Too much pressure?

excellent explanation biged!!, I get about 3RL.s in my 700 but in my 22-250 maybe two.with rem. my ar's in .223 never seen that.
the only one that came close to that with my fn-49 slight out of battery with surp ammo
shows how much I thought I knew. have to watch this.
TY very informative.
 
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Doesn't look like over pressure.

I'd say sloppy headspace banged the case back against the bolt face, stretching the case and causing the splits.

Looks like the firing pin hole might be quite large; maybe the hole has had a bushing installed (?) which has fallen out or has been pushed back somewhat. Or the hole has been enlarged by a home gunsmith (?). Something wrong with that rifle - the primer has flowed back into a hole larger than you'd expect a firing pin hole to be by itself.

A home gunsmithing job gone bad? Excess headspace and a damaged bolt? Lugs set back and firing pin bushing blown out or set back from a previous over-pressured load?

Hard to say without being able to inspect the rifle, but fun to speculate anyway.
 
As usual bigedp51 you are a fountain of wisdom. I noticed they had two ejector marks but it didn't click at first that it means it was fired twice (I blame lack of sleep).
Something is damn screwy with the rifle. It looked like a bolt action from the really quick glance I got at it. Black synthetic stock with blued metal is all I can say for sure.
There was what looked like gas leakage around several of the primers but I wasn't thinking and tumbled them first. There is just a touch left in the crack on the left one but it doesn't show up in the pic.
Popped out the used primer with my fingers and a universal decapping rod. I can seat a new primer to full depth with my fingers. Totally stretched out pockets.

The not-flat primers still make no sense. Maybe it was fired at stupid high pressure before and the more recent one was at a lower pressure? If the pockets where super loose could it still have gas leakage at a lower pressure?
 
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dirty firing pin to the point not fully protruding whole. pull the pin and clean inside bolt. I have seen so many that people never clean.
I remember way back I had a very fine striking on my .40 1911 with the primer not like the ones shown, but similar on a small scale.
One of my mentors at the club, asked me if I ever cleaned my pin and spring? Duh!! the amount of crap was incredible. JFYI.
check the bolt, spring, pin for wear and firing pin hole on bolt face.
Hey just for ####s and giggles? no one has asked what you are reloading with? type of bullet? powder? I have seen some funky stuff with undersized rounds, leaded chambers, do you get that same result with a factory round?


Yes...then the only other answer is an oversized firing pin hole in the bolt face.
 
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Just a thought ....... is it possible that the brass was worn out by being reload many times before it saw this rifle?
 
Yes, but you would think after tumbling, trimming, deburring, decapping, priming, powder, seating, crimping then putting each one in case with all specs written on box of rounds. then chambering. you would see a something. but again never reload in the dark and shoot at night. IMHO
but hey some things do get by me too. especially during reloading in my progressive with dirty range brass as I am to lazy to clean and check.
only thing I check is powder and COAL with handgun loads. rifle is all about MOA and takes more care than a surgeon.
 
Read it and all these comments are not at the OP because he was kidding about pressure, but the topic goes to CSI, from this thread it has made me more aware, lol
BigEd's explanation was excellent. wish the guy from the range showed these himself. but "hey" could be the range guy that was OP?
I have seen that before. the old I have a friend who Story.



Some guys didn't read the original post.
 
We are with Biged on this one and our experience is that the most common resizing issue is creating excessive headspace by having the sizing die adjusted down too far,

The RCBS Mic is great for adjusting sizing dies.

Regards,

Peter
 
yup,

looks like rem700 twice fired, loose primer pockets and lots of head space. I thought that from the picture before reading the great post by biged. Some brass is too soft.
 
Same as Peter here. RCBS Mic kit really worth it, but the Hornady caliper kit also works, as long as you take measure before and after resizing, as it's not calbrated for all datum circles but only for the common ones.
 
We are with Biged on this one and our experience is that the most common resizing issue is creating excessive headspace by having the sizing die adjusted down too far,The RCBS Mic is great for adjusting sizing dies.

Regards,

Peter

AND....while I don't disagree with this, as I am learning with my 8x57 right now, is why does every die manufacturer's instructions tell us to screw the sizing die down until it touches the shell holder??....then a little more down??.....it should be the other way
 
why does every die manufacturer's instructions tell us to screw the sizing die down until it touches the shell holder??....then a little more down

This is to get brass back to manufacturer spec, a spec designed to fit all(most) off the shelf firearms. Once you get into "custom" guns your reloading practices should also be custom
 
A lot of dies combined with other brand of shell holders (and sometime the same same brand) resize way too much. The correct way to get the case fitting your rifle without correct measuring tools is to resize and try in the rifle, screwing the die 1/4 of a turn until to bolt closes.
 
but "hey" could be the range guy that was OP?
I have no way of proving this (especially since I do own a Rem 700 in .308) but it wasn't me.
I did originally think it was just a pressure issue but there are signs that it is something else. Glad I could spur some discussion and theorizing; helps increase my own understanding of these things.
 
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