Defective 45 Colt case

[Griff]

Today, I loaded up a batch of BP 45Colt rounds with bullet cast from an RCBS truncated cone mold, 45-225-CAV. I loaded the 1st one, and check the length, 1.610". So I came inside the house and checked the OAL against my 2 1873s and 1860. Or, rather, I attempted to.

Checked the loaded round in the carrier mortise, and it barely fit. So, I fed it thru the loading gate and tried the cycle the round thru the action of my oldest 1873 rifle. No go! Oh, it went into the carrier, and rose to feed into the magazine, but jammed about 3/16" shy of chambering. What gives? I'd shot this gun during a match about a month ago, and just stripped and cleaned all the BP fouling out of it and reassembled. It worked fine... empty, but that ain't the same as cycling rounds thru a gun.

It took disassembling the action to get the round and carrier out. Thinking I may have bent the bolt tab, I inspected that first. No, the tab went direct into the slot at the bottom of the barrel. It's perfectly lined up. Without the round, the action works perfect. Using another round, again, perfect, fully functional and smooth, as normal.

I then inspected the round itself. And found:

this little bump just in front of the rim. Look close, it's hard to see. This shot might be a bit easier:


And a side benefit of the bore camera, from inside the case:

I'll try cleaning the inside of the case a little better and get another pic... but you can see a pair of faint lines that lead directly to the flaw in the case. I inspected all my other brass and didn't find any abnormalities. I have a variety of cases, with the majority now being Starline. This is a "R-P". I have a few others, and since these are all "cowboy" rounds, I don't segregate by case brand, just load up what comes up. During my last match I fired 50 of the 45Colts in the rifle, using my 1851s for pistols... and received back about 45 rounds of brass.

Thinking that one of my rifles might have an issue, I inspected the two 1873s I used during this match; thinking that either the tab recess or extractor recess had failed, allowing the case to flow into that void. No such luck. So... I can only surmise that someone else's rifle has the problem and I inadvertently ended up with one piece of his brass.

What sez the collective wisdom of the board? Need to see pics of each chamber mouth?

[Griff]

Slightly better view inside the case:

[Blaine]

Looks like something's wrong with it.

[Griff]

Looks like something's wrong with it.

Gee, I appreciate the second opinon!

[Shasta]

It looks to me that the case was run into a reloading die that had a bent decapping pin, causing a groove across the web area and a divot in the case wall. Anyway, that's my guess

Shasta

[earlmck]

Griff, with the benefit of having your "inside the case" view I'm thinking that wasn't caused by a bad chamber in somebody's gun. I'd think that has to be a case manufacturing defect to be showing the mark in the bottom of the case like that.

[ollogger]

Griff, with the benefit of having your "inside the case" view I'm thinking that wasn't caused by a bad chamber in somebody's gun. I'd think that has to be a case manufacturing defect to be showing the mark in the bottom of the case like that.

+ 1


Brad

[Griff]

It looks to me that the case was run into a reloading die that had a bent decapping pin, causing a groove across the web area and a divot in the case wall. Anyway, that's my guess

Shasta

That was another shooter's guess on the SASS Wire. But, it still seems to me that that portion of the case would have to mate up to a void in the chamber to allow that much metal moved to the outside. It won't now chamber in any of my rifles, and none of mine have a slot thru to the chamber for the extractor. On one 1873 I do have a small void where the bolt tab goes, but it doesn't extend that far, maybe half the distance to the bent portion of the case.

And, as can be seen in these two shots, my extractor is smooth, not serrated as the bumped out portion of the case seems to have imprinted on it, and the extractor & its groove is very much wider.

[Griff]

Griff, with the benefit of having your "inside the case" view I'm thinking that wasn't caused by a bad chamber in somebody's gun. I'd think that has to be a case manufacturing defect to be showing the mark in the bottom of the case like that.

It seems to have taken some time to show up... as the knurl ring on the outside of the case is just about completely sized out!

[M. M. Wright]

I tend to agree with Shasta. I bent a de-capping pin recently and can see how that could cause what you have.

[Chuck 100 yd]

I agree, I don't think it was caused by your rifle. It looks to me like it was caused by debris inside the case when manufactured or resized. I would load up a few new or known good cases and shoot them
And carefully inspect them for similar damage. I am thinking no damage will be found and this is just a fluke that will never be answered .

[Nate Kiowa Jones]

Sure looks like a blowout similar to overpressured loads from the semi auto pistols that have barrels that don't have good support in the ramp area. Because of the fillet/radius inside the case the bulge or blowouts show up just in front of the fillet/radius.

In this example it blow into the extractor cut possibly because it wasn't fully chambered. With the ongoing issues some CAS shooters are having with OBD's in the short stroked 73's this could possibly be from another gun and you ended up with it.

[765x53]

At my last loading session I found two R-P .44 mag. cases with identical defects. It was the fifth time they had been fired.
I don't believe my equipment was the cause.