Gallery of Dramas. Broken Enfield Parts!

[RJW NZ]

For the first and now only time I bought reloaded brass from a home reloader at a gunshow in about 2003 for target shooting. They fired normally and it wasn't until we picked up the brass until we saw that 12 of 20 rounds had case fractures, from short to very long.
I consider us lucky it didn't cause any of several other serious repercussions as the gases escaped through places other than the barrel.
I didn't have any way to contact the seller afterwards.

Just shows to go ya, when buying home done reloads, there's no telling what you're buying. I NEVER buy these kind of reloads now.

I see the tag on the ammo says 'new brass', if thats true and these are reloaded for 2800 fps/125 grain, could simply a hot load of 44 grains of 4895 powder do this, or would it only be the result of old over used brass? I've seen this cracking before but only on ancient poorly stored ww2 303 ammo.

The R S at the end could therefore only stand for Rat Sh_t. lol

[vintage hunter]

Was that IMR 4895 or H 4895? My Sierra book shows that 45.5gr of H 4895 is max for THEIR 125gr bullets but they don't show any loads for IMR 4895 w/125 grainers. 44.0 gr IMR 4895 is the max for 150 grainers. The brass may have been new in the sense that it had never been loaded before but who knows how long it has been laying around before it was. Brass gets brittle with age, new or used, loaded or empty and that certainly looks to be the case here. Any idea who made the brass? Canadian? I've seen the IVI headstamped brass before but not in component form.

[RJW NZ]

re 4895, I don't know, it was some time ago now and all I have now is this picture, so no answer on the brass either.
It made me a lot more respectful of what we do when reloading, it seems a pretty benign process but if things go bad, it can be as bad at it gets ...

[Claven2]

New pics:







I'm thinking that is actually WW2 surplus ammo that someone put in a Belmont ammo box. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess the shooter did not buy that ammo new at a store. Either given to him, bought used, or bought at a gunshow???

[Thunderbox]

You can see that the rim has expanded where the case has been driven back out of the breech as the bolt gives way. That doesn't even happen on proof rounds.... Looks like the rifle held out for four rounds.

These are someone's reloads with a super-hot powder, or with filled and unfilled cases. The shooter/victim ought to get the rest of those rounds examined by a proof laboratory or similar.

[5thBatt]

If the ammo in question is the original for the box, it is pulled tracer rounds refitted with 150g projectiles, no change to propellant or primers.

[Amatikulu]

Found this on Gunboards - makes interesting reading

http://forums.gunboards.com/showthre...eld-this-time.

[smellie]

Gentlemen;

I have been watching this thread and keeping my fat mouth shut on the theory that one should not open said orifice until and unless one has something constructive to add to the debate. I will say, and happily, that most of this has been an education to me..... one which I am happy has NOT occurred to me personally.

Nevertheless, I will say that it is possible, with the casings shown in Post 91, that this actually was new IVI brass..... but not current production. IVI made some completely terrible stuff in the late 1970s: very hard light-yellow brass, primers that would punch through when struck by the firing-pin, cases splitting lengthways when fired and all that. I had a go-round with them after I published a newspaper article (which was picked up by 10 other Newfoundland papers and at least one in Nova Scotia). They were threatening lawsuits and mentioning sums up round the million-dollar mark, split between myself and the newspaper chain.... and neither of us had insurance to cover that amount, which was a great deal of money 35 years ago. In the end, my boss sent them the actual specimens I had photographed for the article and requested a copy of the report from THEIR metallurgical lab. He also mentioned that they were free to KEEP these specimens, being that we had 300 more. I still have some of that stuff around today. The results were quiet but impressive: no further mention of lawsuits..... and a huge advertising campaign, paid for in advance, telling the world that I was an idiot and that their ammunition was the finest in existence. For that kind of money, I was willing to keep my mouth shut, especially considering that most folk simply no longer would buy the ammo.

As to the rifle shown in Posts 65, 71, 85, 88 and 94, though, I do have a few questions:

1. who or what is Belmont ammunition? I have been messing about with these things for just about 50 years now and have never encountered such an actual plant. It certainly dosn't have a huge facility in Two Creeks , Manitoba, nor in Maryfield, Saskatchewan nor in any other industrial community of which I am aware. This is "custom loaded" ammuntion packed in cheap bespoke cartons and is emphatically NOT produced in any proper facility.

2. How does one pull a 174-grain projectile, substitute a 150-grain projectile..... and achieve HIGHER pressures? LOWER pressure I can understand, but not higher pressures. MOST likely is surplus factory over-run Wartime primed brass which has been loaded with an extremely fast powder in order to save money.

3. That poor, mangled casing in the photos started off as Wartime production from Defence Industries. The cartridge casing has been reformed by brass-flow excited by extremely high pressure. The primer has dropped out, the case-head has expanded, the primer-pocket has become grossly oversized, the flash-hole is enlarged greatly and the case itself shows every sign of incipient failure at the web. And the headsamp has been very nearly erased in places. Normally, this does not happen with Defence Industries brass. I have some DI brass here which has been through my Ross 15 times, once as factory Ball ammo, the other 14 times loaded with my pet load, which is pretty mild. It doesn't even need trimming yet, the headstamps are clear and just as legible as they were the day the stuff left the factory (just a little before I was born). DI made FINE brass, some of the best ever produced, which is why I hoard the stuff when people are dumb enough to throw it away. Yet the cartridge which was in this rifle at the time of the failure was under exteme pressures which I do not think can be achieved with a 150-grain bullet using ANY sort of powder recommended for the .303 round. And the owner of the rifle has been amazingly closed-mouthed regarding many aspects of this "accident" and now has replaced the bolt-body and has fired the rifle an additional 210 rounds. Reading this, I lost my temper (like a bad old spring) and flamed him just a little after informing him that he was being offered some of the best technical help in the world (most of the folks doing the giving posting on this thread) and was dumb enough to ignore their advice. What can you do in a case such as this? Nothing. Just sit back and wait for a seriously-overstressed rifle action to "let go". And then, when that happens, there will be a hue and cry that the Number 4 Rifle is a POS and "unsafe at any pressure", to steal from Ralph Nader.

This all reminds me of my newspapering days in Newfoundland, many years ago. I used to write and run a couple of articles a year on rifles and shooting, especially around Moose/Caribou season and evidently attained some local fame as a "gun expert", whatever that might be. So this fellow showed up at the newspaper office one day looking for a bolt for his Number 4 sporter. Informing me that his "pin had come abroad", he showed me the bolt...... which was SPLIT LENGTHWAYS halfway down the shank. I UNSCREWED the cartridge-casing from the Bolt body before I took the (unfortunately, now lost) photos for the paper. The fellow's son had fired the rifle after cleaning it, having forgotten to add that little piece at the front. But that was allright: that long pin-thing would keep it in the chamber, even though it didn't feed worth a can of beans. Strictly FYI, there are some wonderful surgeons at the James Paton Memorial Hospital in Gander; they saved the boy's eye and removed ALL the brass bits embedded therein. I don't think they will do that again.

On a personal note, the only failures to which I have been a witness are as follows:
1. firing-pin break in a Winchester P-'14. Thing snapped as the shooter was chambering a round. Cocking-piece lost (blown free at dusk), shooter's hand mildly mangled (regained full use). Definite fatigue fracture, possible from dry-firing, I would think. I still have the remains of the original pin.
2. Ishapore 1943 SMLE III* with the cocking-piece holding to the firing-pin by about 1 or 2 threads. Still have to replace that one. I have had the rifle for many years and still haven't found time to shoot it. It isn't going anywhere for a while, being that I have no intention of dying...... ever.

Thank you for a marvellously informative thread.
.

[villiers]

I´ve seen men using a heavy hammer on the bolt handle, trying to get a stuck bolt open.

[Surpmil]

So the 210 rounds the guy has fired since putting in another bolt have stretched or stressed the receiver walls enough to draw them back in around the charger bridge? Neat.

The primer hole almost looks like it has been hand reamed!