Went to the range yesterday and was putting my BCM midlength through its paces. It has a BCM BCG (FA) and an H buffer. It is usually 100% reliable.
I was using Magpul Pmags and Brownells 30rnd mags with Magpul followers.
I was shooting Ultramax 75gr BTHP match .223 ammo.
I was using plenty of lube (Slip 2000).
When the malfunction occured, at first I thought it was a Failure to Feed, racked the gun, and BCG did not close home, at which point it looked like a double feed.
When I dropped the mag and locked bolt open, I discovered something very odd, I had 1/2 of a brass case wedged atop the round that was still partly protruding from the chamber. This 1/2 a case was shorn in two (about a third of the way up the cartridge from its base and the cut was perpendicular to the length of the cartridge, not lengthwise). Upon pulling the other round from the chamber, I discovered the other missing half of the previous case had still been in the chamber and it came out with the full cartridge I pulled from the chamber.
I Will try to post pics of the case later tonight, but I thought it a very bizarre malfunction for a casing to be shorn in two inside the chamber, the back half had extracted and the front half remained in the chamber so that the next fed round pressed in on top of and inside the front half of the old case.
I have looked the BCG over and nothing seems to be broken. Could this have been an overpressure round? What else could cause a case to cut in two IN the chamber like that?
I carefully looked the rifle over before attempting any more shots and made sure there was not a squib up the spout. the rifle functioned fine for the rest of the 50 rnds I had left using the same ammo as before.
Sounds like a case separation. I have seen it happen when a case is used in reloading one time too many. I am making an assumption here that the headspace on your BCM is correct.
I have a maximum Headspace gauge and will check it tonight. Yes, I think Ultramax is remanufactured. I think I am going to use factory only from now on.
Thanks for the input.
Case separation indeed. Ammo/case problem… not likely the gun.
I’ve had a few of these in my AR career. Here’s one of them. The rest of the case is in the chamber in front of the live round you see teh bolt trying to feed.
(I wouldn’t bother checking your headspace considering the ammo was Ultramax.)
Thanks. Yes, that’s exactly what it looked like.
Well, I’m actually glad this happened as a reminder to myself and others that remanufactured ammo may be okay for the range, but don’t run it in an actual Home Defense or other tactical scenario.
I use Hornady TAP for that.
A chamber brush will pull the rest of the case out too. That’s how I got both of mine out. I didn’t happen to have anything to get the above pic’d issue resolved. I bought a shell extractor after that incident.
Yeah. It’s rare, but It can happen. I have a mag or two of hand load defense ammo deep in my stash. But I used new cases to make those loads.
I was lucky that the forward part of my case did not stick badly enough in the chamber to need a tool to get it out. It came right out when I pulled the round that had fed on top of it out.
Ugh, I shot ultramax years ago back when it actually was almost the same price as wolf. I had a case separation that required a pair of pliers to clear and I have never bought the stuff since. Hell, nowadays it costs more than new brass cased stuff.
