Originally Posted by
Marty Henry
Case failures do occur due to faults during manufacture that are not visible during inspection. First firing is ok but the stress of 50k psi makes the fault pop out so to speak. When reloaded it will let go. Probably a 1 in a million accident. Federal cases are the ones that have given me trouble when reloaded so i avoid them now.
I see your comment on heat discolouring on a chambered and extracted round. A cook off would raise pressure quite a lot but probably not rupture the case, and anyhow the primer itself didnt show pressure signs, so i suspect it was just a one off. Most of us have had them, my most memorable was a case head split that needed a rod to get the case out and plated the bolt head and mag well with brass. Scary.