.45 ACP Case Head Separation

[max]

I have been reloading and shooting .45's for almost 50 years and this was a first. It was a WCC 74 case and the load was 5.0 of 231 with a 200gr coated swc. There was no excessive noise I remember or violent recoil.

The head part ejected and the forward part stayed in and settled around the bullet of the next round and caused a failure to eject. I looked at the next round and thought the bullet had been shoved down in the case. At the time, I didn't realize part of the separated case was stuck on another case.

The primer looks a bit flat compared to others, but not horribly so. Using a magnifying glass, it appears the split occurred along a cannelure and is very smooth and even.

I am unable to post a picture, but am willing to email pictures to anyone interested.

 

[71vette]

Any idea how many reloads on that case? Also, that’s basically my load as well. 5.1 grains of HP-38 with a coated 200 grain SWC.

 

[max]

It could be a case I have been reloading for years or one I got 2 years ago when a friend gave me a large amount of cases. The WCC is still pretty legible, so I don't think it is in the 20's or 30's.

 

[Baltimoreed11754]

Never heard of a .45 acp separating. It was plumb wore out, poor thing.

 

[DWalt]

The only head separations I know of or have experienced involved CF rifle cases. I have seen longitudinal case wall splits with handgun caliber cases, but never a head separation.

 

[rockquarry]

Could be worn out brass or just a single piece of faulty brass. Separation along a cannelure is all but guaranteed if the brass is fired long enough, though most brass won't last long enough for that to happen.

 

[walnutred]

What firearm were you using? To me it sounds like the pistol was slightly out of battery when it fired.

 

[max]

Colt Commander and I don't think that was the cause.

What firearm were you using? To me it sounds like the pistol was slightly out of battery when it fired.

 

[cmj8591]

From your description, it sound like the case failed at the cannelure. I've never had a 45 auto do that but I have had 9mm cases that separated in that manner that were fired in carbines. Sometimes the process of embossing the cannelure can work harden the brass. This is a photo of a 44 mag that separated in a 629. I also have a 44 mag carbine that will produce a separated case once in a while. I think it is a combination of weak brass and being at the high end of headspace spec. Brass failures can be interesting.

 

[Tu_S]

Had this happen a while ago. Root cause was I made an adjustment to the charging and seating/crimp dies to flare the mouth more when loading nickle plated cases with plated bullets and the next batch of brass rounds were slightly bulged, with this one being a little excessive. In the end I checked the entire batch with a Hornady gauge and 2-3% didn't pass. Should note, the multi caliber Lyman gauge I have passed the bad ones.

 

[stansdds]

My first thought is that the brass has been reloaded multiple times and was sufficiently work hardened so as to fail at its weakest point, the cannelure.

 

[STORMINORMAN]

I have experienced one such case head separation, mine was much closer to the rim.

The round actually fired alright, but the magazine was blown down and out of the pistol (an all steel Remington R1 Government Model) neccessitationg a new follower and spring kit from Wilson Combat.

The gun and I were undamaged. I keep that case on my loading bench as a reminder to check all cases repeatedly during the entire reloading process.

This was a case of a Winchester case that had been reloaded multiple times, and was part of a group of brass noted by me in my reloading notebook as being "mixed brass, LPP", most probably range pickups from my initial foray into loading 45 acp years ago.

Needless to say most of that lot brass has been discarded subsequently. I now have quite a bit of SPP 45 acp brass that I use, including a store of once-fired 45 acp+P Speer nickel.

Cheers!

 

[mikerjf]

Many years ago I read an article by someone who tested 45acp cases, reloading them over and over to see how many times he could do it.

He found that the failure mode appeared to be stretching in the bottom of the case, above the rim but below the full diameter section. That measurement would gradually lengthen over time. Don’t recall how many cycles he went thru but it was a LOT.

Sounds like that could be a factor here. I’ve got cases I acquired from a cut-rate commercial reloader in the 1970’s… I don’t do much 45 but should probably cull those out.

 

[Wyo]

I shoot a fair amount of 45 ACP and have been reloading it for just over 50 years. I still have cases that I got when I was in college. Never seen a 45 ACP case separation - that poor thing must’ve been just worked to death! ��

 

[Oil Field Trash]

I've loaded a jillion over the years, much of it in fired brass. I've had cases that cracked at the mouth, but never had a head separation. On 9mm, 38 Super, 9x21 and 9x23, had separations but that was during the early days of USPSA and we were looking for a load in the hi-cap wondernines.

 

[BLUEDOT37]

Stuff happens...

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[LoboGunLeather]

I have not experienced case head separation in .45ACP, but I can see how it could happen with a combination including a pistol with some unsupported area while in battery and using brass that has been fired and reloaded multiple times.

Many .45ACP pistols have chamber designs that allow some unsupported case head on the chambered cartridge. That area can display some bulging after firing in those pistols. Resizing will reduce or eliminate the bulge, but this cycle induces additional work stress to that area of the cartridge. Multiple cycles, with the cartridge seldom (if ever) chambering in the same position, might result in progressively less strength at the case head with a possibility of failure.

 

[H Richard]

Sounds to me like at least a double charge. A friend of mine blew up a Ruger 1911 with a double charge, blew the magazine out the bottom, cooked off the next cartridge in the mag, locked up the action, slide back. See picture, he sent gun back to Ruger to check out. They cleaned it up replaced the grips, and magazine and said it was good t go.

 

[Nevada Ed]

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Yes, it can happen.

I had a W-W case do the same thing, in one of my .357 Magnums.

After a few minutes of tinkering, I was back in action.

Great picture, by the way.

 

[BMur]

Case separation 45 ACP

Happened to me almost 30 years ago at the range with my personal target reloads.
45 Auto-rim S&W 1937 revolver. 4 grains of bullseye powder with 210 grain hollow base 90-10 lead round nose. I was using 1/2 moon clips. ( That’s from my range log)
Shot almost a box of 50 when the cylinder jammed on its way to the next round.
Was stiff to open but I managed to swing out the cylinder and eject the moon clips. Found one case 1/2 length, saw the other 1/2 sticking out and into the forcing cone with most of the lead bullet stuck there with it!
See photos.
Absolutely astonishing. The center core of the bullet blew through the bore leaving what you see in the photo.
I brought the revolver home and pounded out the bullet and brass shell. The bullet came out pretty easy but the brass didn’t want to. It came out in pieces.
I was lucky I didn’t put another round through the gun. Would have been very bad I’m sure.
That round gave absolutely no sign of mal-function. It went off and recoiled like a normal target round. So case failure is what happened in my opinion. I have no idea how many times it was reloaded since I purchased that bag of empty shells at a gun show.
I may have missed seeing a damaged or hairline cracked shell. I don’t know.

Murph