45 Long Colt Splitting

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jleyring

jleyring

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My father sent me a photo of these 45LC that he shot yesterday out of his Cimarron 45LC. He said he shot 20 rounds and 5 came out like this. The rounds are about 4 years old. It concerned me because I was the one that loaded them for him :uhoh: I don't ever hot load any of my rounds. Especially something like that when I know he is just using them for plinking. Wanted to know what would cause a case to do this. The only thing I can think of is that I over crimped them... But I have never had this problem with any other rounds I have ever loaded before and I have been loading for 15 years. Any feedback and knowledge would be helpful. Thank you in advance.
 

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That's normal case fatigue. Brass gets brittle from sizing/expanding and when it loses it's elasticity, it splits.

The question would be how many times were the cases loaded, and how much sizing was done? Most .45 Colt cases are over sized, but that's the cause of tight sizing dies vs. large chambers.

Hope this helps.

Fred
 
It's just bad brass.

Doesn't happen to be Federal does it??

Federal 9mm after first loading.

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rc
 
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just happens when the brass gets old, reloaded for its last time. I have about 10 .357 nickel cases that have gone the way of the dodo as well. Same scenario, light loads, heavy crimp, old age... time to get some fresh brass! :)
 
The most probable cause is brass fatigue, from over use! I have a personal rule, that I never reload brass, more than 4 times, even if it looks good.

Also, since you mentioned 5 out of twenty. It would be interesting to know, if all the failures came from the same chamber. It's possible that one chamber is over sized. It's rare, but it does happen.
 
Brass Problems..

I had the same problems awhile back with NEW Winchester .44 Mag. brass.
This brass split on the first loading.--BEFORE even fired..:scrutiny:
Winchester did replace this brass, though it took 9-10 months to do so..Bill.
 
It happens. Won't hurt a thing. Scrap it and move on. Shoot it until it splits, which is usually quite a lot of firings.

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Brass Problems..

I had the same problems awhile back with NEW Winchester .44 Mag. brass.
This brass split on the first loading..:scrutiny:
Winchester did replace this brass, though it took 9-10 months to do so..Bill.
 
I've got some RP 45 Colt brass that's been reloaded 13 times & goin strong.
But another box that started life as factory ammo, some split on 3rd firing.

No worries, just shoot 'em til they split. It doesn't hurt anything
 
95% of the time I discover I have a split case while depriming. It just feels so obvious when I pull on the lever. Even the ones that have a much shorter crack near the case mouth feel a bit too easy to size and deprime.
The other 5% of the time I find them when I just happen to spot one separating from media coming out of my tumbler.
So far I haven't gotten as far as priming or loading one that looks like those pictured above. :eek:
I've caught them all so far. No biggie ... it happens.
 
Another possible cause of cracking

The OP stated that the brass was loaded 4 years ago. If it was stored in conditions where even a small trace of ammonia is present, it could cause stress corrosion cracking (SCC). SCC attacks the boundaries around the individual grains and weakens the brass. The dangerous characteristic of SCC is that the overall amount of corrosion can be very small and may not even be visible without a microscope. The brass grains separate and cause a complete fracture with very little overall loss of material.

This could be verified by examining a cut and polished cross section through the crack with a microscope. Unfortunately I am retired and no longer have my metallurgical laboratory available.
 
I've got an Annealer that will do short brass, would it be worth the time to anneal my 45LC brass?
 
Case cracks are typically the brass equivalent of dying quietly in your own bed from natural causes. If a case is going to fail, that's the way you want it to fail.
 
#14^^^ That is indeed a good question. It would come down to cost vs time spent I would think. I do get quite a fer reloads on the 45 LC brass I use and do not bother to do it myself. Heck I have some 38 SPL brass that has been shot so much the headstamp has been peened out of it. Looks like unmarked brass. But the 45 LC brass is a lot more expensive that other common calibers and generally has thinner necks. I use Starline brass in 45 LC and compared to other brands it lasts about 1/3 longer on average as far as I can tell. As a rule I only bell the necks the minimally necessary amount to seat the particular bullet to save on stressing the brass also. For each caliber I have two Lee expander button inserts one for lead and one for jacketed. To keep it simple I put a small notch across the top of the lead expander insert with a triangle file for easy ID.

Thinking a bit about that I would think it would be really hard to heat the length of neck sufficently to stop this and NOT affect the web area of a piece of pistol brass unless it was immersed in water above the web. Just a thought.
 
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The wife and I both shoot CAS and most my 45LC splits are from over belling and at the top.
Doesn't look like thats your issue.
Maybe just old worn out brass.
Never seen the load for said ammo.
 
I've found that most 45 Colt chambers are oversized. Some of my 45 Colt cases come out looking like Pilsner glasses. If the various manufacturer's cut their chambers to 454 dimensions brass would last a long,long time.
 
highlander5 is correct here. .45Colt chambers are usually cut somewhat oversize since some ammo is made with .454 diameter bullets and others are made with ,451. Additionally, the Italian manufacturers of Colt 1873 clones usually cut chambers on the large side, and U.S. made Colts are even worse. Often .45 Colt brass splits after a few reloadings. Nickel-plated generally lasts less long than straight brass. I have had 10% nickel brass split on the second reloading. It is possible to neck size to avoid over working the cases but this won't always work with a revolver as some of the chambers may not chamber neck sized cases fired in adjacent chambers.
 
FWIW I have the exact same type of split on nickle 357 brass using full tilt loads after relatively few reloadings. Usually it's RP brass as well. It does not always split at the neck of the case and travel down every time.
 
My Taurus Thunderbolt has a huge chamber and the cases die an early death if full lenth resized due to working the brass too much. So neck sizing only down far enough to hold the new bullet makes them live longer, and also reduces the blowback from the cases having trouble expanding enough to seal the chamber. That's a big issue with these rifles and the cause of many of the failures to function. The blowby crud goes back through the workings and fouls it all up. Lesson is: don't size your brass any more than you need to.
 
I have a bunch of FC 9mm brass that are on at least their 4th or 5th loading cycle and have no splits or issues at all.
Click to expand...
I do too.

But this one lot was splitting from the get go.

rc
 
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