.40sw Mangled brass

[BT8850]

Hopefully this is posted in the right place.

Just want to get some input on what you guys thought could have cause this? Unfortunately I don't have any of the ammo left. I bought it at a gun show, it was called Mountaineers Ridge I believe. It was reman 180g FMJs in Federal brass .40sw. I shot it out of my Beretta 96 with the factory recoil spring and factory mag/spring. I've heard of some Beretta 92's cracking the locking blocks and causing problems but those examples were mostly service pistols with 10-15k+ rounds through them. Im nearly certain my count is right around 1500 personally having shot just under 1200, previous owner bought it new in late 90's and shot couple boxes, all factory off the shelf loads, nothing crazy.

The gun shot great until it started acting the day I found this one and thought maybe just the ammo. Tried with federal factory 180g fmj walmart red box ammo and i found one piece of brass slightly wrinkled but not as bad as the one pictured, and gun was shooting awful. Tried 165g cci aluminum case and found another slightly wrinkled case.

Changed to a wolff recoil spring and new standard power mag springs, haven't found anymore wrinkled brass, gun still shoots bad using the aforementioned red box federal (maybe just me).

[attachment deleted by admin]

[sqlbullet]

That happens when the brass is still bouncing around in the action as it closes.  In general, it is due to poor extractor tension on the case rim.



These came from my Para P16-40.  I added some tension to the extractor, and problem solved.

In a Beretta that only exhibits the issue with a certain box of ammo, I would suspect the rims on that batch of brass is too thin.  But, you may want to grab an extractor and spring as they aren't terribly expensive (about $20).

[BT8850]

Wow those are pretty gnarly looking! So basically when the slide is closing, the case is not being held tight enough and the case mouth hangs up going into the chamber? And then fires all torn up like that??

[The_Shadow]

There can be several issues to setup the brass to be trapped by the returning slide...

The extractor is probably holding the brass too tight, it is not completely kicked out from under the extractor by the ejector, the closing slide jams the spent casing into the barrel and or barrel hood, cutting the brass against the encountered parts.

Recoil spring being too strong to allow the slide to fully travel rearward, to have the ejector kick it out and off of the extractor can be suspect. 

Dirty action and lack of lube properties can add drag to slide movements.

Extractor hook can accumulate crud increasing drag on it's function.

[BT8850]

Thanks for the input! I'll have to really have a look at the extractor, I've never really detail cleaned the pistol so i'm sure its probably pretty dirty. Typically I clean it everytime I shoot it but its just the basic field strip clean and lube. I never realized it could be such an issue! I'll let you guys know how it works out.

[sqlbullet]

Wow those are pretty gnarly looking! So basically when the slide is closing, the case is not being held tight enough and the case mouth hangs up going into the chamber? And then fires all torn up like that??

Nope...

If the extractor isn't holding the cartridge tightly, then it doesn't function correctly as the pivot point when the ejector hits the case.  Then instead of being tossed free, it just kinda bounces around in the action.

[BT8850]

Update: Got some time to take the extractor out and have a look on the Beretta. Definitely very dirty in the groove and all over the extractor itself and spring. Gave it a good clean and put it back together and going to hopefully take it out and put some rounds through it this weekend. Will update soon.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[BT8850]

Shot several 5 round stings out of the gun today, 165g Federal white box FMJ, ran great with no issues and accuracy has returned. Did not recover any muffed up cases. Thanks for the help!

[Redneck]

The picture of the case in the original post is from insufficient case mouth belling and/or case mouth chamfering when seating a bullet. When I first started re-loading I did the exact same thing by not having enough belling or chamfer on the case.

[sparkyv]

Looks like some of my reloading failures! 

[sqlbullet]

These aren't from reloading, though it can happen in that process too. These are being torn up when fired as a part of the ejection process.