Ruptured 223 Case ?

[357shooter]

A friend gave me 3 boxes of 223 ammo 2 of them are Black hills ammo and one of them is 3-D RMFG. ammo. I shot 10 rounds of the 3-D and then this happened
got a good blast in the face some powder burns on the face, rifle was fine.
So what would cause this too happen? I would say this stuff is old I have never seen this ammo before the price on the box was only $10 for 50 rounds.

[incredablehefey]

re-manufactured ammo (reloads). Unknown brand to me so i would say bad powder charge but just a guess. It could have been just a bad case but that seems unlikely to me.

[MarkInFolsom]

I couldn't see a rim in the first picture, probably because of the blow-up. Reminds me of the old balloon made brass.

[357shooter]

I couldn't see a rim in the first picture, probably because of the blow-up. Reminds me of the old balloon made brass.

It was L.C brass.

[ironhorse1]

I suspect that the brass is brittle as that does not appear to be a typical case head separation.

Thanks for the good photo as that is very interesting.

irh

Is there any chance that you could dremel the case open lengthwise so we can see the case head web thickness?

[baih777]

That remanufactured ammo for 223 is not with shooting.. I would pull bullets and dump the powder. Repairing your rifle will cost you a lot more than that ammo is worth.

[357shooter]

I suspect that the brass is brittle as that does not appear to be a typical case head separation.

Thanks for the good photo as that is very interesting.

irh

Is there any chance that you could dremel the case open lengthwise so we can see the case head web thickness?

I'll give it a try and post pictures.

[Spyder]

Yea, that's an odd place to blow out. Tagging for more info!

[smoothy8500]

Pic shows an LC 94 headstamp? About 5-6 years ago there was a bunch of older "once fired" 7.62 LC brass that was failing in the same area. Maybe it was a run of bad brass.

[357shooter]

Is there any chance that you could dremel the case open lengthwise so we can see the case head web thickness? Here you go hope this helps best I can do.

[ironhorse1]

That's incredible! Thanks for making the effort and allowing us to see what happened.

I would disassemble all the remaining cartridges for components and crush the cases.

The case that I cut was a LC 79 and they have been reloaded and fired without any failures.

Bad brass for sure and good to know.

irh

[LynnJr]

Bad piece of brass for sure. It doesn't look like there was much brass around the casehead. Couple that with a small base die and a loose chamber and instant separation.