I've had two case head failures recently with surplus brass in .223. This occured with two different loads (mild to moderate) in two different guns, but with brass from the same source. The cases came from a large surplus dealer and were already sized, trimmed, crimp removed, etc. and ready to load when I received them. I believe the seller advertises them as "roll sized".

Both exhibited ragged cracks upon firing just forward of the web and extending perhaps 3/8 inch forward or more and involving a wedge-shaped section of the case wall. No pressure signs were evident (except for the smoked head and residue on the bolt face and chamber).

I can only assume that these cases were once fired military (sorry, I didn't keep them and don't recall the headstamps).

Has anyone else had trouble with what should be a stronger case than ordinary commercial?

I've never experienced a case failure like that one, but remember, not all milsurp ammo is NATO-spec.

Some of it might be rejected, poorly-made, or fired MANY times (if it was range scrap, there's no telling how many times it may have been fired and reloaded).

George

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Shoot straight, shoot often, but by all means, use enough gun!

I'm not at all sure where I got the info or that its even correct but I think there is not supposed to be any difference between GI .223 brass and commerical. I have 1000 once-fired cases that I bought of mixed -mostly military- .223 brass and I treat it all alike with regards to prep and loading. I have never had occasion to weigh any of it as my load leaves room at the top for any variations in powder lot and case capacity. I don't like to motor my guns at top end anyway. I load the mixed stuff up for my "toter" and don't care that it shoots between .5 and 1.00 rather than .3. The groundhogs don't seem to care either.
To answer you question directly however, I've had no failures from this brass.

I've had mil.spec brass come apart,,,luckily not in the gun!I've broken a couple lake city cases in half bare handed with little effort.If you really want to deal with military brass,,,you should get a rcbs casemaster or something of the likes to check the brass internally,,you'll be surprised at what you discover.I switched over to winchester brass[new]and keep track of how many rounds they serve.Keep in mind that the military only wants one shot from that piece of brass,,And they do'nt really want the "enemy"to be scrounging up"quality"brass to reload to be used against them in a future fight.Next time you watch the news,note what the palestineans are toting[for example].Happy Shooting

I reload and shoot a lot of military .223 brass and I have never had a case head separation. The brass I use is NATO spec and started out as loaded surplus, this way I know exactly how many times it has been loaded and what it has been fired in.

I believe that the millitary brass is slightly thicker, or so I have read. I started with unfired, resized millitary pulldown from GIBRASS.com and have had no problems.

Also, although I cannot personally verify this, I have heard that some of the once fired mil surplus has come from automatic weapons. The short lockup cycle might be causing the brass to fail early. One day I scrounged some brass from the police range. None of it passed my case guage and all had bulges at the head. Checking with the range officer, I found out that they had been shooting an MP5.