Why I check my brass

[willymc]

I bought 1000 pieces of 300 blackout brass made from once fired surplus 5.56 cases. The brass was pretty clean already but I'm anal about my brass. I tumbled with stainless and was rinsing and inspecting for hiding pins. Something didn't look right with this case so I cut it in half. Turns out that a piece of the 5.56 that was cut off during processing got into this case before it was sized. You can never can be too careful!

 

[Warp]

Ouch.

Definitely a good idea to inspect it, especially when it's been chopped and reformed, and by somebody else.

 

[ngnrd]

Does it look like there's a ring indicating incipient case head separation? ? ?

 

[LKLive13]

Good catch! I would hate to see the results of you not finding it!!

 

[willymc]

That ring is where the inside piece was rubbing on the outside piece. The wall thickness is OK. It just looks that way because of my cut.

 

[Walkalong]

Very interesting, and good catch. It would have probably shown up when loading as well, with a charge that was up to high or spilled over.

I did the feeler check with the 500 I bought before I geared up to make it. Always pays to be careful.

 

[Weber]

Good Catch!

 

[ngnrd]

That ring is where the inside piece was rubbing on the outside piece. The wall thickness is OK. It just looks that way because of my cut.

Ahhhhh.... That makes sense.

 

[Tom488]

I had a similar situation tonight.... I was demonstrating my Dillon 1050 for a friend, loading .223. Something didn't feel right, as the handle exhibited a good amount of resistance half-way down. I backed it off, removed the case from station #2 (depriming station), and cycled the handle without incident. A close inspection of the offending piece of brass revealed a .22LR case INSIDE the .223 case.

This is why you never force anything on a press... because chances are, you're going to break something if you do.

Tomorrow, I'll figure out how to extract the .22LR case - didn't feel like messing with it tonight.

 

[TroyUT]

WoW I looked at that picture for 5 minutes before I realized the cut off top piece was what was found inside. Now my question, what would happen if it was fired with that inside?

 

[joustin]

I would bet that there wouldn't be enough force to cause that brass to exit the case. Would hate to find out though.