Federal brass - factory ammo split cases

[BigSlick]

Hi guys,

I went shooting yesterday. I had a pretty good day overall except my gf got fragged in the forehead and bled like a stuck pig, I lost 6 once loaded 40 S&W brass , and out of a box of 50 factory Federal 32 H&R mag rounds, 26 of them split.

The Federal ammo was fresh (had it about a year) and has been stored indoors, never wet, over about 80 degrees and never taken out of the factory box.

The case mouths looked fine, the splits were coming about the middle of the case. The splits ranged in size from barely noticeable to splits over an inch long, which is huge given the length of the 32 H&R mag.

Have any of you experienced this ?

The only time I have ever seen anything like it was shooting some seriously questionable surplus ammo out of a buddy's Ishapore about 10 years ago. That ammo was dated in the 60's and some of it was covered in a green powder. We expected a few duds out of that.

The 32 H&R was fired out of a S&W TiLite 332. The gun functioned perfectly, and a box of Black Hills went thru it without a hitch.

Was this possibly just a batch of bad brass ? It sure looked/felt brittle. Any suggestions on things to check out with the gun ?

I tell ya' all I could think about on the way home was all the times I've read about a KB in a Glock and the only factory ammo that I know of where that happened was Federal. I thought this ammo could have been sitting on the shelf for a while where I bought it, but I went by there this afternoon and asked about it and took the box with the lot number on it. The shop owner had receipts where he bought it from a distributor about two months before I bought it from him. He has bought several orders of the same stuff since and had not heard of another batch having problems.

Bad batch or a problem with the gun, maybe I can't/didn't recognize ?

Thanks for the feedback...

BigSlick

 

[dakotasin]

so... the same thing happened, but w/ 2 different guns in 2 different chamberings? if that is the case, it sounds like the guns aren't the problem.

by once loaded, you mean factory loads, or virgin brass that you loaded, or??

no, i've never experienced this w/ federal factory loads. my chronograph tells me that federal loads are among the weakest out there...

 

[BigSlick]

One gun Smith and Wesson Model 332, factory loaded 32 H&R Magnum caliber Federal Hydra Shok ammo bought new from the gunshop within the last year or so . Took the ammo to the range, opened the box for the first time, loaded the rounds in the gun, fired them and 26 out of the box of 50 suffered split cases.

After the Federal ammo was gone, I ran a box of Black Hills factory ammo thru the same gun, without a hitch. All the Black Hills fired brass looked great.

I lost the 6, once loaded brass when I fired it out of a P229. Once loaded (to me) is the brass came from the factory in new ammo ==> I fired it and kept the brass==> then I reloaded the brass the first time. I probably should have said once reloaded 40 S&W brass.

BigSlick