, that enormous pin indentation is reminiscent of some M1A Thompson brass I have from a local range's non-transferable rental.
 
Its hard to believe that its a manufacturing defect. RWS is an expensive and premium brand of brass. But I guess it could happen. We'll probably never know.
 
It's odd that the cracks seem to be located in identical places. Were all the cracks in the exact same place?
 
mdi said:
It's odd that the cracks seem to be located in identical places. Were all the cracks in the exact same place?
Click to expand...
Yep, had never seen it before but seems to be uncommon. Doing a google image search I was only able to find one other image similar to it from a forum post several years ago.
 
243winxb has the correct answer. It is obvious the two pictured were fired in different guns. Probably range supplied remanufactured ammo.
 
Kp321 said:
243winxb has the correct answer. It is obvious the two pictured were fired in different guns. Probably range supplied remanufactured ammo.
Click to expand...
Even if fired in different guns, the cracks are located in the same spot, same size. Bad alloy or poor reloading techniques would not put the identical size cracks in the exact same places...

Jes a thought...
 
> All cylindrical pressure vessels crack along the axis in an over pressure failure.

pipes.jpg
Copper water pipe failures samples

> The only way a brass case can crack at the head (the thickest wall of the case) is if they were fired in an unsupported or over-sized chamber, and most probably with an elevated pressure, such as Major PF or 45 Super.

I am usually wrong, but that's where the initial evidence points. I'm with Lafitte, Get rid of all of it.
 
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