Thread: AR kaboom
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Old 02-07-2021, 16:50   #16
PRB
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Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Arizona
Posts: 5,221
Rule of thumb....only shoot re loads you have done yourself as you have no idea what an individual did/did not do.

How many loads were supposedly done on that brass? I don't see any annealing indicators anywhere on the unfired round.

Old re used brass gets hard...even after re sizing and round seating it will expand to more than quoted specs. This can lead to the chamber throat applying pressure to that brass leading to higher than normal psi before round separation.
Combine that with the brittle round base and you get other than ideal results.
Annealing serves purpose and is easy to do with a butane torch bottle...you need a soft neck.

Out of spec/old hard brass also does not chamber easily.... I've seen it refuse to chamber in a bolt action even tho it had been die sized. That can lead to out of battery ignition on a semi auto and this might be the case here.
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