Norinco .223 brass "holes"
- Thread starter Leviathan024
- Start date
Or not.
The longitudinal splits were likely formed early on in the brass manufacturing process as laps or cold shuts that had their origins in some poor heat treating of the punched out brass blanks, somewhere along the draw process.
They would look just fine, until you either inspected them with a means of detecting the flaws (Eddy Current, Ultrasonic inspection) or fired them, applying all that pressure which would cause the fla to separate, and the gasses to subsequently torch away the metal around the crack.
Great macro shots of the flame cutting!
The divots in the chamber have only anything to do with wear from hundreds of bullet strikes. The jacket of the bullet is softer than the chamber wall, but the oxidation, and any sand, grime, etc., that is in or on the jackets, will add to the effect.
If you bounce a rubber ball on the concrete in the same spot for long enough, you will wear a hole. Faster, if you hit the concrete harder.
Cheers
Trev
brass$pitter
CGN Regular
- Location
- grande prairie, AB
Just got 1000rds of whitebox cj 95 lot 13
brass$pitter
CGN Regular
- Location
- grande prairie, AB
Fired 40rds, all good. One round had the bullet push inside the case when feeding
so there are at least 3 people who have noticed it and were concerned enough to contact Canada Ammo.
That doesn't mean that there aren't more out there who haven't noticed the issue or who didn't think to contact Canada Ammo.
MB-31 is an inspection code for biological contaminants in the wood that the crate is made from... It's stamped upon export/import, and has absolutely nothing to do with the ammunition inside. I think most people have this confused with lot#'s, including dealers. I've also noticed that paper lot identifiers (stickers) have now been removed from crates so that customers cannot identify, or pick through the crates for the lower lot numbers.
I've tested all the way back to lot# 21, now, and still had blowouts... If you are truly concerned, I would just return the ammo outright. I'm convinced that this ammo is unsafe across all lot numbers. My first time using Norinco, unaware of these issues, I fired an entire case of lot# 19 CJ-95 with seemingly no failures, but I didn't save any of that brass to look back at...
I've managed to verify that the marks in the chamber are in fact from the burned out rounds... 5 in total, and they align perfectly with the burn holes in every single casing. Luckily, my rifle marks each casing in the same place when it ejects the brass, so I was able to use that to align the burn holes on each casing with the scortch marks in the chamber.
brass$pitter
CGN Regular
- Location
- grande prairie, AB
40 were all good, all spent brass was checked and free of flaws. Thats about all that was good with this bunk ammo
Thanks Gummo for your valuable info and heads up!
Interesting.
Conjecture on my part. Are the divots the cause, or the effect, of the splits?
To get a group of more or less random splits, I would blame the brass as flawed. To get a group all split at the same clock location in the chamber, maybe the chamber is part of the problem, no?
A little unsupported area under brass that was too hard would cause it to separate, no?
Just spitballin'.
Cheers
Trev
So after reading the this thread. I started to check each rounds for holes or cracks. I see the odd dents here and there but this one got my attention as it is crack.
Is this something that would lead to a KABOOM?
Shoot it, no safety issue there. Best case scenario the mark fire forms to the chamber and disappears, worst case scenario you split the neck and the brass can't be reused.
A little update on the Norinco lot#'s... I've fired about 500rnds of lot#21, with only one minor blown out casing. It seems the smaller the lot#, the better the integrity of the ammo. I'd assume something in the manufacturing went awry around lot#20, but I still have not encountered anything I'd call "dangerous". It is a little unsettling, and since my chamber is already marked up from the crappy ammo, I'll continue to abuse it with more. I still wouldn't recommend firing it out of anything you care about, and for Christ's sake, wear your freaking safety glasses!
