kgb
05-11-2014, 04:40 PM
Had a case split completely around the middle and the back half ejected out, first time I had that happen in any gun. Front half, about 50% of the original, was left in the chamber. A plastic cleaning pick wouldn't catch the mouth, but a sharpened and bent metal clothes hanger caught and pulled it right out the next day. I figure the soft metal wouldn't be able to scratch the chamber/rifling and a bright light suggests it didn't, so far as I can see.
This is Remington brass, loaded multiple times. Some of the cases had started splitting at the mouths and I lost about 10 percent the last time I shot them; last year at one point I had one crack further down at the middle, not quite reaching the mouth, and I've had other cases do that in the past. First time I've had one split in half like this.
This load was pretty light, 11gr of HS-6 and cast bullets I obtained in trade from a friend who used to shoot silhouette with a DW .41. Boolits look like a Lyman design cast SWC, they were mid-1200fps in the rifle for 5 shots over the chronograph, then the first one of the remaining 65 broke and stuck. I didn't watch the (1/2pc. of)brass fall, just found the next round wouldn't chamber and started trying to unstick the piece. Shot the rest of the rounds in a revolver, getting 1100fps. No obvious splits, but the cases will get examined after sizing and before priming.
I've culled bottleneck rifle cases due to case head separation, my 6mm Rem M788 has shown a pretty heavy loss in cases as I used to load it up to book maxes. Never stuck one in the chamber of a rifle, as I have caught the internal ridges with a bent coathanger wire probe in time. First time I've thought of checking for the same with a pistol cartridge.
These .41 cases could have been fired in several chambers over time, with 35 different individual chambers among revolvers, two T/C barrels and two Marlins. I've never segregated brass by the gun it's fired in, but moving forward with new Starline brass am wondering if that's an effort worth taking--do any of you do that?
This is Remington brass, loaded multiple times. Some of the cases had started splitting at the mouths and I lost about 10 percent the last time I shot them; last year at one point I had one crack further down at the middle, not quite reaching the mouth, and I've had other cases do that in the past. First time I've had one split in half like this.
This load was pretty light, 11gr of HS-6 and cast bullets I obtained in trade from a friend who used to shoot silhouette with a DW .41. Boolits look like a Lyman design cast SWC, they were mid-1200fps in the rifle for 5 shots over the chronograph, then the first one of the remaining 65 broke and stuck. I didn't watch the (1/2pc. of)brass fall, just found the next round wouldn't chamber and started trying to unstick the piece. Shot the rest of the rounds in a revolver, getting 1100fps. No obvious splits, but the cases will get examined after sizing and before priming.
I've culled bottleneck rifle cases due to case head separation, my 6mm Rem M788 has shown a pretty heavy loss in cases as I used to load it up to book maxes. Never stuck one in the chamber of a rifle, as I have caught the internal ridges with a bent coathanger wire probe in time. First time I've thought of checking for the same with a pistol cartridge.
These .41 cases could have been fired in several chambers over time, with 35 different individual chambers among revolvers, two T/C barrels and two Marlins. I've never segregated brass by the gun it's fired in, but moving forward with new Starline brass am wondering if that's an effort worth taking--do any of you do that?