Is this a crack?

[diggler1833]

I shot a box of dad's old .357 magnum stuff the other day that he loaded in 1987 (he always dated the box). About the third cylinder I noticed a huge crack in one of the cases I'd just fired. Started looking harder...yep, had just shot a split one on the previous cylinder too. Checked the rest of the box and found two more just like the one the OP pictured. Tossed those two. Honestly the cylinder is going to contain the cracked case...but that doesn't mean I want to volunteer to stand there and try my luck with every shot either.

This was totally unlike my dad to have done that. However it can happen to anyone.

Bottom line is to inspect what you expect. You made a good catch there noticing the crack.

 

[Snattlerake]

I never looked at them because I never had a use for them. If I had, I would have probably not found that and blown a cylinder. Good catch! Hey, you got 4 ammo boxes for free.

 

[L.C.]

Yep that be a cracked case. Not to be confused with a case of crack

 

[PanhandleGlocker]

I never looked at them because I never had a use for them. If I had, I would have probably not found that and blown a cylinder. Good catch! Hey, you got 4 ammo boxes for free.

So far only 7 have cracks. The rest appear to be ok. I’m still going to pull the bullets and confirm the powder charge and also to make sure it looks like H110. Hate to blow up my dads gun. Haha.

 

[thor447]

I was expecting something different when I clicked on this thread. Glad we're talking about ammo.

 

[PanhandleGlocker]

On another note, this camera on my iPhone is very impressive. Im surprised it took a picture this well.

 

[diggler1833]

Yeah...I'd definitely be more concerned with someone else's handloads, specificallycharge weights. There are just as many nut-jobs behind a reloading bench as there are at a firing line.

I've shared the story over on the OKH website, but haven't here: My F-I-L has a S&W 66-2 that he is quite fond of. He was showing it to me one day and told me he was running one if "his buddies old handloads". I managed to get a hold of the cartridge container that thankfully still had the load data on it...

158gr SJHP over *18.0* grains of 2400... I'm not quite the savant to remember everything, but that charge seemed higher than a giraffe's ass. I checked and sure enough; that is a full 3.2gr over Alliant's listed max. I politely explained to my F-I-L what a proof load was, and told him he was essentially proofing his chambers with every shot. I even went so far as to sneak some factory Federal 158gr SJSP ammo into his revolver and politely place the overcharged rounds back in the box...

A couple months later I was cleaning his guns (wife will inherit them, so I don't mind). When I cleared his 66-2 before I started wiping it down, I saw that he had removed my factory stuff and replaced them with his buddies old pipe bombs...I mean "handloads" again. I did the swap again after wiping down the revolver...but this time I took all of the old handloads and chucked them way below my house in the woods...

Maybe two years later and we were burning below the house. Every few minutes a huge bang would go off, and it took me a bit before I remembered why. I managed to convinced my worried wife that it was just because we had some sandstone rocks down there. However I certainly puller her back up by the house .

For me to trust someone else's handloads in one of my guns takes a lot of familiarity with that person.

 

[Ahall]

There is a lot to handloading

Some load for economic reasons
Others for high performance
Some to shoot something that it hard to find ammo for.

When I am given ammo, I salvage the lead and brass.

The powder and primers get thermally destroyed
You never know if the primers are mag or standard. Just not worth fooling with small amounts of unknown and unidentifiable components.


Then I inspect the brass carefully

I have gotten old balloon head 45 colts
I have seen 303s stretched and thinned in front of the web
I have seen cases reworked into calibers other than the headstamp.

Cracked necks
Cracked shoulders
Corroded primers
Over length
Berdan primers

You name it.