223 brass splitting questions

[b money]

I just received a complete AR15 upper with the BCG from PSA. I put it on my lower and took it to the range today, after I got home I noticed out of 40 rounds 11 had at least one split in the shoulder/neck. None of them where split from the neck only like they were worn out all were in the shoulder/neck intersection, some cases had up to 3 splits. Am I correct in assuming that the bolt was not checked for proper headspaced before it was sent out?

Also the brass I was using was Winchester range pickup so who knows how many times it may have been fired. But again none of them were split all the way from the mouth so they didnt seem to be worn out. my loads were 23gr H335, and 25gr varget over hornady 55gr fmj, and there are no signs of excessive pressure from looking at the primers.

Any ideas?

[C. Latch]

Could be you, or someone who shot this brass before you, had grossly oversized them. Or it could be old, age-hardened brass. I'd honestly consider your observations to be meaningless until you loaded up some ammo with known good cases.

[BruceB]

A few years ago I bought 1000 "once-fired" FC-head-stamped (Federal).223 cases from an Ebay seller.

On arrival, the ("unprocessed") brass looked the way I'd expected for once-fired cases.

A high percentage developed shoulder-area splits the first time I loaded them, and nore of the same occurred on my second firing. At that point I scrapped the entire bunch, having seen at least fifty or more splits in the lot.

They were fired in three different .223 rifles.

I later learned that Federal .223 cases have a very poor reputation among competition shooters, who say that Federals have less than half the lifespan of other makes.

I have NOT seen similar reports on Winchester brass.

[freebullet]

25 grains of varget, funny you should mention that as I just loaded some plinking rounds the same. You may want to anneal that batch if you want to get anymore firings from them. Do they split when you now full length size them or do they size hard? If they do it would be a purty good indicator they been hardened from use. Also a good plan to check the lot for signs of case head separation. PSA puts out decent stuff for the money and I would accuse the brass before the rifle.

Federal cases are no good, they loose primers a lot and don't last. I've had 3of 40 federal factory loads loose primers in a 270. If you find federal cases without the primer don't be surprised as you scrap it. Otherwise they'll work for plinkin.

Let us know how they size.

[slughammer]

You could come up with a crude comparison measurement of the shoulder to base of the case with a caliper and a bushing or hardwood block with a hole in it. You should be able to compare a batch of 10 from the new upper to 10 from your other upper and 10 that are full length sized. A little tricky to do without a case gage, but a sample of 10 would take out some error. This will give you an idea how far the shoulder is moving in the new upper.

[b money]

hmm ok I'll see if I can get a few measurements. I might just buy a case gage. as for sizing I'll check that in a few days after I clean them up a little.

[Larry Gibson]

Frankly I believe the long war, no real "war stockage" before the war and the rush to more production to meet the panic buying has caused a drop in quality of .223 cases and perhaps others. I have recently had 2 different lots of LC cases and a couple WW cases split/crack at the head just above the extraction grooves. These were stress cracks coaxial with the axis of the case and not incipient head separation. The loads were mid range H4895 with ledman's PC'd 225438s and with my own 225462s over Varget.

Larry Gibson

[detox]

Age hardened brass (especially Winchester) needs to be annealed to prevent splitting in that large AR15 chamber. Remington brass is softer and will last a little longer before splitting.

[b money]

Ok well this is my first 223 so this brass was some that I've been picking up at the range for the last few years. I'm going to load some new loads in various brass and see how they do.