Rim Ripped Off

JonJ

JonJ

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Screw the yard work, I went to the range today. Had the whole freaking place to myself. Set the target, load the mags and start punching holes. First mag, 9 rounds fired, slide locks back. Hmmm I must have missed something here. Look in, a round failed to feed. Unlock, slam the slide forward, it don't go. What the hell. Try and feed the round into the chamber, hmmm won't go in. Look closer, there's a case in there. Go to the bag, damn forgot my tools! Went to my nephews shop across the street and got it out but by that time I was PO'ed. I went home[crying]

Service pistol S&W 4043
American Eagle 40S&W 180gr FMJ (not carry ammo/used for pre-qual only)
I've fired mucho rounds of this stuff and never had this happen.
sw40.jpg

sw40a.jpg
 
Case seperation. Possible causes are:

Weak case head, or reloaded too many times.

Dirty/pitted chamber (still has to have weak case).

Either way, don't continue to use that lot of ammo. There may be more of them like that.
 
Darius, he said it was American Eagle, therefore I think it was new ammo.

If it was remanufactured, they have poor quality control, since there's usually sufficient warning before a case seperation. Also, this one is neaar the base, and almost a Case Head Blowout, which is usually extremely dangerous.
 
Cross-X said:
And just how many times had you reloaded that summbitch?
Click to expand...
Not I. And as far as I know, it's new manufacture, Federal Cartridge Co.
This is the stuff that the Dept gives us to use for "range day" once a year. Used for the pre-qual and duty ammo is used for the qual.
I called the Training Sgt and let him know what happened. Trouble is I can't remember when I "got" this box but I gave him the Lot number and he's going to check and see if there's any more.
 
Nickle said:
Darius, he said it was American Eagle, therefore I think it was new ammo.

If it was remanufactured, they have poor quality control, since there's usually sufficient warning before a case seperation. Also, this one is neaar the base, and almost a Case Head Blowout, which is usually extremely dangerous.
Click to expand...

As you said. American Eagle. A bud of mine had his Glock blow on that crap. It is the weakest brass on the market and just plain dangerous ammunition.

I load just about anything for 45ACP but that brass is so weak it leaves a shoulder from my size die that prevents it from seating in my revolvers.

I have seen a lot on the range but I want to be nowhere near anyone shooting American Eagle in 40S&W.

Regards,

Gary
 
Great thing to see, just after my newbie ass gets home with a pound of Unique, and I'm about to head into the basement to load up about 30 test rounds of .40 s&w to try at the range tomorrow.....
 
If that Glock was a 40, and an older one at that, the ammo would be only PART of the problem. Early Glock 40's aren't overly safe. Check what I've said about "Single Pin" Glocks. They're OK in 9mm, but not in 40. Glock changed them since then, and will probably swap out a 40 cal Single Pin Frame.
 
Nickle said:
If that Glock was a 40, and an older one at that, the ammo would be only PART of the problem. Early Glock 40's aren't overly safe. Check what I've said about "Single Pin" Glocks. They're OK in 9mm, but not in 40. Glock changed them since then, and will probably swap out a 40 cal Single Pin Frame.
Click to expand...

Third gen Glock ammo was high pressure from American Eagle. Only thing that saved his hand was the fact it was a 3rd gen.

BTW: Glock did replace the frame at cost.

Thanks,
 
tele_mark said:
Great thing to see, just after my newbie ass gets home with a pound of Unique, and I'm about to head into the basement to load up about 30 test rounds of .40 s&w to try at the range tomorrow.....
Click to expand...

OK, don't worry. What brand is your brass? If it's Remington or Winchester, make sure to follow proper loading data, and don't worry. Their stuff is OK.

Other brands of Brass? Be careful. FC marked brass is usually OK, as well as Speer, Hornaday and S&B.

Make sure to look the brass over well before loading it. Check for cracks starting on it.
 
tele_mark said:
Great thing to see, just after my newbie ass gets home with a pound of Unique, and I'm about to head into the basement to load up about 30 test rounds of .40 s&w to try at the range tomorrow.....
Click to expand...

As Nickle has stated, check the brass. ALSO make sure you stick to loading specs and check OAL when you are done to be sure you are set at proper length.

Regards,
 
My brass is all kinds of stuff. Although, from the little I've learned so far, I've been filtering out everything marked A-Merc, as it's apparently bad stuff. I've been meticulous to a fault about cartridge specs -- I was actually measuring each one with my calipers as it came off the press. I've bought a cartridge gauge to make things go a little faster, but I still don't trust the seating die enough to just chug out rounds without checking each, especially when I get close to max. loads, like I did when finishing off the 2400. I've also been recovering and examinging each fired case to see if anything's going wrong.
 
Nice Derek....
The sucky part of this whole thing is, if it KB'ed on me and I got hurt, I would have been sucking canal water. I would have claimed an injury on duty (their gun, their ammo) and they would have said "Tough, off duty, hahaha".
 
About 13 months ago I had the same problem in a Glock 23. Here is a picture of the offending cartridge case plus another from that magazine. I contacted Federal and spoke to a (IIRC) Mike Larson about this. I sent the remaining ammo in to him and they confirmed that it was very early Federal 180 gr ammo. Sometime after this was manufactured Federal began to strengthen the web area to help prevent this problem. They even sent me 80 rounds of new Federal ammo (which worked well in my Sig P229). Glock also inspected my G23 for me for free to insure that it was not damaged. Everyone I talked to at both companies were very polite, professional, and forthright in explaining what they thought happened.

If you have access to the lot number Federal can check for you.

G23Shell.jpg
 
Does an unsupported chamber, such as a Glock, lead to a case separation or is it just not a good to have in the event of case separation?

What is the headstamp on the American Eagle brass?

Up until now I've only weeded out Amerc and S&B and I only load Win multiple times. I'll only use Win for 9mmajor loads.
 
The American Eagle is manufactured by Federal Cartridge Co. The head stamp on this stuff is:
F C
40 S&W

Thanks for the info Frosty. Maybe I'll drop them a line.
 
Checked my stock at home and found another full box with the same lot number. I had another box, different lot and I shot that off this morning with no trouble. I'll have to check and see what I have in my locker at work. Hopefully this was older stuff and it's all gone.
 
GTOShootr said:
Does an unsupported chamber, such as a Glock, lead to a case separation or is it just not a good to have in the event of case separation?
Click to expand...

I believe the seperation is caused by over pressure and/or weak brass from multiple reloading. The small portion of the chamber that is not supported on a stock Glock doesn't lead to this but may allow more damage if it happens.
 
In the case of FC brass......I find that thier .223 brass doesn't last long if one tries to reload it. The primer pockets seem to open up more often and earlier than other brass. I reuse it once or twice, then toss it into the "junk" bucket.
Don't know if that would hold true for 40S&W brass as well.

I'm glad that ripped case was the only casualty of the day........I'd hate to see ya hafta go home to Barb with your face all munged up.
 

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