Old cold war era surplus ammo can sometimes be no longer any good. I found some for 5 bucks a box at a pawn shop - hard to pass up, right... Here is what happened .... a British 1954 Kynoch Imperial Chemical 30-06 failure. Head blew off. Created a huge cloud of smoke and very loud deep boom when it happened. Very putrid ammonia smell too (corrosive primers?). Blew the ejector port cover out of my gun (good reason to always where glasses). About half the box shot OK before this.
I am guessing there was a corrosion issue with the brass. It looks like in the neck area there may be some galvanic corrosion going on due to the bullet. That's what the pencil is pointed towards in the bottom picture.
Bottom line, another good reason to reload.
I am guessing there was a corrosion issue with the brass. It looks like in the neck area there may be some galvanic corrosion going on due to the bullet. That's what the pencil is pointed towards in the bottom picture.
Bottom line, another good reason to reload.