DLSJR
AH fanatic
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2019
- Messages
- 636
- Reaction score
- 3,153
- Media
- 27
- Hunted
- Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, South Africa, Tanzania
Last weekend I was participating in a Mzuri Safari Club fun shoot at one of our member’s ranch. I was shooting the .375 H&H I recently had built and experienced a problem I’d never seen before, a full Case Head separation! I was shooting some handloads with a 300 grain TSX pushed by 70.0 grains of Reloader 15, Federal 215 primer and once fired (2nd loading) Federal brass. It’s a middle of the road loading giving us about 2,400 fps thats easy on the shooter but excellent for buffalo.
The first shot, off Gunstix at 100 yards, was spot on. I cycled The bolt and fired a 2nd shot. The 2nd shot hung up momentarily when I cycled the bolt; and when I did pull it rearward, all that came out was the cartridge case head. The body of the case was stuck in the chamber. I looked at the first case I’d shot, and while it was in one piece it had partially burned through also. I didn’t have anything to remove the stuck case so I simply switched over to my .416 Hoffman and kept shooting.
On my way home I stopped to leave the rifle with the gun builder who loads all my rifle ammo. We inspected all the 375 ammo, finding about another half dozen rounds with visual defects that would have failed if I’d shot them. All fired brass from other manufacturers inluding Nosler, Norma and Remington cases, was fine. The defective brass was all from the same box of Federal factory loaded ammo That we had reloaded once. The stuck case wouldn’t come out with a bore brush so the gunsmith had to remove the barreled action from the stock and create an ‘easy out’ tool to remove the stuck case. Since the stock had been removed, we shot the gun half a dozen times to RE-zero it to 1” high at 100 yards. One round was from the same lot of failed brass and showed signs of beginning case failure while the other five rounds from different brass were all fine.
I was fortunate this problem happened on the practice range instead of in the field while buffalo hunting. We hadn’t bothered to check the brass while loading as it was once fired factory ammo. Won’t make that mistake again. We are also inspecting every single round that we’re taking to Tanzania in a few weeks. None of the ammo will be using Federal brass except for factory ammo loaded with 300 grain Bearclaws, which are my favorite buffalo bullet.
The first shot, off Gunstix at 100 yards, was spot on. I cycled The bolt and fired a 2nd shot. The 2nd shot hung up momentarily when I cycled the bolt; and when I did pull it rearward, all that came out was the cartridge case head. The body of the case was stuck in the chamber. I looked at the first case I’d shot, and while it was in one piece it had partially burned through also. I didn’t have anything to remove the stuck case so I simply switched over to my .416 Hoffman and kept shooting.
On my way home I stopped to leave the rifle with the gun builder who loads all my rifle ammo. We inspected all the 375 ammo, finding about another half dozen rounds with visual defects that would have failed if I’d shot them. All fired brass from other manufacturers inluding Nosler, Norma and Remington cases, was fine. The defective brass was all from the same box of Federal factory loaded ammo That we had reloaded once. The stuck case wouldn’t come out with a bore brush so the gunsmith had to remove the barreled action from the stock and create an ‘easy out’ tool to remove the stuck case. Since the stock had been removed, we shot the gun half a dozen times to RE-zero it to 1” high at 100 yards. One round was from the same lot of failed brass and showed signs of beginning case failure while the other five rounds from different brass were all fine.
I was fortunate this problem happened on the practice range instead of in the field while buffalo hunting. We hadn’t bothered to check the brass while loading as it was once fired factory ammo. Won’t make that mistake again. We are also inspecting every single round that we’re taking to Tanzania in a few weeks. None of the ammo will be using Federal brass except for factory ammo loaded with 300 grain Bearclaws, which are my favorite buffalo bullet.
Last edited: