hi all

i was at the range looking at some brass and noticed a few 10mm brass that had split. I was wondering what would cause something like that. I have never had that happen, but if it does, i wanna know why. Is it caused by old brass, too much powder, head spacing?

thanks,
lojack

Case mouths are annealed (softened) to prevent splitting. The brass will work harden with use, and split. I doubt they were just once fired cases. Or, maybe the chamber was oversize?

Split necks/cases usually mean that the case has seen the end of it's useful life, they're just plain worn out. Case splitting on the first firing is a whole nother story.

Lojack - Case splitting can happen as a result of several causes...or a combination of causes. Some have already been mentioned. But right off the top of my head I can think of:

1. Brittle brass from mfg.
2. Worn or oversized chamber in weapon
3. Worn out
4. Mistreated during reloading
5. Hot loads.
6. Thin or poorly alloyed brass...again a mfg issue.
7. Type weapon the gun is fired in.

If I were picking up brass left at the range and running into good number of split cases, I would reject ALL of the cases. A lot of reloaders will simply leave brass where it falls when they know it's worn out or not worth picking up.

As the old saying goes, "Not all that glitters is gold." Take it from a guy who has made a career of picking up range brass.

My current policy is I ONLY pick up factory once fired brass. Cases that have been reloaded, you have no idea what that brass has been thru nor how many times. Forget it. JMHO

hey thanks for the info. luckily there are a lot of occasional shooters and a lot of people that do not reload at the range that i shoot at. most of the brass is once fired. i just happened to notice the split cases and wondered what in the world could have caused that to happen.

i will try to post a pic if i can ever figure out how to do it lol

thanks
lojack