Cracked casing

guzma393 · Feb 21, 2020

Hi all,

Newbie reloader here. I was sorting through my brass and I've experienced my first fired 9mm cracked casing reload. No damage to the firearm, and cycled normal.

This case was sourced from range pickup, loaded with:

1.135 COL.
115 gr berrys plated rn (.356)
4.0 gr tg
Minimal taper crimp

I plinked 1k of these loads with no notable overpressure signs on the casings. Could this just be a case that has hit it's (obvious) limits? Any best practices to be safe? Any suggestions or comments are appreciated, thanks.

Squaregrouper · Feb 21, 2020

All brass will eventually crack. Hot loads and hot calibers will do it much sooner. (You'll get less loads out of a .454 Casull than .38 Special)
It is a very good practice to inspect every piece of brass when resizing/decapping. If it is even slightly questionable, get rid of it.

ETA- I just realized who you were. What type of press did you get?

DaemonAssassin · Feb 21, 2020

I am curious as to what press the OP picked up too, since we talked about reloading that one day.

Biggfoot44 · Feb 21, 2020

Absolute Best Practice - Start with virgin brass , track your number of loadings .

Next Best Practice - Once fired Brass , that you fired yourself the first time .

After that Best Practice -Inspect each piece before loading . When in doubt , discard .

John from MD · Feb 21, 2020

That crack is the normal failure mode for a high pressure straightwall non roll crimped case. Roll crimped cases like 38spl, 44 mag, 45 Colt usually crack at the mouth. If you shoot a lot, and I mean a lot, you could get gas cutting in your chamber. However, one here and there isn't going to hurt anything with those loads.

guzma393 · Feb 21, 2020

I heard it's easier to detect flaws in cases when they are nice and clean as well (i just manually wet tumbling the cases in soapy water right now, resulting in a servicable but not too shiny case). I plan on a wet tumbler rolling with stainless steel media in the near future.

I got a lee 3 hole manual turret press. It does the job, but reloading bulk 9mm makes me want a progressive press to atleast streamline the de-capping and flaring process. I heard the lee pro 1000 accepts the 3 hole turrets, so i'm currently looking for a used/fixer upper one to mess with. If i were to get a new one, i'd go for the loadmaster kit or the hornady locknload one.

Squaregrouper · Feb 21, 2020

guzma393 said:
I heard it's easier to detect flaws in cases when they are nice and clean as well (i just manually wet tumbling the cases in soapy water right now, resulting in a servicable but not too shiny case). I plan on a wet tumbler rolling with stainless steel media in the near future.

I got a lee 3 hole manual turret press. It does the job, but reloading bulk 9mm makes me want a progressive press to atleast streamline the de-capping and flaring process. I heard the lee pro 1000 accepts the 3 hole turrets, so i'm currently looking for a used/fixer upper one to mess with. If i were to get a new one, i'd go for the loadmaster kit or the hornady locknload one.

VICTORY!!! In your face DA!!!

OP- These work great and the price is right.
https://www.harborfreight.com/dual-drum-rotary-rock-tumbler-67632.html
.
This coupon will get the price down to ~$46
https://go.harborfreight.com/coupons/2019/08/20-off-any-single-item-at-harbor-freight/
.

DaemonAssassin · Feb 21, 2020

DaemonAssassin · Feb 21, 2020

squaregrouper said:
VICTORY!!! In your face DA!!!

OP- These work great and the price is right.
https://www.harborfreight.com/dual-drum-rotary-rock-tumbler-67632.html
.
This coupon will get the price down to ~$46
https://go.harborfreight.com/coupons/2019/08/20-off-any-single-item-at-harbor-freight/
.

Kiss my brass, my hairy palmed friend.

willtill · Feb 21, 2020

I have an abundant amount of 8x56mmR ammo for my Mannlicher M1895 rifles. More often than not, I get a firecracker type explosion from the locked bolt when firing it.

I get case ruptures often due to the 1930's era ammo that I have for it. You can't tell if it's going to happen. The shells look fine. But when you extract one that ruptures... well it looks just like the OP's.

The Mannlicher is about the only firearm that I have where I have to wear my ball cap down low to protect my forehead, and shooting glasses to cover me eyes, to guard against those "Black Cat" firecrackers...

Blacksmith101 · Feb 22, 2020

Biggfoot44 said:
Absolute Best Practice - Start with virgin brass , track your number of loadings .

Next Best Practice - Once fired Brass , that you fired yourself the first time .

After that Best Practice -Inspect each piece before loading . When in doubt , discard .

Sometimes the brass left on the range is from another reloader who has already reloaded the cases X number of times and and figures they have reached the end of their useful life.

Pinecone · Feb 22, 2020

As as has been said. It happens.

For straight wall pistol cases (mainly .45 ACP), I just load until they split. Out of 10s of thousands of rounds, I have had less than 10 split, as far as I can recall.

outrider58 · Feb 22, 2020

Blacksmith101 said:
Sometimes the brass left on the range is from another reloader who has already reloaded the cases X number of times and and figures they have reached the end of their useful life.

^^^This

I don't pick brass off yhe range anymore unless I witnessed its 'history'.

Biggfoot44 · Feb 22, 2020

Many/ most reloaders will endeavor to reclaim their own brass . * Most * brass left laying about is left behind by non-reloaders .

Back in the revolver era , commercial reloaded . 38spl was very common . Nowdays that niche is largely filled by generic / commie 9mm .

boule · Feb 23, 2020

willtill said:
I have an abundant amount of 8x56mmR ammo for my Mannlicher M1895 rifles. More often than not, I get a firecracker type explosion from the locked bolt when firing it.

I get case ruptures often due to the 1930's era ammo that I have for it. You can't tell if it's going to happen. The shells look fine. But when you extract one that ruptures... well it looks just like the OP's.

It is an issue with some brass becoming brittle over the years. This can either be due to the alloy used (some of them tend to become more brittle as they age) or with the propellant or primer reacting with the case. Either excess mercury in the mercury fulminate of a primer or decomposing propellant with acids reacting with the brass can do that.

I do have some lapua ammunition from the 70s that has one in five cases splitting. Even after pulling the components and reloading he cases same story. Once your brass goes, it is usually not economical to recondition it - with the exception of annealing brittle case mouths.

Pinecone · Feb 23, 2020

FYI commercial ammunition hasn't used mercury fulminate based primers in over 100 years

E.Shell · Feb 23, 2020

Pinecone said:
FYI commercial ammunition hasn't used mercury fulminate based primers in over 100 years

Seems like only yesterday, doesn't it.

boule · Feb 23, 2020

Pinecone said:
FYI commercial ammunition hasn't used mercury fulminate based primers in over 100 years

Unfortunately not all "commercial ammo" is manufactured according to the US-military standard who stopped using mercury containing primers in 1898. Some companies were producing these primers until after WW2 and stocks could still be found in ammunition/separate primers until the early 60s.
So yeah, if you find some vintage military stock ammunition or collect cartridges, there is still an off chance to have mercury in there :-)

Just to give our readers a small history on priming compounds: mercury fulminate was the initial compound used in percussion caps and the first paper cartridges (Dreyse) were empolying a mixture of potassium chlorate and antimony sulfide.
Actual metallic cartridge primers were loaded with a variety of priming mixtures but over the time, the commonly found mercury fulminate was replaced by chlorate-based priming compounds. Those were initially employing ground glass or other substrates for friction so in turn, they got refined with later formulas using thiocyanate/chlorate. Those mixtures had a great shelf life and are thus found in many combloc cartridges but are still corrosive as heck.
Thus, they were initially replaced with a thiocyanate/Barium Nitrate mixture (RWS) it was supplanted by lead azide which in turn was partially replaced by lead styphnate (Sinoxid) and Tetrazine. Intermediates were Titan/Zinc (GECO sintox) or Strontium (Speeer) based formula which are now slowly being replaced by KDNP or DDNP and other proprietary blends.

The closer to the current time you get, the harder it becomes to actually figure out what the primers contain. RWS patented their lead-free mixture, Speer, CCI, Federal and Winchester have not revealed the contents of their formula.

atblis · Feb 25, 2020

Most of the time when I encounter a cracked case like that, it's an old FC stamped case.

ras_oscar · Mar 4, 2020

I have purchased a couple spam cans of Russian surplus ammo for my Mosen Nagant. They have corrosive primers. Be sure to check the full description, not just the top line when purchasing online. I figure I'm ok so long as I thoroughly clean the rifle after each firing. After all, the rifle was designed to use that ammo.

Cracked casing

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