Pics of stuff that should NOT happen

[John Y Cannuck]

This is a pic of a blown primer. The overload, stupidity on my part, was simply misreading the setting on my scale. A fresh primer will litterally rattle around in the case on the left. The '92 Winchester is a very strong actioned rifle. The report was like a thunderclap, smoke came frome every orifice on the rifle. It took some force to open the action, but no damage at all. Sorry, I'm not going to post the load. Some fool might take it as max.

Total, and incipient case head separation. This is the result of full length resizing cases for the 303British in a rifle with bad headspace. Normal, not hot loads. Neck sized cases have normal lifespan of ten or so reloadings, one of these cases is on it's first (and last) reload.
Other than having to bang the butt of the rifle on the ground a couple of times to get the case out, no harm done. Doing this regularly probably would damage the rifle, and might get you a shot of hot gas in the face.

 

[Levi Garrett]

You were lucky, hope many take a look , and take much care when loading.
Thanks for posting
Frank

 

[Gibbs505]

Yep, lucky indeed!
God must love us handloaders!!

 

[pac11]

... bang the butt of the rifle on the ground a couple of times to get the case out, no harm done.

A 30-30 empty pushed in the broke off 303 will extract it like it was made for it. The rim of the 30-30 will ~ fit the extractor too.

 

[John Y Cannuck]

I'm getting the red X on the pics today WTF? worked yesterday.

 

[fogducker]

I'm getting the red X on the pics today WTF? worked yesterday.

the red x here to

 

[OnnO]

I'm getting the red X on the pics today WTF? worked yesterday.

Hosting by hunt101...what can you expect next time when they UPGRADE their system, they erased my whole gallery...

Oh...and Thank God you are all right.

 

[John Y Cannuck]

pics are back today. Hey it's a free service, run by hunters for hunters, I try to support it.

 

[Andy]

Total, and incipient case head separation. This is the result of full length resizing cases for the 303British in a rifle with bad headspace.

More correctly it was "the result of full length resizing cases for the 303 British in a rifle with a generous chamber." 303 Brit chambers can be significantly larger than spec for sound reasons related to perfomance in the field (e.g. tolerance of dirt in the chamber) and were not designed for long brass life - once was enough. The headspace on the 303 Brit has to do with the thickness of the rim in relation to the distance between a closed boltface and the groove cut in the front of the chamber. If that is our of spec it can contribute a bit to what happened, but it is the shape of the chamber that is by far the greater contributor. You can safely fire a round several times in a 303 Brit whose headspace is past Field if you neck size. Poor headspace - ahhhh the horror.

Very good post. Be careful, and if you don't neck size, watch your cases closely for incipient case head separation.

 

[Davidf]

It looks like this case was loaded over pressure more than once. I think you can just see two small circular marks on either side of this case head. This is caused by brass being forced into the ejector on firing. In my opinion a very serious sign of over pressure all by itself.
Seriously, think about backing your loads down you may be in a much more dangerous situation than you realize. Plus the slightly increased velocity you may be getting is probably not doing much for you anyway.

Just my thoughts though, it's still a realtively free country.