Bad Day at the Range

• May 13, 2015

• #1

DocAitch

Active Member

Jun 22, 2011

687

North of Baltimore

Decided I had a couple of hours to shoot today and threw some guns into the bag, grabbed some reloads and drove to the range.
1) I forgot my wallet but they let me shoot because they knew me.
2) I thought my vision had deteriorated drastically until I figured out that I had on an old pair of shooting glasses.
AND 3) on my last magazine through my Colt Gold Cup I heard a PHHHHHT/Bang and was sprayed in the face by debris

I load on a Dillon 650 with auto index,(4.0 gr Clays under a 200 gr Speer LSWC), and am sure I didn't double my charge-(it takes a series of foul ups to double charge on this machine).
I believe that the clue as to what happened is in picture #3- this is A-MERC brass. I generally throw these away, this one snuck past me.
4) to top it all off, I smoked a really crappy cigar on the way home.
On the plus side, the pistol wasn't harmed, and I was fine and capable of smoking a cigar and driving home.
DocAitch

 

• May 13, 2015

• #2

lx1x

Peanut Gallery

Apr 19, 2009

26,992

Maryland

Yikes.. Good thing no major damage.

 

• May 13, 2015

• #3

BradMacc82

Ultimate Member

Industry Partner

Aug 17, 2011

26,177

New one to me, I hadn't seen a .45 case do something like that before.

No injury or damage, so that's always a good thing.

 

• May 13, 2015

• #4

M

Melnic

Ultimate Member

MDS Supporter

Dec 27, 2012

15,333

HoCo

so clue me in here.
It started to ignite and eject and went off out of battery or what?

 

• May 13, 2015

• #5

BradMacc82

Ultimate Member

Industry Partner

Aug 17, 2011

26,177

Melnic said:

so clue me in here.
It started to ignite and eject and went off out of battery or what?

Click to expand...

From what I gather from Doc's post, it started to ignite and the case failed.

 

• May 13, 2015

• #6

B

Broncolou

Active Member

Jan 22, 2013

689

Parkton MD

Just another reminder to stay diligent....... even then, who knows if you coulda/woulda seen that..... I always look at primer seating and necks. I don"t pay much attention to "above the rim" unless its bulged/gouged.....

You may want to change the title to a "Good Day at The Range"....
No missing body parts or damaged toys......bad cigar seems to be the worst part..... :-)

 

• May 13, 2015

• #7

outrider58

Eats Bacon Raw

MDS Supporter

Jul 29, 2014

49,963

Any day you walk(drive) home from the range is a good day to me. All that badness and you're unharmed is a blessing. Thank God.

 

• May 13, 2015

• #8

Uncle Duke

Ultimate Member

MDS Supporter

Feb 2, 2013

11,714

Not Far Enough from the City

Glad you're ok! Range pickup?

I don't think double charge either. Gotta think there was some sort of defect at the base and side of that case web from the looks of that.

 

• May 13, 2015

• #9

sgt23preston

USMC LLA. NRA Life Member

May 19, 2011

4,001

Perry Hall

Many years ago on the Bullseye Forum, there were countless threads stating NEVER RELOAD A-MERC BRASS...

I've always just ditched & never gave it much thought, but, WOW now I understand why...

 

• May 13, 2015

• #10

Robert

Having Fun Yet?

May 11, 2011

4,089

AA County, MD

oh man that is bad, glad you're Ok.. That's a strange place to have a case failure. How many time was that case reloaded?

 

• May 13, 2015

• #11

Biggfoot44

Ultimate Member

Aug 2, 2009

33,108

To slightly twist the saying : * A bad day at the range is better than a good day at work* . But you really pushed that one to the limits.

 

• May 14, 2015

• #12

molonlabe

Ultimate Member

May 7, 2005

2,760

Mountaineer Country, WV

I've seen this on unsupported barrels but never on gold cups. Very similar blowouts on Glocks using reloads.

Maybe something to this.

Many years ago on the Bullseye Forum, there were countless threads stating NEVER RELOAD A-MERC BRASS...

I've always just ditched & never gave it much thought, but, WOW now I understand why...

Click to expand...

 

Last edited: May 15, 2015

• May 14, 2015

• #13

Fishguy

Ultimate Member

Jun 30, 2009

5,080

Montgomery County

Is it just me or does it look like it somehow went bang out of battery?

 

• May 14, 2015

• #14

BossmanPJ

Ultimate Member

Feb 22, 2013

7,059

Cecil County

Fishguy said:

Is it just me or does it look like it somehow went bang out of battery?

Click to expand...

I thought the same thing when I looked at it. Very strange that it could explode out the side of the case in the chamber.

 

• May 14, 2015

• #15

Doctor_M

Certified Mad Scientist

MDS Supporter

Feb 28, 2013

24,055

The People's Republic of Maryland (Carroll County)

Glad you are OK. Primer strike looks a little strange to me too... very deep and off center.

 

• May 14, 2015

• #16

alucard0822

For great Justice

Oct 29, 2007

17,687

PA

cracked through what is usually the strongest part of the case, primer and neck look fine. Appears it started in the web above the extractor groove and peeled forward, stopped by the feed ramp, so not likely a case support issue either, those tend to split just above the web. I've seen dozens of pictures of blown cases and guns, just about all of them have pancaked primers, hammered headstamps, neck cracks, or some other sign of a bad load or gun issue, this one looks like a flat out defective case. Glad a bad cigar and forgetting your wallet are what made the day bad, not a destroyed pistol or hand.

 

• May 14, 2015

• #17

Traveler

Lighten up Francis

Jan 18, 2013

8,227

AA County

Maybe not resized fully. I throw A-MERC away.

 

• May 14, 2015

• #18

P

Pretoria78

URX Fan

Mar 30, 2008

628

Northern Virginia

sgt23preston said:

Many years ago on the Bullseye Forum, there were countless threads stating NEVER RELOAD A-MERC BRASS...

I've always just ditched & never gave it much thought, but, WOW now I understand why...

Click to expand...

When I bought my Kimber Custom Classic many years ago, I bought a box or two of this stuff to go along with it, and promptly headed to the range. It was the worst ammo I've ever shot, being wildly inconsistent and unreliable.

 

• May 14, 2015

• #19

K

Katrina3

Member

Apr 30, 2015

7

someone woke up on the 'wrong side of the bed' lol here are some cheer up quotes lol http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/cheer.html

 

• May 14, 2015

• #20

DocAitch

Active Member

Jun 22, 2011

687

North of Baltimore

I, too, am concerned about the possibility of out of battery firing.
I have noted the occasional failure of some of these rounds to chamber on the first go-around, but the primer hit appears to be deep (if off center). I have attributed this occasional failure to feed to the shorter OAL and bullet shape of the 200 gr LSWC. I am probably going to run all of my completed rounds through the Wilson case gauge. This will also allow me to screen for any more A-MERC cases.
I will have to pull the rest of the brass from this session (which luckily is still separate) and see if the firing pin strike is significantly different.
My previous issue with the A-MERC brass has been its failure to fit into my Wilson head space gauge despite multiple resizings with the Lee FCD die.
I have no conceptual trouble attributing bad metallurgy/poor manufacturing technique to this crap.
I will post my findings here.
DocAitch