Today my son shot a porcupine with his Sav 340/.222 and the fired case came out of the chamber in two pieces?This was a mild load 19gr RE7 in once fired Sako brass with standard primers/50gr HP.I don't think the gun has headspace problems but this is rather puzzling?I got almost 500 of this once fired brass in old blue and red Sako metric boxes along with a pre-vixen Sako years ago.Collecters may know the model but it's a mini-mauser action that takes the old Sako rings.Not sure if the old brass is just brittle or what? I have 100 virgin Win .222 brass that I'll try and see what happens.Any ideas? Thanx Harold

How much of it have you loaded? You may be able to annel it,but do not
get it too hot...Have you checked the head spacing in the rifle yet..

Loaded less than a box 20 or so.The cases appear to be annealed already and Sako should be quality stuff? No I havn't checked for headspace as of yet.Not sure what it should be? Harold

Well Harold, case separation can be a number of things, as I'm sure you know. Your posts indicate you are a knowledgeable reloader, and I assume you are up on most of the possibilities. But just for the sake of rehash, let's look at some things. You said the cases in suspect were once-fired. Are you sure of that? Sometimes "once-fired" brass is sold at close to the end of it's acceptable life. Going on, I guess it's possible that the brass was fired in a minimum chamber gun, and you may have a max chamber. I certainly imagine you resized the brass before you started to load. Did you neck size or FL? If you had your dies set for your gun, did you check to see if the shoulder of the cases was being met by your dies? If not, ex. headspace may be present, promoting case stretch, hence early separation, particularly if the brass was indeed much more than once-fired.
AS you stated, I'd certainly try the virgin brass and see if the problem still exists. Knowing you and your posts, I don't think it will, provided you set the dies for that particular gun, if that's what you do. one other possibility is that the brass may just be old and brittle, but I've yet to have that happen to me...

This Sako stuff is old packaging[50's] like I mentioned in red+blue boxes of 50 in metric lingo.The factory primer red sealant is still on the primers.I have the dies set on FL but wouldn't be surprised to find the Sav 340 has a generous chamber.They're accurate but not pretty by any stretch of the imagination.This rifle also has a rather weak extraction system so loads are kept relatively sane.[mild]I'm going to try the virgin Win brass and see what happens I guess .................Thanx for the help...........Harold

I would start measuring cases. Also, it could be just a one time deal, but I would start with measuring the cases, and see how worn they are. Checking headspace is never a bad idea, but I would bet you will find some funky caes in the bunch.

I don't think this was caused by brittle brass, but that may have contributed to the problem. Sounds like somewhere along the line, this case got fired in an oversized chamber, and stretched just ahead of the web causing the brass to thin out. Then it was resized. If it had been a little brittle just ahead of the web, and thin too, that could account for what happened. The Savage 340 only had one lug, and is no doubt somewhat springy, like a SMLE. This adds further to complicating the situation. You need to check out the rest of that brass to see if it has incipient head separation starting. Annealing those cases will NOT help, because you cannot annealcases that close to the head - soft webswould just make things alotworse!

Thanx.I'll try the new brass.This may indeed be like the SMLE .You get more mileage out of neck sizing and only using the same brass in one gun.Harold
*The gun is so accurate and utilitarian it's not hard to overlook it's shortcomings!

I've had terrible results with Sako brass in .357 magnum. And I'm talking new brass and not terribly hot loads. I quit using it. I suspect you'll do fine with another brand of brass.

And here's an idea you might think of. Get you an RCBS file trim die and then make your own 222 brass from military 223. I've made a ton this way and never had a problem. In fact you can order it from Midway but order it with the primer pocket pre-swagged to avoid that hassel.

I had nothing but BS from Midway.When I tried to order a .54 Hawken barrel from them through a local gunsmith The US State Dept put a red flag on it because it was over .50 cal.Mental giants in Gov't.Everyone should feel alot safer.They won't sell squat to anyone outside the US...............I'll try the .223 brass and trim die when I run out of Win cases.Thanx Harold