Norinco .223 brass "holes"

holes in .223 case

I'm not convinced that there's anything wrong with the brass, but I do think the ammo is somewhat at fault. It's filthy stuff, and gums up the action pretty good. I think that's causing miss-feeds. I always forget to slap that forward assist, so that with my terrible cleaning habits of late, may have been my own damn fault.
 
My tavor has been freshly cleaned before the two range trips were I noticed this issue. I keep the chamber scrubbed pretty good so I dont think it cause by lack of cleaning. Cheap thin brass is my guess
 
The reason I mentioned the fast hang fire issue is that this only seems to be occurring in semi auto firearms.

I have always put the fliers in my bolt rifles and mini 14 down to extremely hard primers in this ammo. On several trips to the range, I've picked up more than a few complete cartridges where the primers didn't ignite but were dimpled. The dimples weren't deep enough IMHO to ignite the priming compound.

I just looked at the cases in a small box where I keep them. They are all stamped CJ95.

All of my crates are yellow boxed CJ93. With a couple of hundred rounds of this stuff through a mini 14 and no issues such as the OP and several thousand rounds through 4 different bolt rifles, mine and others, we've never encountered the longitudinal splits in your pics.

The fact that they are longitudinal, rather than horizontal is telling you the cases are consistent and that you have high pressures occurring in those case at the instant of ejection. If it were a case failure, especially at the thick part of the side wall, just above the base web, the cuts would be horizontal ruptures rather than burnt through longitudinal slots.

If I had a couple of those, I would take a hacksaw or Dremel tool with a zip cut blade and cut one in half, from case mouth to base, without compromising the blow outs. That way you will be able to see whether they are actually burn throughs from pressure or ruptures.
 
holes in .223 case

Anyone that thinks China produces crumby quality anything needs to look around their household at all of their belongings, and find the "Made in China" tags...

I wonder how to get Canada Ammo to chime in on this?
 
holes in .223 case

bearhunter said:
The reason I mentioned the fast hang fire issue is that this only seems to be occurring in semi auto firearms.

I have always put the fliers in my bolt rifles and mini 14 down to extremely hard primers in this ammo. On several trips to the range, I've picked up more than a few complete cartridges where the primers didn't ignite but were dimpled. The dimples weren't deep enough IMHO to ignite the priming compound.

I just looked at the cases in a small box where I keep them. They are all stamped CJ95.

All of my crates are yellow boxed CJ93. With a couple of hundred rounds of this stuff through a mini 14 and no issues such as the OP and several thousand rounds through 4 different bolt rifles, mine and others, we've never encountered the longitudinal splits in your pics.

The fact that they are longitudinal, rather than horizontal is telling you the cases are consistent and that you have high pressures occurring in those case at the instant of ejection. If it were a case failure, especially at the thick part of the side wall, just above the base web, the cuts would be horizontal ruptures rather than burnt through longitudinal slots.

If I had a couple of those, I would take a hacksaw or Dremel tool with a zip cut blade and cut one in half, from case mouth to base, without compromising the blow outs. That way you will be able to see whether they are actually burn throughs from pressure or ruptures.
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I agree. Thank you! I did stick a bore light into the casings, and there is no sign of abnormal primer ignition. The fact that it was two simultaneous malfunctions tells me that there was a mechanical issue. The marks on the chamber that line up with the burns tell me that the round was not fully inserted at a point in its ignition, and the pressure compromised the brass at the weakest point in the chamber. Can't explain why the bullet tips would wear divets in the top of the chamber, though. No signs of bulging on the brass.
 
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I found a few more of these "cut" cases in my brass pile from my last trip with my ar. So if my ar15 and tavor are having the issue junk ammo is to blame. Cheap thin brass. Time to switch to steel case
 
green said:
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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What he said. This has nothing to do with ejection or extraction. This type of failure is also common in bolt-action rifles, which will help you realise that it is a casing issue, or on the very extreme a chamber or headspace issue. What you are seeing is the casing splitting and cracking as it tries to expand circumferentially, it cannot expand appropriately so you get a crack, at which point your 50 odd thousand psi gases start pouring out. It is a common enough failure in old ammo where the brass has hardened with age, and sometimes with steel. It can be a chamber issue if the base of the chamber is to big, but usually its just cheesy casings, with either a flaw in the metal or poor metal. If it starts happening all the time I would say look at the chamber, but the odd casing, I would suspect the brass. Of course it goes without saying that the headspace is correct, and you aren't seeing undue reforming of the shoulder.
I would recommend getting a good look in the chamber, at times those venting gases can erode or even cut into a chamber. On a rifle I valued I would be wary about driving a lot of that stuff through it.
 
I'd be hesitant to risk scoring the chamber of a big$ rifle on small$ ammo, but I guess we all look at being cheap differently.
First thing that came to mind was headspace, but having the same prob in different rifles/models with the same ammo makes that seem less likely a source than the ammo.
I'm just talking crap here, not having seen the ammo myself, but has anyone who had the problem mike'd the ammo in question, especially the head diameter, and/or base-to-shoulder? If it's not the rifle, and is the ammo, then is metallurgy the issue or manufacture specs? The longitudinal appearance of the holes throw me; I've seen circumferential holes near the web plenty enough before, several complete case-head separations in a few calibres, but I don't recall seeing holes looking like that before?
I remember a batch of milsurp 6.5x55 that gave problems in several Swede semi's, and everything pointed to headspace, other than it checking out & finding it okay in several rifles that had the same issue. Turns out the 3-point punch-staking used around the primers was so deep, it raised burrs that prevented the case heads from seating firmly against the bolt-face, but enough that the rifles would fire, causing apparent excessive-headspace appearance on fired brass. Gentle stoning/filing of the burrs solved those problems.
Probably unrelated, but just an example of ammo-spec issues creating the impression of a rifle flaw.
 
I have the exact same thing happen to some .303 cases In an enfield. I think its from some crud or dirt on the case or in your chamber. scratches the case then they rupture. but that's just what I think I never found out why.
 
here is a pic. one is an imperial shell the other is a dominion from 1916. this is why I don't think its the Chinese ammo to blame. just dirt in the gun.

 
I'm pretty convinced that its the filth from the ammo gumming up the bolt/chamber, causing the round to feed or seat poorly in the chamber. It's hard to imagine that the casing could split if it's fully inserted into the chamber where there is no room for expansion. 3000 rounds of the stuff fired, and I somehow manage to stumble on two consecutive rounds that are out of spec, or the brass has hardened? I dump 5 boxes on the bench rest and load my LAR mags from a big pile. It'd be damn near impossible to get the two bad ones in a row.

The question is, why did they blow out specifically where they did? Look at the chamber on my 6920. The blowout marks the top of the chamber, and both rounds blew in the exact same spot. Both of those nicks on the chamber align with the feed ramps. Could this be possible erosion of the chamber from the bullet tips striking that spot when feeding? Could this be the severe angle that the LAR mags feed at? Bullet tips overly hard?




The brass (macro):





 
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Re the split .303" brass, Imperial was notorious for split cases due to defective brass, the split on the 1916 case can be expected with 90+ year old ammo.
Longitudinal splits near the case head are caused by defective brass.See "Hatcher's Notebook" or US army manual TM 9-1305-200 "Small Arms Ammunition " for a detailed discussion of case failures.
Ammo giving this type of case failure should not be fired.
 
The case with the two splits looks like the splits line up with the chamber marks. If so, I have to conclude they are related.

Does a mark on the chamber cause the case to split? I would not think so, unless it was a huge divot in the chamber.

Did the case split (poor brass) and the rupture cause the chamber mark? More likely.

I do know it takes very high quality brass to make cases. Any inclusions or seams can cause case failures. It would not surprise me to learn that this military brass is being dumped because of known problems. A lot # of IVI 5.56 found itself on the market for exactly that reason.
 
holes in .223 case

I've had a look through some retrieved brass from a few range trips ago, and have found 5 or 6 out of 300-400 rounds that do have split necks and shoulders. Some very small, to hardly noticeable. There is a consistent dent on each case, including the "blown out" cases, right on the neck. This looks more like an ejection mark, though.




The middle case is actually split in two places on the neck/shoulder... Identical size splits.

 
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