Case head seperation??

[Ray P]

My nephew was shooting his father's Savage99 in 308 win. with hand loads. When he ejected a fired piece of brass and had a the case head? I understand some that this can come from excessive headspacing?? Can this also come from over working the brass in a full length sizing die? The rifle has roughly 200 rounds done the barrel. Thanks for any help. Our dad always full lenght size brass for all our lever guns.
Later
Ray P

[Lenard]

Ray, the Savage 99's, seem to always have a flex in the action when firing. This distorts the brass around the head. Thus there is a stretching of the brass and you know what that causes, case seperation.

In fact, you can see the distortion with the naked eye if you look closely.

Lenard

[Rick in Oregon]

Ray: When F/L sizing, it is critical to ensure the die does not push the case shoulder back unless you intend to set it back slightly in order to chamber. By setting it back unintentionally, you create excessive headspace, and a incipient or full case head separation will occurr. This may well be what happened in that 99, or the other cause could be as Lenard described. Either issue will separate a case head.

I'd look at all cases that have been fired in that rifle, and look for a shiny ring just ahead of the web of each case. That bright ring is stretched brass getting ready to let go. If you take a paper clip and straighten it out, sharpen one end on the grinder or file, then bend a section at the pointed end at 90 degrees about 1/8" long, then stick it down a suspect case while scratching with the point from the web upwards at the bright ring location, you'll likely feel a crack developing that will possibly separate on the next firing.

Toss those cases if the ring is present, as they've been stretched, and are now a possible danger and will separate on the next subsequent firing. The extractor of course will pull the case head from the chamber after separation, but it can be a real pain to remove the balance of the brass case from the chamber as you may already have found out.

Hope this helps.

[Ray P]

Thanks guys for the input! My dad was one to always size the brass so it cycled smoothly before he loaded them and I'm suspecting over worked brass. I never thought about action flex the Lenard spoke about. These rounds are already loaded, but we'll do paper clip routen on the other brass that is not trashed. For the other piece of brass in the chamber........we tapped the butt of the rifle on the bench and it fell out........ I was one happy camper!
Thanks again,
Later
Ray P