Had my first ever .22 LR case rim separation

[tlawler]

I was putting my nightly quota of .22 LR through my suppressed FN 502 in the garage and had this case rim separation on a round of Winchester Wildcat 22.

I’ve had it happen a couple of times on centerfire ammo and heard of it with .22, but in my lifetime, I must have shot 10’s of thousands of .22 LR, definitely more than any other single caliber. I got peppered with some debris and my ears are still ringing, but no real harm done. I’ve gotten in the habit of just wearing my AirPods with the active noise cancellation feature and they easily handle the 110 or so decibels produced with the can in place. But this was probably about as loud as an unsuppressed round through the FN.

Anyone else encounter this? And how common is it? I’m thinking pretty uncommon.

 

[rockquarry]

I've never even heard of it happening with .22 rimfire ammo.

 

[pharmer]

I probably have "lifetime" in excess of 100K .22 rounds through various guns. Never happened, so far. Glad you're OK. Joe

 

[stansdds]

I'm wondering if there was a build up of lead fouling in the suppressor that might have caused higher chamber pressures and the result was the case failure.

 

[Golphin]

I have been shooting 22 rimfire for 60 years and never seen that before.

 

[rmc]

.22 LR case rim separation

I've been shooting for over 60 years and had this same thing happen once way back when I was a teenager.

 

[tlawler]

I'm wondering if there was a build up of lead fouling in the suppressor that might have caused higher chamber pressures and the result was the case failure.

I had actually just cleaned it for the first time just a few days ago and had less than 200 rounds through it post cleaning. I cleared the de-rimmed case and continued shooting approx. 30 more rounds with no further issue.

Thread 'Figured out the best way to clean suppressor baffles'

May 29, 2025

At this point, I’ve put almost 2K rounds of .22 LR through my dead air mask .22 suppressor and several hundred, but probably less than 1K through my rugged obsidian .45. I had been noticing a degradation in suppression and mrs tlawler even mentioned that the mask wasn’t as quiet as it was when new and I first started shooting in my garage range.

I watched a couple of youtube videos on disassembly and was able to get the baffles out of the tubes with a little persuasion with appropriately sized wooden dowels and a rubber mallet. I was amazed at how dirty the .22 suppressor was, and the...

• tlawler
• Replies: 39
• Forum: Firearms & Knives: Other Brands & General Topics

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[desi2358]

It's not very common, I've had one full and one partial separation over many years and lots of 22 shooting myself. A Remington blew out the rim and half separated in my Ruger MKII and a Federal had the whole head come off when I went to extract it from a Marlin bolt gun. Both cases came out easily enough, the Ruger had actually extracted the one round but it stuck in the ejection port, the round in the Marlin was pushed out with a brush from the muzzle. Both guns were fairly clean at the time and I attributed it to manufacturing defects in the cases.

I have removed a few for other people when we had the gun shop. Also, I once bought a Stevens bolt action that turned out to have a headless case stuck in the chamber, brush wouldn't get it but I had made a small tool after another troublesome one and that got it out easily. I have also had two guns relined that I bought cheap after someone who didn't know what they were doing ruined the chamber trying to dig a stuck case out.

 

[bigggbbruce]

Weak spot during production of case. I've had other calibers separate cases like that.

 

[Rudi]

I had one as a kid. Shooting a 10/22, the case stuck in the chamber, burned my face a bit. Had to take it to a gunsmith. Don't remember what ammo.

 

[Rule3]

Never seen this before. A quick search shows several threads on other forums of it happening.

 

[Empe]

As soon as I read the title about .22 rim separation I thought I bet its with Winchester ammunition .
And yes I have had this problem once before and it was with ...you guessed it...Winchester ammo.
It was a few years ago now during the last great ammo shortage . It was all I could find so I bought a brick of their HV Super X .
After the rim separation I wouldn't use any more and I've never used any of their .22 ammo since.
I had used the Wildcat ammo quite a number of years ago and the leading it left behind was the worst I've seen at any time .
I have used their centerfire with no problems although I prefer other brands ...but I will not use any of their .22 ammo again.

 

[Cotis]

I have never had it happen or even heard of it on a .22lr. I watched an American Rifleman TV show a year or two back where they were at the Winchester ammunition plant in Oxford, MS. What stood out to me was a statement that they produce over 1 million rounds of .22lr PER DAY. Guess a bad one slips through every once and a while...

 

[Skeet 028]

Never blew the whole rim of...did have a very few that blew a hole in the rim at the firing pin strike...in well over 150,000 rounds over 70 years or more

 

[Gunhohulk]

I had this happen the very first time I shot some .22 WMR. First cylinder even. The base split about halfway and I got some powder burns on my finger. Nothing too terrible but was a bit of an annoyance. Glad it happened to me and not the first time shooters I had out that day.

 

[oneeyedpete]

Never buy Winchester rimfire ammo! I have had two episodes of this. Once in a Remington 597 in 22LR and once with a .22 WMR in a CZ 455 rifle.

 

[Dan W. Cady]

I've never even heard of it happening with .22 rimfire ammo.

Several years ago, I was shooting a Ruger Single Six Revolver and using ammo given to me by a neighbor. I fired one round and heard a very loud report and was struck by escaping gas and powder some of which embedded in the skin of my shooting hand. After the initial shock I noticed the round in the next chamber also had fired from the escaping gas. the interesting thing was the second rounds bullet lodged in the ejector housing without causing any damage. The back of the Ruger cylinder is machined such that there is a clear path for the escaping gas to contact the adjacent round in the rare event of the rim of the fired round rupturing. I contacted Federal Ammunition and was told the ammo used was quite old and had a recall due to bad heat treatment of the casings. They sent me a replacement 500 round carton. Yes, I was wearing eye and hearing protection. A 22 rimfire round can be mighty powerful when uncontained!

 

[Brittman]

Glad you're OK, Dan! Good you had on eye and ear protection at the time, also.

I HOPE I never experience a case separation?

 

[duke2002]

I had it happen years ago with "tiger cats" if anyone remembers then bout 40 yrs ago. I never heard of it in domestic .22's

 

[Kp321]

I too guessed it was Winchester ammo. During the last ten years, a group I shoot with has gone through a million plus rounds of 22 LR ammo. Thankfully we have had very few failures but the ones I remember best were Winchester/Browning ammo.