357 high pressure event - UPDATED AUGUST 2009

[Jayhawkhuntclub]

Looks like Eric was right. So how dangerous was this situation? Is firing a cracked case as dangerous as a high pressure event? Any thoughts?

I think I have found the problem: a bad batch of RP brass. I pulled the rest of the 180 gr bullets after I had the problem with the sticky extraction and the cracked cases. I went to reload them today and found three cracked cases! These were cases that had never been fired. I wondered why I would have what appeared to be a high pressure event with a load that was below book values. This would explain it. The cases were cracked prior to firing. FYI: this brass is about 10 years old.

 

[dougader]

I had a similar event with a low pressure 45 Colt load and Winchester brass. The load was 6.5 grains WW231 with a 250 grain RNFP Cowboy bullet. This is a starting load in my Lyman reloading manual, so I'm guessing it was only running about 10,000 psi.

I only had one in a batch of 100 do it to me. I fired 6 shots from a 5.5" SS Bisley and everything seemed fine until I tried to push the empty case from the cylinder. I had to grab a dowel rod to force it out, even though it was a low pressure round.

When I inspected the case it had a 1.25" split down the side of the case, right in the middle between the mouth and the base. It looked as though it was corroded from the inside out.

Mine wasn't new brass; it was once-fired brass that I bought new. Even so, there's no way a light load like that should have split a case with 2 light loadings on it.

This Ruger had been fired a lot with light loads and a few heavy Ruger-only loads and there were no previous problems with brass sticking; the cases always just fell out of the cylinder.

I often thought about how bad that could have been if I was loading up MAX heavy loads with a full case of H110/WW296.

Now I only load near-max/max loads with new Starline brass and I inspect all the cases inside and out for any imperfections. The other thing I have done is trim down 454 cases for use with my heavy 45 Colt loads.