Strange reloading phenomenon!

[Gaffer]

My son is preparing to hunt elk in Colorado and purchased a Kimber .35 Whelen in stainless and plasitic stocked and to lessen the recoil a bit had a muzzle brake installed as he is not a big person. He has been practicing and asked me to reload for him. There were various brass and the load I used was not that hot, 52.3 grs of IMR 4064 with 200 grain bullets. One brand of brass was one I had never seen or heard about and several of the have blown out a small crack parallel to the length near the base. I'll try to load a picture so you can see. The brass was Doubletap on the head stamp from Utah. I have email them for info but thought maybe some of you may have ideas to help.
These were once fired and 1st time reload. Other brands were OK, such as R-P, and others. 32566

[psteinmayer]

Stick to the well known brand brass, i.e. Remington, Winchester, etc.

[joem]

Shades of AMERC. Crap brass will always be crap.

[DaveL]

The only time I've seen that kind of blowout was from some European 30-06 machine gun ammo I bought and shot many years ago. I can't remember what the head stamp was but 90% did the exact same thing. I remember checking the wall thickness and it turned out to be about 1/2 the thickness of commercial brass. So I second what joem said, "Crap brass will always be crap".

[PhillipM]

I'd saw one in half at the web and compare it's thickness to a 30-06 case.

[bruce]

You are walking on dangerous ground. The cases in your photograph demonstrate was is called a "I" split. Splits in the K, I or M region of a case are critical or hazardous defects. About the only thing worse is a "M" split. Had one one time in a nice tight Mauser 98 using surplus ball. Not something I ever want to repeat. Ever. That lot of brass is junk. Pitch it. If you cannot find factory .35 Whelen brass, you can easily make it using any good quality .30-06 brass. But regardless of the brand/source, do not use that lot of brass. Forget about sectioning it, etc. It will most likely show no abnormality at all. But this lot of brass is seriously defective. It is an accident waiting to happen. Sincerely. bruce.

[Gaffer]

Thanks for all the replies! I have been a re-loader for nearly 60 years and never saw such as this. Have always been conservative and never tried to push velocity or pressure. I suspect what Bruce said above but thought I would get other opinions to verify. Thanks again guys, as usual you are the best!

[Gaffer]

Here is another piece to the puzzle. The son shot again yesterday attempting to get more familiar with the rifle and getting better acquainted with the recoil etc. He tried several different makes of head stamp w/o any problem and then on a lark tried one more factory Doubletap, not a reload, and it had a similar leak. Now that risk I would not have taken, would never use those brand of shells again but he is his own man and it is his skin.
This has to be bad brass and my guess is I will not hear back from the maker, but it does say a lot about that particular ammo to have it fail so many times with starting reloads. My guess is the son has learned a valuable lesson regarding ammo. I don't know what he paid for this box of ammo initially but today the web site shows better than $60. For that kind of money it should be top notch, but obviously it wasn't.
Thanks again for all the replies!

[bruce]

Re: .35 Whelen Brass. It will require some searching, but occasionally one will find commercial brass available produced by Remington, Norma and Hornady. Midsouth has a link for Remington brass, but it is out of stock. Midsouth has Hornady brass ( http://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/item/0000387291/35-Whelen-Unprimed-Brass-50-Count ). Midway has Norma brass ( http://www.midwayusa.com/product/1311375414/norma-usa-reloading-brass-35-whelen ).

You can also form your own .35 Whelen brass. This requires necking basic .30-06 brass up to the required .35 caliber. You can use a starting load to fire-form the brass perfectly to your chamber. Subsequent loading can then be done either neck sizing or full-length resizing the brass. In my own experience I have found Winchester brass to be of excellent quality. It tends to have a slight bit more internal capacity than that of Remington as well as common USGI surplus brass. This is worth considering if one anticipates loading ammunition that will require heavy charges of slow burning powder for hunting game.

Midway has four different .35 Whelen loads currently in stock. The Hornady load looks good. Here is a link: http://www.midwayusa.com/product/136062/hornady-superformance-ammunition-35-whelen-200-grain-soft-point-box-of-20?cm_vc=ProductFinding. HTH. Sincerely. bruce.

[Gaffer]

I sectioned one of the blown cases and there is no thinning ring, such as head separation. It must be a case of bad brass and/or weak spots in the brass. The hole is just at the juncture of the base web and the wall. The rest of the case wall shows no thinning, just a narrow cut parallel to the length of the case and about 3.5 mm long.
See this pic if it loads http://i57.tinypic.com/2gv7bex.jpg

The hole is at 6 O'clock near the base web.

[psteinmayer]

Avoid the brass, and any ammo loaded in it (factory or otherwise) like the plague!!!

[fguffey]

I would stop shooting the rifle, I would start measuring case head thickness. I measure case head protrusion, I measure unsupported case head. I have cases that have a case head thickness of .200", I have cases with a case head thickness of .260". The cases with the case head thickness of .260" are the safest case heads.

The small holes are caused by unsupported case heads. When the holes appear the chamber is exposed to hot high pressure metal cutting gas, meaning the chamber is being cut every time it is fired.

most old rifles have a case head protrusion of .110 +/- .010".

It is not likely the case heads are thin from the cup above the web to the case head but could be.

Stop shooting the rifle.

F. Guffey

[fguffey]

Why stop shooting the rifle? It could be a combination of unsupported case head and thin case heads.

F. Guffey

[butlersrangers]

Since this problem is occurring with just this one brand of ammo, it is likely the manufacturer has a problem in their manufacturing operation.

In 'Hatcher's Notebook', pages 207-209, the Maj. General discusses, investigations at Frankford Arsenal, of multiple problems that occurred, with longitudinal splits in cartridge case bodies, that were found to be caused by flaws in the case forming/drawing & hardening/annealing operations. (Minor glitches could leave whole production lots of ammo, vulnerable). Interesting read.

[Gaffer]

I have a copy of Hatcher's Notebook and butlersrangers is entirely correct regarding this longitudinal split. Since the company that the brass came from concurred that they had the same condition I guess this case is closed. However you can bet that I will stay away from their product in the future.

Thanks one and all for chiming in with all your expertise. That is what these forums is all about.