My Reloaded Steel-case Went KABOOM

[65newloader]

Use at your own risk. I have used this since building my Grendel. I was using it for cheap target ammo. Well, one decided it would NOT eject. It blew itself apart in the chamber around the rim. So, all the pressure had to be released somewhere. It blew the lower (E3 Arms Gen II poly) apart and blew the end out of the new 25 rd ASC mag. The Toolcraft bolt and carrier was damaged, also. Not sure if the Anderson upper survived, but I think it did. Well, lifetime guarantee on the lower and Toolcraft bolt, so I will see if the honor it. It took me an hour to get the remainder of the case out of the barrel. What is weird is I put seven rounds through it before it happened, so you never know. I examined the casings of all of them and no signs of over pressure. The primers look as the always do. These seem to flatten a little, but no crater signs on the primer and only very slight ejector marks. I had one case with a crack, but I had experienced a few cracks in the sides of the casing near the neck, as others have seen this too. I have probably put a hundred of these rounds through the Grendel since building. The rifle had been cleaned and oiled after the last firing.

I did a little research and low and behold, I guy with a M1 Garand(308) had the same thing happen and the casing looked almost identical to what happened to me. Gong to call Wolf, E3 Arms, and Toolcraft tomorrow and see what they will do. I have about 400 rds left that might come up for sale. Thinking switching to only brass from now on.

[CaptnC]

A close friend who shoots a lot of 3 gun competition had a 308 case rupture and blew the mag out the bottom of his AR-10. Other than that, there was no damage that he mentioned to me.

He brought the case to work...I can't for the life of me figure out how his blew out just above the case head. The primer of course was blown out. I will see if he still has it at work. If he doesn't it will be next week. He is shooting in a match starting Friday.

My first thought was it didn't go into full battery...but he said the bullet went down range...

Sure could ruin a guys day....

[sneaky one]

Don't buy any wolf ammo. It's from Russia- they don't play well with USA. Don't buy anything from Russia, ,,, nothing. China is no better.... Sad ..

Read the news daily,,, so sad... BFT and I have had a few --- WTF shots from Russia ammo. F that junk, Invest in reload items , or, buy pre loaded ammo... made in USA


I don't trust any of it. Otherwise- Blah... Upon foreign stuff. It's just junk, you have no clue of the thickness of the so- called copper jacket that surrounds the steel core. Too thin, the steel core hits the rifeling, to help minimize your accuracy down the road. Yes .

Google this stuff- it will change your mind upon items purchased. Drink cheaper beer if need be, to buy better products , to gain better accuracy. Crank it forwards gang!!!! Im trying to help---We could do a group buy of more bullets-?

Only try to buy the better products that you can afford.

[PAsasquatch]

I had problems with wolf ammo when it was all I could find for my ak74. I figured it was just my gun or 5.45 ammo because i see a lot of people on here talking about shooting it.


In wolfs defense, my ak didn't have any exploding issues. Just a few stovepipe failures.

[Sticks]

Use at your own risk. I have used this since building my Grendel. I was using it for cheap target ammo. Well, one decided it would NOT eject. It blew itself apart in the chamber around the rim. So, all the pressure had to be released somewhere. It blew the lower (E3 Arms Gen II poly) apart and blew the end out of the new 25 rd ASC mag. The Toolcraft bolt and carrier was damaged, also. Not sure if the Anderson upper survived, but I think it did. Well, lifetime guarantee on the lower and Toolcraft bolt, so I will see if the honor it. It took me an hour to get the remainder of the case out of the barrel. What is weird is I put seven rounds through it before it happened, so you never know. I examined the casings of all of them and no signs of over pressure. The primers look as the always do. These seem to flatten a little, but no crater signs on the primer and only very slight ejector marks. I had one case with a crack, but I had experienced a few cracks in the sides of the casing near the neck, as others have seen this too. I have probably put a hundred of these rounds through the Grendel since building. The rifle had been cleaned and oiled after the last firing.

I did a little research and low and behold, I guy with a M1 Garand(308) had the same thing happen and the casing looked almost identical to what happened to me. Gong to call Wolf, E3 Arms, and Toolcraft tomorrow and see what they will do. I have about 400 rds left that might come up for sale. Thinking switching to only brass from now on.

Tell the whole story, or I will. This is akin to putting a turbo and new ECM Map on your Prius and blowing the head through the hood and blaming Toyota.

[1Shot]

Was it non tinkered with factory Wolf ammo or was it "Moscow match" where you replaced the bullet with another bullet?

[RMiller]

If these were not as factory rounds I would no longer call it wolf ammo.

So were these unaltered rounds?

[NugginFutz]

Tell the whole story, or I will. This is akin to putting a turbo and new ECM Map on your Prius and blowing the head through the hood and blaming Toyota.

Are you saying you know something about this specific incident that the OP is not revealing?

[Crusty]

When I have an urge to shoot Wolf, I go fire some buckshot in my 12ga instead. Same groups and more efficient.

[grayfox]

Tell the whole story, or I will. This is akin to putting a turbo and new ECM Map on your Prius and blowing the head through the hood and blaming Toyota.

C'mon let's get it out there, OP or somebody. I'm not a wolf fan but we do need accuracy in reporting...

[mdram]

C'mon let's get it out there, OP or somebody. I'm not a wolf fan but we do need accuracy in reporting...

just look at op's other posts regarding modifications to wolf ammo

[grayfox]

Yeah, ok I get it now... didn't read them in the past.

[65newloader]

Follow up

Hmmm. Just tried to post this, but said I wasn't logged in, which I thought I was. So, I will try again and if it is a double post, my apologizes.

Yes, it was a modified(so you can say it was not a Wolf round, but Wolf casing, primer, and powder(great clean burning powder by the way as others have stated) with the original charge of 28gr (seriously doubt Wolf would load their rounds to max at the factory and last few boxes I pulled had 28.2gr)(opinions?)(measured on Redding scale and then on digital) of Wolf powder with a 100gr Nosler Ballistic BT, so same weight bullet that came out. Case neck (and only the neck) was lubed expanded to spec. Powder was original load. Some do not crimp, but I put a very light crimp on them. Neck tension after expansion was like any other brass round. Shot first six of regular Wolf and then two with the Nosler replacement. Chrono said 2582 on first round and the second of 2588(opinions?). I have put ELDMs at factory 2.248 OAL (just measured) through it and these were at 2.248 OAL, also. Original Wolf come out to 2.200 OAL. I checked the powder fill and it was not a compressed charge. I was careful on making sure the loads were not hot or compressed. Trying to find a viable solution to non accurate undersized bullet replacement, but now??

Attached is a picture of the casing in the chamber. This is really close to what happened in the M1 stated earlier. Look close and you can see the split in the casing. Maybe it only happens once in every 2,000,000 plus factory rounds(just a random number), but it happened. Again, this was not a hot load. I don't make hot loads. I value my fingers and still have all my digits after years of cabinet work. Worst case scenario is a new lower, bolt and mag. Maybe this is the reason manufactures warn of not using steel case ammo(mine 18" SS 416R 5R probably BCA through different dealer)? Wanted to issue a warning that it can happen. You don't see it often from what I can find out, but it does. Could it have been my fault? Not ruling it out, but I tried to be very thorough and careful. Further post I do will have all pertinent info. Apologizes and Thanks!

[65newloader]

Attachment

For some reason, the attachment did not go in. Here it is again.CasingInChamber2.jpg

[Tex Nomex]

OP, you modified Wolf's product, but you're going to "call Wolf, E3 Arms, and Toolcraft and see what they will do"?
Are you even serious?