Case failure in a 1911

[David Thomas]

Not sure how many of you handload/reload, but let this be a visual reminder that brass cases do not last forever, even in the low pressure 45acp:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v441/DavidThomas/coltwwIrepro2009.jpg

factory Corbon for comparison:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v441/DavidThomas/coltwwIrepro2007.jpg

not sure how many times this particular case went through the process, but apparently it was one too many.

As you can imagine, only half of the case was extracted, although not completely ejected, and the other half remained in the chamber. While this slowed us down a little bit, we were back up and running within in a few minutes. However, if your primary goes down and this happens to you after you had to transition to your pistol... it just isn't your lucky day. How much do you trust your handloads/reloads?

Moderators,
If this is in the wrong section, I apologize and please feel free to move it.

[VA_Dinger]

Damn, thats ugly.

[David Thomas]

Damn, thats ugly.

Indeed it is.
Luckily it was not much trouble to get the stuck part of the case out, but did require the use of a solid brass rod, which had to be fetched from the reloading bench.

I would be interested to know how many other people on M4C have experienced or have seen this type of case failure. Anybody?

[mayonaise]

Interesting. Usually when I see them they are split down the length of the case. But even those are rare. I have some brass with 1974 headstamped on them.