Case splitting?

[kshawj]

Alright guys I'm really a noobie to this kind of stuff, but i have a charter arms .38 special made back in the early 80's and i took it out today for the second time today and while putting some rounds through it i notice that some of the rounds split at the casing after firing. has anybody here experience something like this. just curious...

Read More

 

[revjen45]

IIRC, the early Charters weren't +P rated. Did this occur with +P ammo?

 

[tlfreek]

steel or brass?

 

[sheepdip]

a lot of rasss will split after repeated uses, youcan only resize so many timews

 

[2506]

Could be your chambers are oversized. If so, you brass is literally over-expanding and splitting.

 

[civilian75]

It would help if you could indicate if firing factory ammo, or reloads. If factory, indicate if aluminum, nickle or brass. If firing reloads, some case splitting could be "normal", since it is impossible to know how many times those cases had been reloaded. Note if all cases are from the same manufacturer.

Did you get any hard extraction?

You could be having a chamber issue. Next time you take it to the range notice if all split cases were fired on the same chamber. In that case, I'd stop shooting that gun until you get it checked by a qualified gunsmith.

 

[kshawj]

I believe these are factory remington high velocity steel cartridges. The first 50 rounds were blazer non + p and they were okay then when chamber in the two remington rounds they split afterwards. They extrated out with no problems... Just curious...

 

[RVTECH]

Just one more question - how much of the case was split? Such as just a portion in the middle or all the way from the mouth to the rim?

 

[revjen45]

High Velocity as in +P? I was not aware that Remington made steel cases.

 

[kshawj]

Both casings split down to middle. I assume they were steel casings just because they are chrome. Unless nickle. After those two crack I didn't want to take the chances of shooting those anymore. I just put them back away. I didn't think that they would be + P just says high velocity on the box and they were inexpensive.

 

[halmbarte]

Splits down the side is almost always bad brass. Splits around the case is bad headspace.

Since .38 Spcl. headspaces off the rim, I can't see how the headspace could be off.

You were shooting .38Spcl. in this, right? How old was the ammo?

Pics of the pistol and the ammo would be great. Barring anything obvious this sounds like a gunsmith problem.

Remington calls a lot of their ammo 'high velocity' even though it's not. Just ink on paper.

H

 

[Bon Sauvage]

Assuming new, factory ammunition and no other indications I would assume that the cases were improperly annealed at the factory. I have had Remington factory ammunition split on me before: 30-30 cases to be exact.