Case Head Seperation W/Pics

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My friend stopped by today and showed me these. We think it's a head space issue. The rifle is a 303 British, Lee Enfield I believe although I don't know the year or anything else. The brass was bought as once fired and this is the first load he's had through them. He says the load was not near max, I can't give you any specifics of what the exact load/COL was right now but I'm sure I can get it from him tomorrow or later tonight. The pics are of a loaded round. The primer in the fired round seems flattened, but with no discoloration of the head stamp. The load is not compressed. The neck also has been shrunk on the fired round, looks almost like an Ackley. What do you guys think?

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Fired round on the right, notice the ring on the once fired brass on the left.
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Hopefully you can notice the difference in the necks.
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Any thoughts are appreciated.
 
Case separations are not uncommon when reloading .303 ammunition for a Lee Enfield.
Headspace might be a factor, either in the rifle in which the cartridge was originally fired, or in your friend's rifle. Easy enough to check headspace. Even with good headspace, separations can occur.
Case shoulder is normal.
Cases will last longer if they are only necksized. If starting with brass fired in a different rifle, size only enough to get them to chamber.
Inspect fired brass very carefully, looking for incipient separations. Use a little wire feeler gauge, or examine the inside with a bright light, looking for a ring running around the inside. A frosted line on the outside is also a warning sign ( not to be confused with the normal expansion ring). Be prepared to cull mercilessly. I have sorted through cases fired in issue rifles, and expect to reject about 20%.
 
You should always check the headspace before shooting any Lee-Enfield. Tell him not to shoot it again until he's had the headspace checked. However, it's highly likely that the rifle the brass was first fired out of had excessive headspace and he was sold bad brass. All of that brass is garbage.
Federal brass is known for being soft, but it's not that soft. The shoulders have been pushed back. Possibly too long when he resized 'em. He needs new brass anyway.
 
Just talking to my friend on the phone, these cases are once fired from his rifle not bought as once fired. They were factory rounds Winchester 180g. The load was aparantly 44g Varget with Sierra 125g spitzer and a COL of 2.9.
 
With a FC headstamp they weren't Winchester.
If there are incipient separations on first firing of factory rounds, and separations on first reload firing, there is likely an excess headspace situation.
The headspace needs to be checked.
Close to .064" would be nice. Military No Go is .074, but you will see incipient separations.
Also, measure the rim thickness of the cases. If they are on the thin side, this could contribute to what you are seeing.
Headspace can be tightened up by installing a longer bolthead.
Or, there is a handloading solution. Cases are set to reference off the shoulder, rather than off the rim, as if the case were rimless.
 
I will let him know all this and tell him to get the head space checked. Maybe he got it wrong with the cases. I told him to check the insides of the other cases he has and see if he can detect any signs of separation. I think of the 5 he fired, all but one had cracks.
 
I had complete case head separation in my old .303 using Imperial factory loads in 1986. When I used Remington rounds I never had any problems, not even a hint. Go figure...
 
The shoulder looks normal to me. I have twice fired brass that looks like your picture on the right. I would hesitate to use that load again. Ask him to try a lighter load and see if there's a difference.
 
Reverend said:
I had complete case head separation in my old .303 using Imperial factory loads in 1986. When I used Remington rounds I never had any problems, not even a hint. Go figure...
Click to expand...

Your Imperial factory loads made in 1986 would have been made by IVI.
I guess that asnwers your question about them.
 
Is the bolt original to the rifle? There are differeny bolt heads to accomodate different headspacing requirements, so if the bolt head isn't the one intended for the rifle, this will cause the issue you're seeing here - which is too much headspace.
 
I once had a Jungle Carbine that would make junk of every round. Some rounds were two pieces once fired, a real PITA to get the tube out of the action.
That has to be the fugliest gun I've ever fired!!
 
Well - Your friend may be sizing them too much! You can see how much the case expands at the neck in the photos! If this is the problem, reducing the (rim) headspace is not necessarily going to alleviate the problem.
Suggest he partially resize his brass, by adjusting the FL die upwards. You need about a "loonie" gap between die and shellholder. Avoiding FL resizing is recommended practice for the 303, unless you have a non-military commercial chamber.
Also, one should avoid buying once-fired brass for the 303. The term "once fired" is often abused.
 
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