Norinco .223 brass "holes"

Leviathan024

Leviathan024

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Gun nutz,

in the last few weeks i have had a few times where after firing the ejection port of my tavor had lots of white smoke coming out. i assumed it was some oil burning off but today i picked up an empty case after this happened and there was a small hole in the side of the case, it is norinco ammo and NOT reloaded. so my question is will this cause any harm to the chamber of the firearm and is it likely just a ammo manufacturing defect? thanks!

EDIT: So it seems as this issue is poping up in other peoples rifles. feel free to post here and show pics of your case problems. So far the only ammo causing this issue for me is the new norinco cj95 lot31 crates of 1120. the "holes" have appeared after firing in both a tavor and ar15. chamber erosion is a very real possibility and something i will monitor.
 
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Is it a round hole or a crack or split near the shoulder? Split necks and shoulders wont usually cause damage. The cases are just too hard and when expanding in certain chambers (usually the more generously sized military chambers) they sometimes split. It is dirty which could cause a malfunction, and at least I find when a case splits that shot often becomes a flyer, but I've never hard of a firearm being damaged from a case splitting.

Case head separation on the other hand has been known to damage some firearms.
 
holes in .223 case

Had a similar incident yesterday with Norinco ammo... I've shot nearly 3000 rounds of the stuff without one single problem. Then yesterday, two rounds puffed smoke out the magwell (consecutively) of my 6920. Checked the brass and here's what I saw:

63F102F1-0EF9-4786-9C4A-1844569D0DC1-46381-0000295297DAFDEF_zpsa383390d.jpg


Fired about 6 more "test rounds" after field stripping and everything was A okay.
 
Gummo that is exactly what is happening to mine! I was shooting a mix of the cj95 in wax paper and the new white box cj95. 3k+ rounds for me and never had issues until now.
 
I can see from your pics, because of the expansion ring that what I'm going to type didn't happen.

I've seen similar cases with unexpected slam fires and with cases fired slightly out of battery.

Given the rifles you folks are using, minimal spec chambers shouldn't be an issue.

I've also seen that sort of thing happen with very dirty chambers in Mini 14s.

That's a bit of a conundrum. I wonder if they aren't quick hang fires????

Many moons ago, an AR15 I had would do something identical. One of the local gunsmiths, told me he had seen something similar happen to M1 Garands in Korea. They deduced that the primers were not hot enough to ignite the power in the cases properly and had what he called "Quick Hangfires." The powder would start to burn slowly, creating enough pressure to start bullet on it's way and then burn very quickly. So fast it wouldn't be noticed by the shooters. He feels the pressures increased about the time the bullet was passing the gas port and the cartridge was partially ejecting while pressures were still to high. I changed out the spring on the AR15's hammer and the problem went away. By the way, this was a sporter, non restricted, AR15, made by Colt and sold by SIR. Like I said, many moons ago

Not my theory, his. He long ago went to his maker so I can't query him on this.

Another issue with Norinco ammo is that the primers are extremely hard. In some firearms, this can and has caused partial hangfires or no ignition at all. This may be part of the problem.

When the Norinco ammo works, it works well. When it doesn't, it can be a problem in more ways than one.
 
holes in .223 case

Shot a crate (1600 rnds) of the paper wrapped, and almost half a crate of the white box. This happened with the white box.
 
holes in .223 case

bearhunter:

That doesn't sound too unlikely... The casings aren't bulged at all, though. It seems like the powder burned through the brass. More like a "cut", than a crack.
 
This problem did not happen until the white box was added to my ammo cache. My bet is it is also the white box for me. Yours is in an ar and mine is in a tavor so it's safe to say the firearm is not the cause. I just hope the powder is not also "cutting" into the chamber walls
 
holes in .223 case

Have a look at the top of the chamber where the rounds "tip" in... There are little divets on my chamber that line up directly with the path of each feed ramp... Rounds alternate side to side, and the tip seems to be striking the top of the chamber on its way in... I can't imagine that copper VS chrome lined chamber would cause a mark like that, but they are there. Line up directly with the holes on the casings.

Are you using LAR mags?

It's tough to get a photo of, but here's what I'm talking about:

11646A02-1AC0-425D-90D9-CEDC1B28BF1E-46888-00002983E7989FC5_zpsd79d1f96.jpg


I don't know anything about a Tavor, but I'd imagine they feed similarly to an M4, since they use the same mags.
 
holes in .223 case

I wonder if Canada Ammo has any input... I hope the ammo isn't an issue, since I have an ashload of it now.
 
Any scoring or marks on any of the other ejected brass? Can't help but wonder if some of the brass is thin/out of spec and it's getting cut up on the way in/out of the chamber...weakening it to the point where the case is failing.
 
May be some sort of hangfire then after all. Just enough powder still burning while the cases are ejecting and a little hot knife of gas is cutting the cases where the recesses in the chamber edge are located.
 
This is evidence of defective brass. The next split could be across the case head resulting in damage to the firearm and injury to the shooter. This ammo should not be fired at all.
 
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