Comments on: Case-Head Separation: Causes and How to Spot Problems

By: Greg McCullough

Greg McCullough — Sat, 17 Oct 2015 21:48:18 +0000

Several years ago I reformed some .223 military into .222 Rem. I was shooting cast bullets at low chamber pressure. With only two loadings like that, I was prepping them to load. About 18% of them showed case head separation. Anyone have aa clue why they started to fail?

By: Tully Mars

Tully Mars — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 03:49:39 +0000

I look at the inside of the case with a small, but bright, flashlight. You can see the ‘rings’ or ‘valleys’ start to form and know that the case is starting to lose life. You can check how deep they are with the paper clip tool, but you’ll see the ‘valleys’ get darker(from the shadow being cast over it) and start to cull the cases as needed. The trick is to look at am angle, tilting the case mouth down a little as you spin the case in your fingers. Works for me.

By: Boyd Allen

Boyd Allen — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:46:38 +0000

One advantage to sharper shoulder angles is that they do a better job of keeping cases from being forced forward in the chamber during firing. In the past, I found that for my .220 Swift that if i set the FL die to give the same shoulder to head measurement as a fired case, that with the diameter of the body slightly reduced, that no bump was required to get a satisfactory bolt close feel, and that if I bumped the shoulder even a little (measured), that a bright line would appear on the next firing. If you have a smooth chamber, and a small shoulder angle, the case will be driven forward quite a bit during firing. In this situation, giving the case more of a run at the chamber shoulder by bumping, makes the situation worse, and may not be necessary to achieve a satisfactory bolt close feel.

By: LouieLouie

LouieLouie — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:40:25 +0000

I’ve known for a while that the chamber in my Mod70 300 WinMag is ‘generous’ and even with neck-sizing only will only get 5~6 reloads before the case head separates. Darn thing shoots well (for a hunting rifle) so I just buy new brass.

By: Nat Lambeth

Nat Lambeth — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 13:49:56 +0000

I got nocked out of an F-Class nationals because of a case head seperation. I was hydrolic formed virgin brass. I no longer hyrolic form cases. It has been my experience that propperly set dies, good brass care, moderate loads will allow for many reloads. I have loaded my 6BRX brass 1 fireforming and 15-16 reloads before I discard. Three boxes of 100 Lapua brass
and I replace both the brass and the barrel at 3000-3500 rounds.
I keep an eye on the brass and discard questionable pieces.
Nat Lambeth

By: Eric Kennard

Eric Kennard — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 02:12:38 +0000

I am seeing this more and more on cases where the headspace is excessive within the chamber. It is not unusual to see excessive chamber dpeth coming from ‘smiths now days. I would urge everyone to get a set of go/no go gauges for you rifles. You will be shocked!

By: Robert Whitley

Robert Whitley — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 15:33:31 +0000

I mean this with no disrespect to German or anyone, but typically (in my opinion) this happens mostly because people are too cheap to throw away brass when they should. Let’s put things in perspective – 50000 psi only an inch or so from your face – what’s you eye worth to you?

You should always err on the side of caution and if you start to suspect or see what looks like that situation developing, you should err on the side of caution and ditch the batch of brass you have been firing.

Frankly with some domestic brass, if you get 5 or so reloads on it with FL re-sizing, you have gotten you money’s worth out of the brass, and you may be getting close to living on borrowed time with it by going much further (depending on how much your set up works the brass on re-sizing).

My advice – don’t be stupid smart – understand the risks involved and err on the side of being conservative (i.e. pitch the brass sooner rather than later).

Robert Whitley

By: CHRIS

CHRIS — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 13:46:45 +0000

Don’t mistake cases that have endured a long ride home from a match, or cases that ride around with a truck gun upside down in an mtm box,…. this will give the appearence of a case head sep. I had a friend toss 50 pcs of hard fought .22 Vais brass for this reason,.. he later realized it was just surface wear from vibration in the box. (he didn’t use the probe trick obviously, just took the advise of a “well versed” guncrank working at the front counter in a local gunshop)

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 12:08:45 +0000

Another good reason to keep a “broken case extractor” of the proper caliber in your range bag at all times.
One case head seperation with the broken case stuck in the chamber will spoil you range trip. Use the proper tools to remove it without taking the chance of damaging your chamber with bent picks,range rods, etc.
And like Boyd mentioned, Germans articles are “always” well written and very informative.

By: Jerry Tierney

Jerry Tierney — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 04:49:00 +0000

HERMAN,
I bet you could get one more firing on that case that you cut! hehe