Ragged case mouth question

[Fall Guy]

I picked up this .223 Remington brass after shooting my AR yesterday and noticed that one of the case mouths appeared to be ripped off. The brass on the right side is for comparison. I'm just wondering if anybody knows what may have caused this.

Here are the particulars: Gun was a Colt AR-15 carbine chambered 5.56 with everything factory original. It has had over a thousand rounds through it with no troubles. It had been squeaky clean prior to putting 50 rounds through it two days prior to this brass showing up.

The ammo was factory new Remington Premier Match 223 Rem. using the 69 grain Matchking BTHP.

I did not notice any damage prior to shooting, but I have noted that this ammo appears to have a pretty heavy crimp applied.

Any ideas? Thanks

 

[medalguy]

No idea what happened, but clearly the case neck end has indeed been ripped off. Could too heavy a crimp cause the brass to fail? Maybe but it's difficult to believe factory ammo would have been that bad. If it had been reloaded and crimped a dozen times I would say yes, but factory new? Dunno. Anyone else chime in?

 

[Certaindeaf]

Gnarly. No idea. Odds are it's an odd/bad round. Were it me, I'd let both manufacturers know of it and somehow make sure that the rifle is within spec and take it from there. And cross fingers too.

 

[ms6852]

I would venture to say also that it is the crimp and as mentioned above, could have been a QC with an odd bad round. Call the manufacturer and also ensure your colt is ok.

 

[Jaxondog]

Just had the same thing happen with me with some 44 mag's that my Dad had loaded. I noticed after shooting a couple they were kicking almost like my 500 and so i quit after the 3rd round and checked some of the one's that were left. They all looked excessivly crimped and knowing my Dad they were probably close to max on the powder. So i'm just guessing possibly over crimped.

 

[FROGO207]

Are you sure it was fired in your rifle?? It may have been on the ground before you started shooting there. I would have thought it would have stopped the next round from going into battery if part of the case neck was still in the chamber. I am thinking a bad piece of brass is the cause more than any other reason. Were these rounds remanufactured ones like Ultramax makes?? Some 223/5.56 shooters have reported weird things happening after shooting a large number of lacquered steel casings without first cleaning the chamber. Note the marks on the case neck and top of the body also. It looks like pitting from using a corroded casing. I cleaned up some severely corroded ones and the corroded places looked pitted just like those areas.

 

[Pacsd]

I was wondering where is the ripped off portion of the brass.

 

[Fall Guy]

Thanks for all the replies. I am sure that it was fired in my gun and that it was factory new Remington Premier Match ammo. I have never fired anything in the gun besides copper jacketed bullets out of standard brass cases. The rounds were clean before firing.
I think if it did just rip off from too tight of a crimp the schrapnel would have just gone down range. It wasn't like a whole neck or anything big enough to get stuck.

 

[Walkalong]

I have never seen a neck do that. It looks almost as if the brass is brittle there. Perhaps a manufacturing defect. I would call Remington and ask their opinion on it, especially if more cases do this.

 

[homatok]

If your rifle was built with a minimum SAMMI chamber and the factory QC missed a round that was slightly over SAMMI maximum, the very top edge of the case may have been pinched in the chamber causing it to be torn off and sent down range with the bullet. Just a WAG.