Brass issues.

[stubbicatt]

Of course these events happened at Pueblo last Sunday. First my scope takes a dump on me, which is not totally unexpected considering it did the same thing last time, only worse this time. So I take the scope off and start with the iron sights.

Then I have an ammunition failure. Seems the case separated right around the middle circumferentially, and the rearmost part of the case containing the primer was lodged between the trunnion and the bolt/bolt carrier assembly. The front part of the fired case remained in the chamber forming a tight fitting sleeve into which the rifle fed the next round in the magazine. This took me out of the game.

Why did this happen?

Photos:

[<MADDOG>]

From the flutes, and your description, looks like an HK!

If it is, stay away from "civilian" .308. The cases are thinner, and the blowback mechanism on a HK/Cetme will blow it out, or worse yet, rip the head off.

Worst "mil surplus" ammo you can get is Indian, so stay away from that too.

If it isn't, see the guys above!

My 2 cents.....

[stubbicatt]

Yes it is a handload, fired once due to the primer crimp needing to be swaged out. It may have gotten past the trimmer, but I'm very methodical about trimming brass. No explosions or anything untoward, just it only ejected the back half of the casing. The chamber appeared to be just fine under examination with a bright light and magnifier, so the rifle seems OK to me. This is a load approximately 1 grain below max.

FC brass. Either a RCBS or a Lee full length die, which. The split was NOT at the location of the fire ring, it was very nearly 1/2 way down the case body, not where you would expect a case head separation. I do not understand why the neck is split longitudinally as it is. When you examine the case neck closely, the mouth portion is longer on one side than on the other, looking almost like the lobe on a camshaft. The longest portion is right where the split is. I'm thinking maybe the case was too long and got jammed in the rifling? The primer portion of the case head did not indicate too high pressures.

This same occurrance happened to me with a AR space gun back in 96 or thereabouts, so I have assiduously avoided the AR ever since. Now it happened with this rifle. Ugh. Maybe it isn't the rifle as I had concluded, but rather the brass...

I think whomever it was suggested it missed being trimmed may be right on track. The carbon deposits one of you mentioned are present on every case fired in this rifle because of a "feature" of the fluted chamber, which is supposed to somehow aid in extraction. It is a neat rifle, and as I grow closer to concluding that this is the result not of a rifle issue but of a brass issue, I am feeling better about it.

I shall re-examine all of the loaded rounds in this batch to see whether any of them exhibit signs that they weren't trimmed properly.

[Hoser]

HKs are very hard on brass. No way around that. One maybe two reloads max.

You might be resizing your brass too much. As in bumping the shoulder back too much creating excessive headspace.

Untrimmed brass wont do this and overtrimmed brass wont do this. In fact, overtrimmed brass is no biggie. It just gets hard to hold on to a bullet at a certain point... Long brass is bad is the chamber acts like a crimp die and grabs the bullet and it cant let go so the bullet has to work around it.

Take a paperclip and do the hook check for dying brass.

Does this mean you will finally stop fighting those HKs and get an AR? I hate to see a grown man cry...

[<MADDOG>]

Another thought, as you are full length resizing mil brass with .308 dies, are you not "stretching out" the brass, creating essentially a civilan .308 and weaking the case? Neck sizing may be your only option, but then you may face a chambering issue.

The flutes allow gas to envelope the case for ease of extraction. I read somewhere that without them, HK 90 series would be single shot rifles.

[stubbicatt]

HKs are very hard on brass. No way around that. One maybe two reloads max.

Does this mean you will finally stop fighting those HKs and get an AR? I hate to see a grown man cry...

Oh that's it Hoser! Kick a man while he's down! And those weren't tears, they were caused simply because I looked at the sun. Or maybe it was an onion I smelled, I'm not sure...


The AR series of rifles are very very good. They also say that fish is good for you. But I don't like fish. I don't like the AR's so much either.
Come to think of it, don't care that much for the HK either, at least not now.

Beaten into submission, I *might* have to learn to like fish, and I might have to get an AR. But I'm not thoroughly trounced just yet. There may still be hope... maybe, just maybe, I can still turn this sow's ear into a silk purse.

Bring on the Haldol and the Thorazine.... hold the fish.