cracked cartidges

[meopilite]

Is it possible for brass to crack after reloading several times? and if so, what if an unkown cracked cartridge was used....would it blow up in the chamber?

[frizzellr]

Brass will get harder and brittle the more times it is used. Always inspect your brass before and after resizing. Thats where polishing comes in handy. Makes cracks and flaws easier to see. A crack can cause a case split or seperation, but more than likely won't blow up your gun. If you have cases that are cracked or you think they may be cracked, don't shoot them. Brass is too cheap to take chances with.

[westbronco]

I've only encountered two types of case failure; neck splits and case separations. The neck splits are due to work hardening of the brass and can be delayed by annealling the case necks. I've never seen or known of any gas release when a neck splits during firing. Just pitch them when you see them and pitch the lot when they start splitting in quantity.
Case separation is most common in belted cases as the cartridge head spaces on the belt so it is held in the chamber by the belt. You can check for this by looking for a frosted appearance circling the case just above the belt. It is caused by the case stretching towards the neck. Be most watchful for it if you have neck trimmed a few times. Good luck.

[Vapodog]

I've only encountered two types of case failure; neck splits and case separations. The neck splits are due to work hardening of the brass and can be delayed by annealling the case necks. I've never seen or known of any gas release when a neck splits during firing. Just pitch them when you see them and pitch the lot when they start splitting in quantity.
Case separation is most common in belted cases as the cartridge head spaces on the belt so it is held in the chamber by the belt. You can check for this by looking for a frosted appearance circling the case just above the belt. It is caused by the case stretching towards the neck. Be most watchful for it if you have neck trimmed a few times. Good luck.

Very well stated....I might add that case separation is also a common defect in guns with excess headspace and full length resizing is practiced.

I've never had any gas releases with this occurrance but it is annoying to pull only the end of the case out of the chamber and have to fish out the foreward end of the case with some home made tool.

A good cleaning brush works best for that job.

[bronko22000]

I agree with the rest of the guys. Toss it if you see its cracked. Want to extend your brass life, just neck size it. That is of course if you are only using that caliber in one gun.

I did a quick test this weekend just messin around. I took 2 pieces of 300RUM. I put it thru a full length sizer in and out. It took one piece 20 times to crack. Another it took 30. I know this isn't scientific, but interesting.

[rkbo]

I made the mistake of lumping my old cases with newer ones and should have tossed the ones with over 15 times at the resizer. I'm talking 44 mag. I'm sure I've shot more than a few cracked ones. never a problem though. One thing I used to do wrong was flaring them out too much before the bullet seating. This shorten the neck life I'm sure.