.38 Special case split

[CW4USARET]

Yesterday I was firing my Kimber K6s 4 inch revolver when I couldn't eject bullets from the cylinder. When I finally got the cylinder open I noticed one of the .38 Special cases had split .101 inch from the case mouth down the side of the case for .795 inches. I had fired 30 rounds of .38 and .357 prior to the failure. Any idea what would cause such a failure?

Case brand was Western
Reloaded by me once
Primer does not show excessive pressure
Load was 6.3 grains of Unique under a 110 grain Hornady XTP bullet
Primer was CCI small pistol primer
COL 1.460

Inspection of the pistol did not reveal any issues

jrf

 

[mikld]

Occasionally a bad case will slip through and split on firing, poor brass most likely the problem. You mention I "couldn't eject bullets from the cylinder.", did you have a squib or just not able to extract the fired case?

 

[CW4USARET]

Thanks for the reply. It was not a squib load, all shots felt the same. The inability to eject the cases was the first clue of a problem.

 

[Paul B]

Was it a split or a burnout? I once had a batch of once fired Federal .38 Spl. brass that had splits like you mentioned but on close inspection showed that the burned out. Some were almost the full length of the cases and some were like someone had torched a cut in the brass about a half inch or so centered in the was of the case running parallel to the case wall. I scrapped all that particular batch of brass. FWIW, although rare, I have had factory ammo do that very same thing.
Paul B.

 

[recumbent]

Was it a factory load or a reload? I've had reloads do that at the end of the case life.

 

[CW4USARET]

Paul B.

You might be on the right path. The brass is the silver kind and the cut is jagged running down the side of the case .223 from the end of the split to the base of the case. I'll have to check and see if I have any more of the Western brass. I checked the used brass and there are several Western brand but without any outward signs of damage. I guess I'll use an Army Aviation saying that "I'll just fly it and watch it".

Thanks for the help....

 

[TX Nimrod]

Primer does not show excessive pressure

Primers are a notoriously terrible way to judge "excess pressure". From a Speer manual:

 

[RSIno1]

... The brass is the silver kind ....

Nickel plated cases seem to crack a lot more often than brass. I thing the plating process embrittles the brass or it's the fact that the plating itself is hard and inflexible.

 

[Mobuck]

If it's not too late, mark or note which cylinder hole the split case came from and see if that hole suffers more split cases in the future. If so, there may be a problem. As it is, the cause is mostly likely a fault in the brass.

 

[contender]

The last 2 posts are excellent. Nickle brass seems to split more often & sooner than yellow brass,,, and an enlarged chamber can possibly cause it as well.
And, you mentioned it was "Western" marked brass. If my faded memory is correct,, that's an older case. I don't think newer stuff has been marked just "Western" in many, many years.
I've seen older brass, that has been sitting for many years exhibit splitting issues more often than later stuff.

 

[Ale-8(1)]

There's always the possibility of problematic brass. I once bought a new box of fifty brand-name .32 H&R brass and put them away for future use without examining them. When I did get around to preparing to load them I discovered that almost all of them were split almost full length. I contacted the manufacturer with the lot number and they just sent me a replacement box of new brass, no problem. No explanation, either.

Another time I bought new .45 Colt cases and most of them wouldn't fit into my shell holders without considerable futzing around. Close examination revealed that the rims were not concentric with the case bodies. Contacted the manufacturer and included a half-dozen of the cases as evidence. They responded with a nice letter acknowledging the problem and sent me new brass which were OK.

Ya just never know.

 

[Paul B]

"I've seen older brass, that has been sitting for many years exhibit splitting issues more often than later stuff."

That's called "season cracking".

This just came to mind but we all know about the trick to check for incipient case head problems using a hooked paper clip. I wonder if the OP couldn't use something like that and drag it along the inside walls for the offending brass. A burnout wouldn't happen all at once I would think. Maybe over a few successive as each shot erodes the case wall. Just a thought.
Paul B.

 

[Rick Courtright]

Nickel plated cases seem to crack a lot more often than brass. I thing the plating process embrittles the brass or it's the fact that the plating itself is hard and inflexible.

Hi,

With the exception of a few yellow brass cases I loaded a time or two past when they should have been tossed, all the case splits I've had with handgun ammo involved nickel plated cases, even though I generally load them only to the book's idea of a starting load. The idea that the plating process embrittles the brass seems to be pretty wide spread.

Rick C

 

[AJGUNNER]

Before I switched to Star Line, I had a bunch of split cases with some 44 brass. Always tumbled in walnut with Dillon polish so chances were that it was not caused by any cleaning agents. I used to source my brass from factory loads that I bought before really getting into loading my own. At one time I had about 12 different head stamps in 44. I don't keep data on how many times loaded, but know these were most likely loaded only about 4-6 times. I also rarely load max or super hot loads, generally staying mid to lower end of data. When I switched to Star line, I slowly weeded out all the odd balls either selling them or trashing them. I still have a container of these with 50-60 pieces all with similar splits. Oh ya, they are all the same head stamp. Needless to say, I steer clear of this particular brand.

 

[Cholo]

↑ Ahhh, that super secret mystery brand of brass we all need to beware of.

 

[NikA]

I had a batch of Federal .32s (either Mag. or .327s) that did the same when firing the factory load. There is some history with bad batches of Federal brass in .32. Don't know of any for .38.

 

[Have gun-will travel]

Remington Peters brass did this with me. Most of the time I had 5 to 10 pieces out of each box would split. Even more after they were reloaded. Then in the early 80'smy department had the same problem with RP 45 ammo . Sometimes the extractor would rip the case head off and leave the brass is the barrel. I've never shot any R-P ammo since.

 

[AJGUNNER]

Every piece of the pictured 44 brass is Winchester. After 1000's of rounds consumed by multiple Redhawks, this is the only 44 brass I have ever seen do this.

 

[woodsy]

Nickel plated cases seem to crack a lot more often than brass. I thing the plating process embrittles the brass or it's the fact that the plating itself is hard and inflexible.

I reload .38 Spl. and .357 Mag, all usually to the Special mid-range level. Every time I go through a batch containing plated cases, at least 20% of the plated ones split. Never any non-plated ones. It is (otherwise) well known that the plated ones are brittle. Therefore I am looking forward to finally running out of the plated cases. Someday I'll dump all of the plated ones, split or not.

 

[Rclark]

It happens occasionally. No big deal. Usually with brass that has been reloaded many times. Most times you'll see the mouth split, but sometimes you'll get what you saw.... Again no big deal.

when I couldn't eject bullets from the cylinder.

Had to chuckle .... Bullets are ejected from the cylinder by firing, and the cases ejected when unloading . Ha.