How does the barrel extension look?
I think it might be a poor heat treatment on the barrel extension, the lugs then sheared off. I can’t figure out why the brass is deformed like that. Where did you find the brass? Was it still in the gun?
Lugs look intact. Brass found as seen in pic, on the ground. The BCG was jammed into the buffer tube and you can see the imprint of the ejector pin on the case head.
I too am baffled why the end of the case is crimped in???
I have seen a number of times now where guys lose primers and find them stuck to the inside of their chamber. Funny things happen when you are loading way over max pressure. It would be no different during a case head separation event. Lucky the OP didn't find that brass inside himself or someone standing close to him. Glad no one got hurt! This looks like text book case head separation. Always check headspace when installing new parts, ALWAYS.
If OP measures headspace with a comparator on the brass that wasn't trashed, and compares to old brass fired and not sized through the gun before mods, it would give a solid answer if headspace was to blame.
If you eliminate the case the next thing i would be checking is timing on the gun and burrs/ridges in the chamber
Out of battery is only possible in very tight proximity to being in battery on this design.. and only if #### is ####ed up.
You were getting stove pipes itz means not enough force, or.. The gun is try to extract before the case has contracted fully causing it to stick... check the fired cases rims for damage by the extractor. And possible horizontal cracks in the case wall (when you stand the cases on its head).. if the rims look "pulled back" or bent back or there is cracks running around the diameters of the case thats probably part of the issue... this can cause the case to be ripped apart leaving the neck and shoulder in the chamber.... Causing a partial out of battery on the next round.. That still allows firing to occur on a sloppy gun. .... Which would cause this....
Sometimes a rough cut chamber can do the same thing.... Had that issue on a mini 14
Just looked at the very first post with pics. You are using soft points in an AR10?!? What grain bullet?
If you eliminate the case the next thing i would be checking is timing on the gun and burrs/ridges in the chamber
Out of battery is only possible in very tight proximity to being in battery on this design.. and only if #### is ####ed up.
You were getting stove pipes itz means not enough force, or.. The gun is try to extract before the case has contracted fully causing it to stick... check the fired cases rims for damage by the extractor. And possible horizontal cracks in the case wall (when you stand the cases on its head).. if the rims look "pulled back" or bent back or there is cracks running around the diameters of the case thats probably part of the issue... this can cause the case to be ripped apart leaving the neck and shoulder in the chamber.... Causing a partial out of battery on the next round.. That still allows firing to occur on a sloppy gun. .... Which would cause this....
Sometimes a rough cut chamber can do the same thing.... Had that issue on a mini 14
we are thinking along similar lines on this but he stated all the other extracted brass was accounted for so it leaves me very stumped....
I don't understand these rifles to the depths many of you other guys do so it's gonna be interesting to me if this can be diagnosed
Well, we most likely found the chambering problem. You should not use soft points in an AR10. The action and feed ramps during chambering will chew the noses off and cause all sorts of issues. I still would point to case head separation as the cause of failure. Look how the case is blown out at the base. 44grs could definitely do it, especially if you are not crimping or know the new headspace dimension after changing BCG. Or if a piece of the bullet nose ripped off and held the case back in the chamber. All sorts of things could of caused it, but primarily looks like ICHS.Hornady Interlock 165 gr SP,#3040
which would bring me bacb to think this is some sort of a brass stub out/ obstruction crimping/ over pressure issue
looking at the cases the ejection mouth ding is very real. if you were to load one of those up and was a bit rough after resize with a little crinkle that could cause problems. one of those unfired rounds looks like it has this going on.
if that was getting jammed in and folding over on the side of the cases it could result in the same thing... hard ejections and crimp like over pressure scenario.
your kaboom case looks like it is missing the neck is it still in the chamber?
since the lugs are still in, and the gun is more or less "intact" for a structural point let's look at the reloads
What is your process in exact order for reloading? do you crimp or not? what kinds of dies are you using (it matters for crimping and trying to diagnose).
Something like an over charge seems unlikely given your previous response but I have a couple theories on overall process here that would probably narrow it down.
if your using lee crimping die... good that eliminates that (one of the few things lee makes that I think is best in the field) its the hornady dies that will cause ridiculous over crimps with varying OAL case leangth.
if your crimping on the canalour.. perfect, its has more crimping forgiveness.
get a caliper on the unfired cases (rim to base) see if there in spec.
Did it. All at or below 2.015 except two, 2.019 and 2.024
Little off topic but is a UBR compatible with the standard buffer and spring? I thought the BCL had the AAR-10 length tube and standard buffer not the DPMS carbine buffer/spring?




























