40 S&W Case head separation

Just wanted to post up some pics of a piece of brass that I had the case head separate on. This was with a normal charge of WST. The gun did not kaboom, and the boolit still fired. The report was not normal and there was a little powder blow-back, which is what let me know there was a problem. I stopped immediately, dropped the magazine and racked the slide open to check for any problems. I had to pull the case out of the barrel with some pliers and it took a minute to find the case head on the ground. This was a PMC case that was a range pickup. Unknown number of reloads. It was a real eye opener but, like stated before, this was with a normal charge of WST. I am very meticulous with my reloading and I always visually check for powder in my rounds when I load on my LCT. I just need to be a little more thorough on my visual inspection of my cases. Wanted to post it as a safety reminder for all.

I was amazed at the near perfect separation of the case head. Pretty scary!

Happy shooting

Hounddog

Boolit Mold Join DateMay 2013LocationNew MexicoPosts11

That case looks bulged all the way around like it fired out of battery. Could you have a stuck firing pin that fired the round before it completely chambered?

Looks like serious overpressure, from the bulge at the unsupported
area at the feed ramp. Slightly brittle brass, serious overpressure
and failure? Guessing.

I have seen an official letter from a major federal LE agency to Glock
asking why they had so many guns blowing up during training with
.40 S&W factory ammo. I was not able to see the response, but understand
that .40 S&W is a very hot cartridge and there seem to be a whole lot
more of unexplained blowups and blow outs with it than with other
semiauto cartridges.

Bill

If it was easy, anybody could do it.

When you sized these down, was there a shear line created?? Were the cartridges fired in a Glock with a factory barrel??
Cases with a bulge need to have it removed first. I had a guy mill the base of a size die to allow the cases to go further into the die.

A LEE carbide sizing die does the same thing faster. After market barrel cured the bulge problem.

Shiloh

"A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves."
Bertrand de Jouvenel

?Any government that does not trust its citizens with firearms is either a tyranny, or planning to become one.? ? Joseph P. Martino

?If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert , in five years there would be a shortage of sand.? ? Milton Friedman

These were sized in my lee sizing die. As far as wether or not they were previously fired in a glock, I couldn't honestly tell you at this point. All of my 40 s&w brass is range pickup so it very well could be. Would'nt really know unless I checked the fired primers on the brass before loading. I'm definitely going to be more cautious when inspecting this stuff. I suspect there may have been a crack or fissure down there.

Thanks
Hounddog

Also these were fired from a completely stock full size M&P 40.

Hounddog

The reason I'm asking Hounddog, is that I blew up a Glock 40 when the case failed similar to yours. Mine was hangin on by about 40% from a seperation.

Shiloh

"A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves."
Bertrand de Jouvenel

?Any government that does not trust its citizens with firearms is either a tyranny, or planning to become one.? ? Joseph P. Martino

?If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert , in five years there would be a shortage of sand.? ? Milton Friedman

Had exactly the same thing happen with an old FC marked case. Scares the wits out of you when it happens. I checked the rest of the cases and they all had a micro fracture at the extractor groove, need a loupe to see it.

Greed is harder to fix than stupidity. You can't fix stupidity.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading
Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt"

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