Case head separation?

So for Father's Day I decided to hook my dad up with giving his rifle a makeover. He has a Tikka T3 in 308 I bought for him for Father's Day back in 2007. I bought a new Leupold scope, new rings, bedded the rifle, modified the bolt stop to make it a long action and bought a new LA magazine.
Because we live in the great state of CA I also told him I would load him up some non lead rounds. Well, today I went to the range to start load testing.

Before I started I needed to zero the new scope so I had a box of old old Federal 308 rounds my dad gave me when I took his gun (not sure of the date but I'd guess they were bought in the late 80s early 90s). First round I touched off left me with a face full of hot gases and burning oil. Tried to eject the round and nothing. So after cycling the action a few times the spent round came out. I decided not to use those rounds anymore and sighted it in with a box from the range store then started load development with 175 grn LRXs. No issues with those at all, think I'm going to settle on 44 grns of IMR 4895 pushing them at 2613 FPS.

Well my last 3 shots I had 3 Berger 180 grn I reloaded 2 grns below book max with a jump of .010. Just wanted to see how the gun liked Berger's. Well, first shot I got a face full of smoke again. I know it was stupid, but I figured it was a fluke and shot another. Same thing?

What would cause this? Is the headspace on the gun off or would you think something's off with the brass? I was using RP brass with the LRXs and I was using Federal brass (same make of brass that separated with the factory round) with the Berger's. The Fed brass with the Berger's was on it's 3rd firing, once from a SCAR and once from this gun. I just received new 308 brass in the mail today so I'm going to chuck all the brass I used and start new. Just hoping nothings wrong with he gun!

Also, which one of you creed loving fools has this license plate???lol

Book max is a general number not specific to your rifle at all.

Start lower and work up.

Ha!! That's awsome!!! A Mazda cx-9!! That's the perfect rig for a creed guy...or gal.

As for your rifle, you need to be careful with that, and obviously don't shoot two that do that. There are no flukes, it's science and pressure is pressure.
I always recommend a competent gun Smith when something odd happens rather than relying on internet opinions.
You may have damaged the chamber when the brass ruptured, those hot gasses don't do your chamber any favors.
It's odd that the primer and case head don't look worse.
Good luck with it, be careful.

Looks way over pressure from here and that there was likely some damage to the brass prior to firing. That kidn of case splitting is very unusual.

Yeah that first shot with the factory ammo scared me. I've blown primers before and it was nothing like this. I did fire 35 rds after the first issue and no issues at all. 15 were factory loaded and 20 were reloads. The common factor in all 3 that did this was FC brass? If it was a chamber issue I would think it would have happened with the LRX loads. I ran those over book max with no issues at all. I'll probably give the new brass a try and if it happens again I'll take it to a gunsmith.

Ross1147 said:

Yeah that first shot with the factory ammo scared me. I've blown primers before and it was nothing like this. I did fire 35 rds after the first issue and no issues at all. 15 were factory loaded and 20 were reloads. The common factor in all 3 that did this was FC brass? If it was a chamber issue I would think it would have happened with the LRX loads. I ran those over book max with no issues at all. I'll probably give the new brass a try and if it happens again I'll take it to a gunsmith.

Click to expand...

Drive band bullets will always run way faster and with higher charges with less pressure than traditional bullets. It's almost scary what you can get away with running them.

I would bet that Federal brass is way heavier, meaning more brass content, meaning less case capacity, meaning higher pressures, than the R-P brass. I have found this to be the case with .243, .260, .25-06, .270, 7RM, .300WM. Federal has had higher brass content which results in higher pressures with the same charge weight that is fine in other brands of brass.
Never substitute components without dropping down and starting over. I bet "book max" is with another brand of brass.

Agree looks over pressure, however I've never been a fan of Federal brass. Since you had this occur with only Federal brass, the cause kind of points that way. Definitely examining the chamber with a borescope or have a smith look at it just to be safe. Perhaps a good argument for starting with new quality brass and working up on the charge. Good luck

Federal brass has less capacity and is generally softer. You definitely are running WAY over pressure with the loads in the Federal brass. You are actually lucky Tikka guns are so well made. You came very close to catastrophic failure, that brass perforation pattern is caused by web expansion that is WAY over tolerances.. You definitely need to have that gun examined real close by a good gunsmith before shooting anything else in it. Go buy a lottery ticket, you are real lucky you still have both eyes.

morning, I use norma brass when I can obtain for certain cartridges.
Winchester brass has been very good. some persons do not
like Winchester.
justme gbot tum

I would go ahead and have a gun smith check the gun just for your piece of mind.


So I had a federal factory ammo do the exact same thing years ago. Sent a picture to federal and they wanted the box. Never did send it to them just pulled the bullets and used the brass . Did not have a problem I just figure that one had a defect in the brass or over loaded. But the pictures u provided looked exactly the same.
The only time I've had a problem with brass is the ones I've reloaded. It was Remington brass that I've reloaded a lot. The full length sizing die stressed the brass down at the bottom of the brass pretty good. Probably my fault with lack of lube. Be honest I can't remember. After that I started to have issue with the brass. Ended up trashing that old brass and getting new brass. I didn't take a chance.

Has the rifle had a barrel changed or is it a totally stock Tikka?

Totally stock Tikka. If this just happened with the reloads I would be thinking it was something I did but because it first happened with the factory round it has me wondering...would the fact that the factory federals were old (but in good shape) cause them to be overpressure? Also, if over pressure why do the primers and bases look fine? No ejector marks or primer cratering?

I don't know about the Federal ammo being old, but my theory on the primer looking fine is that the case gave way first. That would imply the pressure isn't too much but rather the brass was faulty.