First time in fifteen years...

Las time this happened was about fifteen years ago so I am doing alright I suppose. This is a .308 with a max load of Varget/2208 and a 150 grain Hornady. Didn't even notice it except the shot fell out side the group a little bit, and then when I opened the bolt only the case head came out. This is in a BSA Majestic.

(The last time was with a 270 with old brass and loaded with the wrong powder. That time I felt a touch of gas go past my face and a some smoke whiffed out of the breach. I was dumb enough to fire another cartridge too. That one blew the back end off as well. (That was a BSA Majestic with the bolt from a Monarch in it.)

Anyway, this .308 is loaded with some ancient CAC brass from the 1970's. It was given to me used and I had no idea how many firings it had. I have probably fired this batch of old CAC about 3-4 times. I dont really keep track. So I suppose I will junk the rest of it. Interesting anyway, and the rifle handled the gas like it was nothing. I always said case head failures are not much to worry about. But I was surprised the bullet hit the target and was in the same group as three other shots. I wouldnt have thought so.

https://i.ibb.co/vhvWth7/IMG-20221205-091636-1.jpg

There is a thing with the age related decay of some forms of smokeless powder, that when the cases are left loaded for a long period the resulting chemicals attack the zinc component inside the case where it can't be seen. In some situations the separations might not be a number of firings or loading technique issue - I advised a guy a while back to stop shooting some milsurp 7.62 with arabic characters on the case head for this reason. He had two separations out of 10 shots and those were as built first firing...

That was 15 Xmases ago. Lucky boi.