Inspecting Straight Walled Pistol Cases (specifically semi-auto)

[crimsoncomet]

Good evening gentlemen. I have a quick question. I have have been loading for over 4 years now. I have made mistakes, and luckily caught them before going into the gun by being cautious. I have been inspecting a lot of pistol brass lately.

I inspect all my rifle brass after cleaning, and use a dental pick to feel for the start of case head seperation. I have been using the same method for 9mm and 10mm brass. Will these cailbers get the small ring inside before seperating at the head? Specifically 10mm brass. That is the cartridge that I push the hardest and that I feel would fail the soonest. Just want to see if this method is pretty fail proof. Because of the pressure of the 10mm (180xtp at 1350fps), I want to be extremely cautious and thorough in inspecting my brass.

On that note. If I have a safe pressure load in 10mm around the 38000psi mark, is it safe to load that same load in the same case again. As long as the case is okay of course. THanks for all of your help guys.

 

[Walkalong]

I have never heard of a straight walled auto caliber suffering from incipient case head separation. They eventually split, if you don't lose them. Other than that, no worries.

Revolver rounds can suffer from it, but it takes some severe pressure.

Picture "borrowed" from jfh.

 

[moxie]

Wow! .38Spl. What did you do to those poor cases?

 

[beatledog7]

Indeed. I bet it was pretty hard to kill Starline 38s without hurting something else.

 

[Mike 27]

What kind of 10mm are you shooting? I found that mine using starline in my old factory glock barrel would expand so much I could hardly get them to size and when I did it was removing more material than I was comfortable with. That was out of the Hornady 7th edition and they have lowered the max load in the newest book. My understanding with the other manufactures there isn't really an issue.

 

[Hondo 60]

I've never had a pistol caliber case separate.

And I've reloaded some of my 38 Spl cases 20 times.

 

[crimsoncomet]

Revolver rounds can suffer from it, but it takes some severe pressure.

Those must have been 357 loads in 38 cases! Wow! Thanks for the heads up walkalong.

Revolver rounds can suffer from it, but it takes some severe pressure.

I am using starline brass. I havent had any trouble with it as of yet. I am using a aftermarket barrel though.

Thanks for everyones input. I'll just keep an eye on them.

 

[Walkalong]

No worries with any sane load.

I do not remember the story with jfh's brass, just showing it can happen. Some kind of data mix up I think.

 

[243winxb]

10mm Auto

If I have a safe pressure load in 10mm around the 38000psi mark, is it safe to load that same load in the same case again.

Time will tell. 38,000 psi would be over the normal working pressures listed on Hodgdon website. Your velocity is very high compared to Hodgdon. Unless you have pressure testing equipment, who knows how much pressure your making?? Brass loaded to hot will have a bulge or a spider web effect showing on the brass. Extraction can also be a problem. I had a case separation in 44mag in a Marlin rifle. The break was in the middle of the brass. No outward signs of pressure release.

 

[moxie]

Aha! Good. Because I've reloaded .38 Spl. cases scores and scores of times with nary a split, much less a head separation. Surprised that whoever shot those put up with it 3 times at least!

 

[TonyT]

I have never seen head separation in a staright walled pistol cases. Usually they fray or split. I segregate my brass by number of reloads and scrap the high pressure cartridge brass (9mm & 40S&W) after four reloads. The low pressure cartridge brass such as 38 Special and 45 ACP, I tend to use until I detect fraying at the case mouth.

 

[gamestalker]

I've had a few head separations with .357 mag and 44 mag over the years using H110/296. But it was only after many reloadings that I encountered that.
GS

 

[crimsoncomet]

Thanks for the info guys. I will just use my mixed brass (high pressure and plinking) all for plinking now, and keep the high pressure stuff seperate in the future.

 

[edfardos]

is it me, or does pistol brass always split when seating, while rifle (bottle) brass always splits while firing?

I have 15 reloads on 40s&w. Maybe 2 necksplits out of 5000 shots?

I have 9 reloads on 44mag. One neck split out of 1000 shots.

I have 6 reloads on 223rem. Five percent neck splits while firing after 6 reloads.

I have 7 reloads on 30-06. Maybe three necksplits while firing after 500 snots, primer pocket looseness is what destroys this brass.

in my experience,
edfardos

 

[ny32182]

Pistol brass splits when firing.

For 9mm minor loads, I will load anything I find on the range after a brief inspection. After tumbling I eyeball each case to make sure is it not military crimiped, and is not split. If it passes those checks I load it.

Eventually you will get a small split in the body, which you have to look for or you might miss it. I don't know what happens if you load one of these. I have never intentionally done it. It probably leads to a bigger split, which I have found occassionally also.

I have never had or seen a head separation. If shooting over-max loads all the time, there might be other things to consider. But I doubt it. You probably just get to the point of splitting the body faster.