Brass Failure in a S&W 642

[Rio Laxas]

I was over at a friend's house the other day, and he asked me to take a look at his wife's 642. They had just gotten it back from S&W to repair an issue under warranty. Apparently it fired once and then sized up. I'm not clear on whether it was fired after getting back from S&W or not, but he wanted me to look at a "crack" in the cylinder.

As it turns out, what he thought was a crack was actually the end of a piece of brass that was split vertically and horizontally. I was able to remove it.

Any ideas on what might cause this?

I'm tempted to blame the ammunition, but I believe it was factory ammunition. Could an oversize chamber be the culprit?

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I was over at a friend's house the other day, and he asked me to take a look at his wife's 642. They had just gotten it back from S&W to repair an issue under warranty. Apparently it fired once and then sized up. I'm not clear on whether it was fired after getting back from S&W or not, but he wanted me to look at a "crack" in the cylinder.

As it turns out, what he thought was a crack was actually the end of a piece of brass that was split vertically and horizontally. I was able to remove it.

Any ideas on what might cause this?

I'm tempted to blame the ammunition, but I believe it was factory ammunition. Could an oversize chamber be the culprit?

What did that revolver go back to S&W for? Would they need to fire the revolver to check the repair?

Did his wife really carry that revolver without firing it to check function after it came back from S&W?

 

[Rio Laxas]

She fired the revolver once after buying it the cylinder would no longer rotate when the trigger was pulled. After getting it back from the factory, it worked fine for 15 or 20 rounds before the piece of brass ruptured.

I don't believe she has ever carried this revolver, as she hasn't really had it working long enough to even get the chance.

The piece of brass that came out of the revolver looked a lot like the same brass used on some of her practice ammunition.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Anything that I could come up with would be pure speculation since there us very little information on what happened to the revolver to cause it to go back so I won't try. Sorry I can't help.

 

[Rio Laxas]

It does not appear that the issue that it caused it to fail the first time and go back to the factory was related to the issue of the brass rupturing. The first issue was that the cylinder would not rotate when the trigger was pulled. The factory fixed that issue, but I do not know if they test fired the revolver.

My advice was to switch ammunition and monitor all the fired cases for any signs of a problem.

 

[BSA1]

Without pictures this post is meaningless.

I have had new commercially loaded brass split lengthwise after the first time it was fired. Since it didn't happen with other ammunition I blamed it on poor quality of brass from the manufacturer.

When you say it was split vertically are you saying the brass split into two pieces with the rear part of case being extracted while the front half was left in the chamber?

Your post leaves unanswered whether this was with commercial ammunition loaded in new case or reloaded ammunition. With reloaded ammunition it is impossible to know what and how much gun powder it was loaded with and the age and how many times the brass has be fired.

 

[tkroenlein]

I have had many new and reloaded cases split lengthwise for no apparent reason, from one particular US ammo maker.


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[Rio Laxas]

I didn't take pictures. Sorry.

The ammunition was factory ammunition not reloads. The case split lengthwise AND roughly 90° to lengthwise (i.e. concentric with the case mouth). So basically what was in the chamber was about a 1/4" of the tip of the case and it was also split lengthwise. The remainder of the case was extracted but apparently went unnoticed as to its condition.

 

[fireman 9731]

I cant imagaine enough slop in a 38 special chamber or enough pressure to actually cause the brass to rupture instead of just fire forming to an out of spec chamber. To me, I would wager that they got some bad brass. It can happen. But it being a new gun, that makes me think it could be a burr in the chamber or something like that. But if if just came back from S&W, it shouldn't have any chamber problems. My money is on some bad brass but I wouldn't rule out a chamber/throat problem.

 

[Drail]

It must have been R-P brass. That stuff splits all the time in many guns. Too thin and too brittle. Any time some one gives me R-P brass I toss it in the trash.

 

[NMPOPS]

Reloads? How many times reloaded? Brass will fatigue and split.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

It must have been R-P brass. That stuff splits all the time in many guns. Too thin and too brittle. Any time some one gives me R-P brass I toss it in the trash.

I hear that a lot but I have never experienced it personally. I have great brass from Federal, Winchester and others but I broke out about 1200 pieces of Remington .38 Special brass over 10 years ago to "use it up" and I'm still using it. No splits, no blowouts no inadequate neck tension. I have no problems with their .357 Magnum, 9mm, 45 ACP or their rifle brass either.

I keep hearing it but never see it.

 

[tkroenlein]

My splits have all been Hornady. Pistol, revolver, rifle. I count on having a split or two out of every box.


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[dbmjr1]

Are you absolutely sure that what you removed from the cylinder wasn't a piece of copper jacket from a projectile?

 

[dbmjr1]

If'n you're getting split cases out of every box, or every range trip, or every other range trip, you're doing something horribly wrong.

I reload .38's. I get a split case every couple thousand rounds. That's loading the same cases over, and over, and over again. Mixed range brass.

 

[Rio Laxas]

I am positive that it was a piece of the case. It was nickel plated and it was stuck right behind chamber throat. The ammunition was not jacketed.

I've actually never personally had a case split before in many thousands of rounds of various different pistol and revolvers, so it was kind of surprising to see it split both ways and this badly.

 

[BobWright]

For whatever its worth, years ago I bought a Ruger Single Six in .32 H&R Magnum. In order to get a supply of brass, I bought several boxes of Federal .32 H&R Magnum factory loaded ammunition, both the lead and JHP bullet styles.

After firing the first batch, I noticed I had a lot of split cases, splits running from near the case mouth towards the head. I contacted Federal Cartridge Company and they had me send the ammunition back, both fired cases and unfired rounds. Very shortly afterward I received a like amount of ammunition from Federal.

Several weeks later I got a letter, a report actually, from Federal. Their conclusion was that apparently either in shipping or in storage, the ammunition had been store/shipped in the presence of some caustic material that had affected the brass.

The replacement ammunition gave me no further problems and I reloaded those cases many times before parting with that little gun.


Bob Wright