Federal American Eagle Case Rupture

[cwl1862]

Went to the range today to punch some holes in some targets. To accoumplish this I purchased a box of Federal American Eagle 124gr FMJ. After the fireing was over I collected my brass and discovered that five of them had suffered a case failure to one extreem or another. Four of the five failed and the last just split. Has anyone else had this issue with the American Brand? Did you coontact Federal and what did they tell you? Two other types of ammo were also fired at this time without any failures from the other brand names rounds. Only happened with the Fed AE

 

[Zotter]

Factory ammo - yea, possible.

First - i'd be giving my pistol a VERY careful inspection. Once that's been eliminated as a contributing factor (to the point of having a qualified gunsmith inspect it.)- they yea. Contact the manufacturer. They may well have a flawed lot out there.

 

[Weevil]

Just curious but what kind of pistol were you using???


It was almost always Federal ammo that was implicated in the documented Glock KBs that happened with factory ammo.

 

[cwl1862]

S&W 908, never been an issue with this gun in the past and no problem with any of the other ammo we fired today either. The chamber looks ok I don't think it was seriously damaged by the ruptured cases. Well I hope not!

 

[Maj Dad]

More likely brittle brass is involved. I have a 908 and have never had a problem, but I do get splits from time to time on some brass in my PT-99. The cases are once fired and loaded on my Dillon 550, seem to be usually of the same apparent lot, same mfr and not hot loaded. I just toss them and don't worry about it. I have some 44 spl I loaded up ~10 yrs ago that developed splits sitting on the shelf... :banghead: I just tell myself that brass is a consumable and move on.

 

[gofastman]

It was almost always Federal ammo that was implicated in the documented Glock KBs that happened with factory ammo.

Where did you find that info? Could that just be because Federal is a really large ammo manufacturer, giving a higher chance of a failed weapon having been loaded with it?

 

[Weevil]

Where did you find that info? Could that just be because Federal is a really large ammo manufacturer, giving a higher chance of a failed weapon having been loaded with it?

Well it comes from several years of observing and reading about the Glock KBs from when I owned a Glock .40, so it's tough to give you all the links, especially since some were from magazine and newspaper articles, but here are a couple of them.


"In late 1995, Federal Cartridge of Anoka, Minnesota quietly undertook a redesign of their .40 S&W cartridge case to strengthen internally the area of the case web. While no one at Federal will address this for the record, it has been suggested that this move was dictated by the popularity of the .40 S&W Glocks, and the munitions giant's attempt to hedge against a kB! with any of their ammunition.

Federal .40 S&W rounds which may contain suspect casings may be identified as follows:

-Lot number consists of 10 characters (mostly numbers).
-In the 7th position, there may be a number or a letter.
-If there is a number in that position, the ammo was manufactured with the old style (possibly defective) brass.
-If it contains the letter Y (1995) or R (1996), the ammo has the new designed casing and should be okay.
-If the letter H appears, then check the next three [3] digits (the last three in the lot number).
-Ammo lot numbers H244 or below have the old style casings.
-Lots H245 and above have the new style casings.

http://www.f-r-i.com/glock/FAQ/FAQ-kb.htm


And one about the Portland PD and their KBs with Federal ammo.

http://www.thegunzone.com/glock/ppb.html


If I find more I'll post them.

 

[DPris]

While Federal did re-design a .40 load for Glocks (which was the only pistol that was having a problem with it as I recall), Federal's never been identified as the one major "problem ammo maker" in Glock kabooms across the board in that or any other caliber that I've seen in print or heard from direct sources.

As far as the American Eagle stuff goes, while it's possible to get a run of brittle brass by any maker (and it's happened with others), I've used a lot of AE in several rifle & handgun tests, and you don't get premium bullets in the line, but it's been consistently reliable and generally pretty accurate in my experience.

I'd try another box from another lot before I'd be unduly concerned.

Denis

 

[Jim K]

I suspect that ammo is very old. That is the kind of split that results from acid in the powder eating away at the case over a number of years. The split occurs on the side of the case that is on the bottom when the ammo is stored.

The basic cause is powder that has not been properly neutralized after manufacture and was fairly common with WWII surplus ammo which was made under wartime conditions. It could also occur in any "hurryup" or "keep cost down" ammo production.

I would contact Federal, send them the cases AND THE LOT number (printed on the box) and see what happens.

FWIW, the condition is not dangerous to either the shooter or the gun, but reloading any of those cases is definitely not recommended.

Jim