.223 bolt action rifle bolt damage after case head failure

Us "armchair experts" can give you conclusions all day..just follow Scorch's suggestion and let the manufacturers carry the ball. No one here will replace the CZ.
 
I have had a CZ527 for 5 years.
I have fired it 10 or 20 times and blown the bolt face off twice.
If the case head fails, the little parts gas cut real fast.


It is not a tough gun, like a Ruger #1 or a break action.
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That is a ridiculously high case head failure rate. Same lot of ammo?
 
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Those were necked down 30 carbine case heads that were not supported to the web. The barrel has since been set back, the chamber reamed, and a different chamber chamfer made.
 
Those were necked down 30 carbine case heads that were not supported to the web. The barrel has since been set back, the chamber reamed, and a different chamber chamfer made.
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Even though the case failed, you still feel that the bolt is not as strong as it should be?

What about the chamber itself?

Here are some photos shared on another forum of different failures (note that I do not know the make or model of these firearms).

oct122009132.jpg


A-overall_damage_jpg.jpg


Dsc00022.jpg
 
I have blown up a lot of guns, but no rifle chambers. My CZ527 lost a bolt face and an extractor twice, from gas cutting. I was slow to learn I did not have case support.

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I know what brass looks like with high pressure, and that case of yours that blew up, never saw high pressure. The gun must have failed at low pressure.

It looks to me like a brittle barrel. I have never seen a barrel split that long. There is a quality of steel, toughness. It did not have it. I have heard of Stainless being brittle at very low temp, but I do not know anything about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toughness
 
I am not great at reading pressure signs without a jewelers loop and the case in my hand but even the non-failure cases look like a cratered primer to me. By process of elimination, the rifle could not have caused that particular failure. The two cases beside the failed case show obvious brass flowing.
 
I have had a few 10mm blow up from over pressure in my IPSC days and the primers were much more smashed than the primer in your pics. Your primers don't look over pressured to me but my experience is with handguns. That doesn't mean the catastrophe failure didn't come from defective brass. I have seen factory defective brass before and the results look like your pictures. I personally think Federal is at fault. Please keep us posted on the end results. Glad you were not hurt but having a cartridge fail is every ones nightmare. Despite maybe developing psychological problem with flinching because of the incident, the sooner you get shooting again the better.
 
Again when looking at the failed case, I don't a shock failure in the edges.
Rather I see an almost blow-torch-like melting/bending of the material.

I'm betting that the Federal brass -- long known to be amongst the softest of
commercial brasses -- was too soft.
 
A simple brass failure does not destroy an action. It takes extreme pressure to do that. I have blown more belts than I care to remember over the years and no damage was done to the action. A touch bit stiff to open, but no damage.
 
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