How much of a risk did I just avoid (split brass)

[snuffy]

"...scavenged range brass..." Yet another reason not to do that and a classic example of not knowing if the brass is any good or not. Chances are the crack was there and only got noticeable when you seated the bullet. .45 brass is neither expensive nor hard to find.
"...if I had fired that cartridge..." The case would have blown. Smoke and fire going everywhere out of either handgun. Your Blackhawk wouldn't be bothered, but the Kimber might, I say again, might have been far more exciting. Quit scrounging brass.

I figured I wouldn't be the first to {quote} that, happy to see I wasn't. There's being cautious/safety minded, then there's being paranoid.

One check I do is as soon as I'm removing cases from the tumbler. A case that has a hidden crack DOES NOT sound like an intact case. It's a dull clunk instead of the tinkling like little bells. Those will NOT show up until there's a bullet seated in them.

I have in the past, had shells sound different when they hit the ground from a 45 or other S. auto. Ya know, after they were fired? I never saw a bit of damage to a chamber from my very tired brass occasionally splitting while being fired.

 

[RippinSVT]

I split older .357 cases fairly regularly upon firing max loads in brass that's been reloaded numerous times. Just gotta inspect them. I also scavenge brass at the range, always have since poor-times in college when I started reloading. As long as you go through them all by hand, I don't think it's that big of a deal.

 

[RDA 226sig]

New reloaders should only use their own once fired brass or buy new brass. Leave anything you find at the range for the more experienced reloaders to work with. (With all the new reloaders it is getting hard to find 45 brass at the range.)

 

[sigma40sw]

The 45 acp is such a low pressure round,I don't see any issue with a cracked case. In fact, when I sort my loaded 45 rds, I have a can on my bench I call my one more time can. ;<) I have shot these up in many of my 1911's with out any problems. I mainly use them for iceburg hunting on the river where they just get lost in the snow.

 

[evan price]

You didn't dodge a bullet because- think with me here- your procedures worked. You caught the split case before you loaded it in the gun. Inspecting at multiple stages in the process catches failures.

I've had cases split on firing. Sometimes the report sounds louder. In all cases I got nothing more than another scrap case for the bucket.

I'm not as case-rich as jcwit, I've got only about 75,000 45 acp cases right now myself, I've been selling them off lately.