Case head separation

[1168]

I had an interesting stoppage yesterday:

https://imgur.com/a/VmX9bXv

During a drill, I attempted to fire the third round in a triple tap. No hammer fall, no fire. I had not noted any unusual feel to the previous rounds. A quick glance at the ejection port showed a round partly in the chamber. Tap-rack attempted. As I retracted the bolt, I realized that the extractor did not grab the case. I dropped the mag and let the bolt go forward in an attempt to engage the extractor. Nope. I locked the bolt to the rear and placed the weapon on a table, pointed downrange. I noted that there was no firing pin indent, so this was a live round. I extracted the case with a knife point and saw that I had an unfired round stuck into another case. Both extracted easily, simultaneously. I saw that all bolt lugs were present, and there was no apparent damage, so I continued shooting. I found the case head later when I policed my brass. Ammo in question was 62gr 5.56 that I’ve shot a bunch of in the past without issue. Lake City brass.

Later experimenting showed that I might have been able to clear this more quickly by holding the charging handle back and whacking the butt on the ground. I was able to get the whole thing to fall out of the chamber on the second try. I don’t know for sure if it would have worked in a hot gun.

I’ll be checking headspace shortly, just to make sure.

[boomer223]

I had an interesting stoppage yesterday:

Wow,
That's an interesting one for sure...

[ST911]

Seen quite a bit of that in certain remanufactured ammo and homeloads.

[MQ105]

Hornady Frontier??

[GH41]

I had an interesting stoppage yesterday:

https://imgur.com/a/VmX9bXv

During a drill, I attempted to fire the third round in a triple tap. No hammer fall, no fire. I had not noted any unusual feel to the previous rounds. A quick glance at the ejection port showed a round partly in the chamber. Tap-rack attempted. As I retracted the bolt, I realized that the extractor did not grab the case. I dropped the mag and let the bolt go forward in an attempt to engage the extractor. Nope. I locked the bolt to the rear and placed the weapon on a table, pointed downrange. I noted that there was no firing pin indent, so this was a live round. I extracted the case with a knife point and saw that I had an unfired round stuck into another case. Both extracted easily, simultaneously. I saw that all bolt lugs were present, and there was no apparent damage, so I continued shooting. I found the case head later when I policed my brass. Ammo in question was 62gr 5.56 that I’ve shot a bunch of in the past without issue. Lake City brass.

Later experimenting showed that I might have been able to clear this more quickly by holding the charging handle back and whacking the butt on the ground. I was able to get the whole thing to fall out of the chamber on the second try. I don’t know for sure if it would have worked in a hot gun.

I’ll be checking headspace shortly, just to make sure.

Put up a picture of the case head/primer one the separated case. Was the ammo new or reloaded? Looks like overworked brass at first glance.

[markm]

Seen quite a bit of that in certain remanufactured ammo and homeloads.

Yep. It's a risk you run on reman ammo. Especially if you load range pick up brass. I toss out/recycle brass that I can see has been loaded by someone else.

I've had about 4 or 5 of these separations out of 20 years of hand loading AR ammo.

[3 AE]

Seen quite a bit of that in certain remanufactured ammo and homeloads.

Exact same thing happened to me during a class about six years ago. Fortunately the instructor knew what happened and used a broken case extractor to correct the problem in no time. I bought a Brownells Broken Shell Extractor shortly thereafter. So far, never had to use it. Ammo in question was Black Hills .223 55 gr. FMJ, Blue Box(remanufactured). Doo-Doo happens.

[1168]

Put up a picture of the case head/primer one the separated case. Was the ammo new or reloaded? Looks like overworked brass at first glance.

I’ll have to add a good picture of the case head tomorrow. Brass was virgin Lake City, loaded by a smaller manufacturer with a good rep. I’ve shot perhaps 10,000 rounds of their stuff between pistols and rifles, and I like their products. I need to recheck headspace and consult with the ammo manufacturer before I can come to a conclusion.

[RVTMaverick]

Hey 1168,

From what I can see in Your picture, to me it looks like just part of the "Rim" ripped off?
I don't see or actually, I am not understanding "Case head separation"..? LOL... I see it now, I was only getting the 1st picture for along while... I see it now.

FWIW: Years ago, I had a stuck round in the chamber that looked a lot like this, 1st, I removed mag., then, I closed the Butt Stock to the shortest position, next, while holding my carbine vertically, I banged the Butt Stock into the ground, at the sametime racking the Charging handle,... 2nd or 3rd hit, with the Butt Stock into the ground, I got the round out of battery.

I had an interesting stoppage yesterday:

https://imgur.com/a/VmX9bXv

During a drill, I attempted to fire the third round in a triple tap. No hammer fall, no fire. I had not noted any unusual feel to the previous rounds. A quick glance at the ejection port showed a round partly in the chamber. Tap-rack attempted. As I retracted the bolt, I realized that the extractor did not grab the case. I dropped the mag and let the bolt go forward in an attempt to engage the extractor. Nope. I locked the bolt to the rear and placed the weapon on a table, pointed downrange. I noted that there was no firing pin indent, so this was a live round. I extracted the case with a knife point and saw that I had an unfired round stuck into another case. Both extracted easily, simultaneously. I saw that all bolt lugs were present, and there was no apparent damage, so I continued shooting. I found the case head later when I policed my brass. Ammo in question was 62gr 5.56 that I’ve shot a bunch of in the past without issue. Lake City brass.

Later experimenting showed that I might have been able to clear this more quickly by holding the charging handle back and whacking the butt on the ground. I was able to get the whole thing to fall out of the chamber on the second try. I don’t know for sure if it would have worked in a hot gun.

I’ll be checking headspace shortly, just to make sure.

[markm]

Hey 1168,

From what I can see in Your picture, to me it looks like just part of the "Rim" ripped off?

I see the second image has the classic case separation with the castle-like breakage line around the brass body. I really see no need to check head space on the gun unless this was a repeat problem.

You could easily drop some of their ammo into a case gauge to see if they're squeezing the brass down too much.