What happened?

[Willem .243 musgrave]

Friend of mine bought brand new norma brass for his hunting rifle in 223, reloaded it once, not a very hot load.

This happened after he re-sized it, wants to know what went wrong? Is the brass to soft, did he not use enough lube? Used factory lyman full length dies.

Looks like the brass was pushed a bit over the head of the case, just on the one side.(See attached image)

Any ideas???

 

[Rem6br]

Wow almost looks like a belted case now! What do or did those case heads measure on the O.D.
And what's the OD. Of a fired case .200 above the rim?

 

[ShootDots]

If I had to GUESS, my guess would be not enough lube... Did he have trouble driving the case up inside the die? Did he have trouble extracting the case once it was up inside the die? It is doubtful that the brass was so soft that the webbing would collapse... Outside of that I would not hazard a guess..

 

[CatShooter]

The case was not fully into the shell holder, and went into the die at an angle...

... so the die ran down one side too much, and didn't touch the other side.

It has nothing to do with the amount of lube.

Happens a lot to new reloaders - ONCE

 

[M-61]

Or the shell holder not seated fully in the ram?

 

[jo191145]

chamber or die out of round?

Beg, borrow, steal another die and try again.

 

[jbarnwell]

I had this happen on a 44 Remington Magnum, turned out to be a bad die.

 

[amlevin]

Looks like an argument for floating die supports or the "O-Ring trick".

 

[CatShooter]

Looks like an argument for floating die supports or the "O-Ring trick".

Looks like an argument for pushing the case all the way into the shell holder.

 

[mao0720]

Im with Catshooter, Ive seen/ done this several times when I try to get moving to fast.

 

[CatShooter]

The good news is...

... you can size it again, load it, and that funny part will blow out and the case will be fine.

 

[stubbicatt]

The good news is...

... you can size it again, load it, and that funny part will blow out and the case will be fine.

Yipes! What an unfortunate choice of words! LOL.





I had this "blow out" and it was not pleasant! The location of that defect or damage in OP's case reminded me of this unpleasant day at the range.

(Absolutely no offense intended to CatShooter whose excellent contributions have assisted me).

If I were OP, I would discard that case because of this experience...

To OP, did all his other cases resize and come out ok?

 

[CatShooter]

The good news is...

... you can size it again, load it, and that funny part will blow out and the case will be fine.

Yipes! What an unfortunate choice of words! LOL.





I had this "blow out" and it was not pleasant! The location of that defect or damage in OP's case reminded me of this unpleasant day at the range.

(Absolutely no offense intended to CatShooter whose excellent contributions have assisted me).

If I were OP, I would discard that case because of this experience...

To OP, did all his other cases resize and come out ok?

Very wrong and bad advice - you are making a watermelons and peanuts comparison.








The cases you show (and I have several just like them) are blown AK cases (probably steel), and they are made without a web - just like the mid-1800's cases with balloon head cases.

You can see that the split/separation is AT the rim, not in front of the web (which, in this case, there is no web )

This cannot happen with the OP's cases or his simple problem!!

They have NOTHING to do with this thread, or the OP's issues.

 

[Rem6br]

As said I wouldn't have a problem with firing that case, it would look normal
After firing

 

[DRNewcomb]

Im with Catshooter, Ive seen/ done this several times when I try to get moving to fast.

I go with Catshooter's assessment too.

 

[M14AMU]

Or....the drilled/reamed hole for the ram of the press isn't inline with the hole for the die!! I have seen this problem twice in 65 years of reloading!! :-\

 

[searcher]

I am curious to know whether the dies had been previously (and successfully)used on other brass by the person doing the loading.

 

[Willem .243 musgrave]

Thanks for all the answers, it is a bit hard to come to a conclusion because everyone seems to have different opinion about the matter.

Going to try to re-size a couple more and see what happens.

No, the die has not been used on other cases from other guns, only on this specific rifle.
Going to check if everything is set up correctly before starting, maybe there was something wrong with the set-up.

It cannot be the press, it is my press that I use all the time and have never seen this happen.

Will update on what happened the second try.

Thanks again for all the answers, will definitely help with looking where to fing the problem.

 

[amlevin]

Looks like an argument for floating die supports or the "O-Ring trick".

Looks like an argument for pushing the case all the way into the shell holder.

Along that line, taking time to clean out the groove in the shell holder. I'm amazed at the amount of "schmutz" that seems to accumulate in it. Small brass particles, lint, powder granules, and a few other unidentified items that seem to float around a press.

Years ago I took to putting all my shell holders in a container of paint thinner and shaking it around to get them nice and clean.

 

[gotcha]

It might also help to clean the slot in the Ram that shell holder slides into. I clean mine w/ a tooth pick occasionally. Amazing how much crud amasses there. While you're at it, check to see if spring for shell holder is clean & functioning. If spring is broken you can replace w/ an O-ring. Just my .02