I was reloaded some ammo for the match tomorrow and found this round was a little tight in the case gauge:
I think it is time to retire that piece of brass. That’s some really “bad luck” about to happen.
The View From North Central Idaho
Ramblings on explosives, guns, politics, and sex by a redneck Idaho farm boy who became a software engineer living near Seattle.
Ouch. Bad Buddha there…
I have a question regarding brass. Today, the wife and I went to the Pistol Club to try out a new Heritage .22 SA (cheaply, but I liked it) and to have her shoot her bedside 3032 Tomcat for the biannual familiarization.
So, I picked a fair amount of brass off the range (9mm & .45 mostly) and put it in a ziplock I have in the range bag for this purpose. Fairly soon I’m going to start reloading, I’ve got most of what I need (RCBS RC Kit with some stuff my son got me).
Is picking what looks like (guess) once fired brass for reloading a bad practice? I’m assuming that with case measurements as you did, I’ll get an idea for “bad” brass?
In pistol calibers I pick up everything. I clean it and run it through the push thru base sizing die, then load it, then run it through the case gauge or chamber of my gun. Anything with cracks, damaged mouths, etc. will be found someplace during the process. This is the first time a cracked case has made it all the way to the case gauge step.
A lot of oversized brass picked up from the range will go back into spec as it goes through that process. Except for cracks and really bad dents you can’t really tell if a piece is going to be a reject until you run it through the process.
joe:
looks like a “case” of really good luck to me. that would have been a serious case of gas going the wrong direction, especially in a high pressure round like the 10mm. i have to say, i’ve never seen a pistol case crack like that.
amazing.
john jay
Why throw it out, its good for at least half of a shoot, just have it as the last shot of the match, and you could/might be fine. 😛
Good call on throwing it out, I know I would.
The only way I’d put that in a gun and fire it would be if I set it up to fire remotely and video the result. It might not be an impressive video, or it might be spectacular enough to be worth destroying the gun.
Thank you for that tip!
I pulled the case from the garbage can and dropped it on the concrete sidewalk along with about a half dozen other cases. I could not tell the difference in the sound.