First case head separation

[chris in va]

Thousands of rounds and this is the first time I've experienced such a thing. Remington Golden Bullet bulk pack, plinking with my Henry lever action 22lr. A weird FUPP sound and some powder got blown onto my hand. The case head had a clean peel about 3/4 the way around.

The RO said he's seen a lot of these lately, wondering if I should shoot up the rest of the box now.

 

[griz]

The only two times I've seen a rimfire blow out were when a guy used LR in a mag chamber and when an improperly assembled gun fired out of battery. It's really a lot of pressure pushing brass particles out, and is pretty dangerous. If nothing else it will point out how important safety glasses are.

I think in your position I would continue shooting that ammo but if it happend again I would contact Remington.

 

[Flopsweat]

You might want to send the damaged case to Remington if you still have it. Maybe call them first. Usually the manufacturers are interested in examining failures like that. Did you find any damage to your rifle? A .22LR won't always do anything to the gun when it grenades, but it can happen. The most common causes of head separation, as I understand it, are structural anomalies in the case itself (thin spot, void, fracture) and firing out of battery. Since you haven't had any trouble in the past, I'd suspect the ammo, unless the gun was unusually dirty at the time. Even then I'd be about 50/50. Meantime, if it were my choice, I'd hang onto the rest of the ammo until Remington told me what they think. They may want you to send them the whole box, and will probably at least want the lot number from it if they want to pursue the issue.