I've had cases split from work-hardening over the years and I've had case mouths on 38's split as well. But, I've never had this happen.

These cases have been reloaded twice. The load was recommended to me by the guy at Missouri Bullet Co. It's a 148 gr DEWC over 2.8 gr of Unique.

That is below the book starting level, and I asked him about that and he assured me it was okay and was a 'powder puff" load.

When shooting these loads (4" S&W 686), they were all very soft shooting. They were loaded in a Dillon 550 and were not double charges. Primers were normal and had no signs of pressure. And, again, they were soft shooting.

About 4 of every 6 rounds were splitting like this:






Notice the perfect holes in the nickel cases? Never seen anything like that.

Could being under the min starting load be the issue? I've been reloading for around 20 years and load 10's of thousands of pistol rounds and have never seen anything like these. Of course, these are the only rounds I have ever loaded below the minimum starting load. I only went with that load as he told me because I was getting quite a bit of leading with standard charges, so I called them and this was the load he recommended.

Any thoughts?

A: how do you clean your brass? I'm wondering if the cause is corrosion.
B: I would not go below listed starting loads with a handgun.

That was my first thought - a solution containing ammonia.

They were vibrated in walnut media.

I've got some that have cases from the same batch, but are loaded with 3.8 gr of Unique. These are the ones that I was getting leading with before (the bullets are pretty soft). I never noticed any split cases with those, but I am going to go shoot them some more to see what happens other than leading.

The load above, I shot 30 rds and was only able to salvage about 10 cases from it that didn't split. Didn't get any leading with it though, ha.

No polishing compound on the walnut media? It looks like ammonia contamination to me, in my in-expert opinion.

As to your leading problem, is the lube fairly hard and not sticky or is it soft and gooey? Soft and gooey seems to work best for me.

Have you slugged the cylinder throats and bore. Undersize bullets will lead the bore no matter what you do. I had a mold that leaded my 9mm. I upped the size of the bullets and gave them a good healthy kick in the butt yesterday and after 50rnds yesterday there is no leading in the grooves and just a little smeared on the lands at the bore. Way better than what it had been.

Instead of Missouri Bullet company.Try Dardas Cast Bullets.A lot harder and will help with the leading.
The only time I had those types of splits were in cases that were reloaded many times

It was the "red" Lyman walnut media. Will have to look and see if it has ammonia in it. I didn't add anything to it.

Still weird about the perfect circles blown through the sidewalls of the nickel cases. That happened on 3 of them. Two had one hole, the other case had two of them.

The brass is a mix of RP and Winchester. So, not specific to one brand.

The powder is maybe a year old and stored in a cool room. Same with primers.

I haven't checked the throats on this pistol. I reamed the throats on my 45 colts and it made a huge difference in both accuracy and a lack of leading.

I've got several other 38/357's and will try them through them as well.

That's weird stuff, but I damn sure wouldn't be loading 2.8grs of Unique. Unique works best when the pressure is up and it can get squirrely with way reduced loads.

2.8grs would be about right for Bullseye

If it came from Lyman, it shouldn't have ammonia in it. They know better. If you're looking for a light 38special load, try 3.8gr of GREEN dot, under a 125gr cast bullet. You can run that right up to 150gr wadcutters. In a K frame, it's just a tad more aggressive than your average 22 and darned accurate.

Like Steelhead already said, I'd be loading Bullseye at 2.8 grains rather than Unique.

I'm definitely done with these loads. Still weird though.

That Lyman red walnut media doesn't have any ammonia in it, or anything to cause those issues. I've used it quite a bit, although I don't anymore because it's so dusty.

However, I also suspect bad brass, somehow. Was it left outside? Is it range pickup of unknown source? Something doesn't seem right there.

The wandering cracks and holes look like what I've seen in corroded brass, either from ammonia or other causes. I'd throw that whole batch out, personally.

The pretty much full length cracks says bad brass, but I've never seen the round hole thing before.

Don

Hey Ryan, Did you by any chance inspect your cylinders after these things showed up. Did any of this cause any damage to them?
I don't think it should or would have but hell, who knows.

I thoroughly cleaned the pistol and looked in the cylinders and didn't see anything unusual.

The brass was from factory loads that I purchased and then reloaded after firing. None of it was picked up off of the ground.

I thought about it being a "bad batch" of brass as well, but it was from two different manufacturers.

The little perfectly circular holes in the nickel cases really puzzles me.

Those holes point to brittle brass, caused by some chemical reaction most likely. Try bending or tearing a couple of the split pieces with needle-nose pliers. What does the brass do?

Work hardened brass would normally split relatively straight down the side, it doesn't look like that.

I agree with other's comments about using Bullseye instead of Unique for that load, but I don't think the load itself is the problem. Could be wrong though.

Send an email with pictures to Hornady,Remington, Winchester et al and see if one of them will answer the question. They probably won't but what the hey, it's worth an effort.

I've probably loaded 10,000 .38 spl loads over the years. A light load of 3.6 grains Accurate#2 and a 158 semi wad cutter. They were "plinking" loads only. Some of the brass would go 7-10 reloads before cleaning.

These were all used in a 6" Colt King Cobra.

I've NEVER seen anything like your pictures. WOW....

Have you tried any NEW factory loads to see if you're getting the same results ?

I fired some factory Remington loads while I was out there. No issues with those at all.

Didn't have any barrel leading though, ha.

Combo of weak brass&Unique. Course i aint an expert.

I had the exact same thing happen to me, using NEW Starline brass (brass) cases. I was loading my normal wadcutter load of 2.8g of Bullsyse with a Remington 148g HBWC. Split cases on 8 of the 15 rounds fired. These were fired in my S&W 52-2 which has had thousands of these rounds fired without an issue. I contacted Starline and they said it is a detonation issue, light powder charge and perhaps the powder got trapped in the hollow base of the bullet. Not sure I buy that, it has never happened with any other brass Nickle or Brass. At any rate they sent me a dozen new cases and I have used that brass in my K38 with heavier loads and have never had the issue again. The perfect little holes in the Nickle brass is odd, no idea about that. I use walnut media and Lyman turbo charger.

They were former factory loads (the nickeled ones) that had been pressure-tested, I'll bet. The circular holes came from where the pressure testing units were.

I got hold of some cases like that, from a local dealer, and that's what he said. He'd been buying them directly from Winchester (that particular batch, anyway).

The ones I got were .41 Magnum cases, and they'd crap the bed if I went a bit hot.

The dealer often got some other contract overrun stuff from Winchester every now and then. He was a distributor/jobber for the local area, and often got stuff that other dealers claimed they couldn't get.

Round holes about the size of a Unique "dot"...

Looks like delayed Ignition/hangfire, possibly?

I'd bet a box of doughnuts that it goes away with a different load.

I had the same thing happen with a 45 colt, new starline brass and unique.
The load was a midrange load.

Just one case of several had the split down the middle, no round holes.

Moved on to other loads and has not happened since.

Krispy Kremes stealy?

That load is under 7,500 CUP according to the Lyman cast bullet manual if seated flush or .20 longer than the case.

Hornady lists a load that light, again with about .25 above the case mouth. Velocity is 550-600fps. A 357 chamber will bleed pressure down even a bit...

"Unique has a balance point around 13,000 pounds, with a working range of about 4,000 pounds above this, but very little below."

Elmer Keith-Sixguns


The other thing that the pictures show is case obturation shows up midway on about every case. None is present at the case web that I can tell.

Thanks fellas. I have some more rounds loaded up using brass from the same batch these came from but with 3.8 gr of Unique. This is the load that was giving me leading before. I'll shoot some and if the cases all survive, then I'll chalk it up to the low charge.

If, then, I still have leading, I'll check the throats and also try the load in several of the other 38/357's I have.

^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

CAS have run into the same thing, and that is many powders have minimums that if you go below the recommended results in higher pressures and sometimes even blown up guns. Part of that is how the powder sits in the case. Powder needs to be up against the primer, otherwise you have one explosion with the primer and a second before the first has the opportunity to push the bullet out which ends up with double explosions. I make it a point to NEVER go below manufacturers starting points with light loads.

I have never seen the holes, but the case splitting in mid case of a low intensity round, 9 out of 10 times it's bad brass. Could be from any number of reasons, brittle from the factory, work hardened from too many loading, something that happened to cases in storage.

But the holes, that's freaking weird. Nothing wrong with Unique in .38 Special, not my first choice in .38 Special, but if that's what you have. But that does seem an awfully low starting charge...by chance, where'd you come up with that powder charge?

Went back out with the loads that had brass from the same batch, same bullet but 3.8 gr of Unique. Cases were all perfectly fine. But, got bad leading again.

Guess I'll be reaming the throats and chalking the previous case splits up to the under-charged loads. That sounds really weird, but there are some other reports of weird things happening with under-charges. It's the only thing I can figure.

Why not just switch powder. Bullseye, W231,Universal Clays, Power Pistol, HP 38. Lots of faster burning powders that will solve your problem

Buy some pin gauges (you can get individual gauges on Amazon) and go from there.