O.K. I know I posted this before under "why you should never shoot your friend's reloads" but now I have pictures to ponder. I showed Jim all the responses from you guys but he gave me the rest of the brass and wanted me to post pictures to get a more scientific :rolleyes: answer if at all possible. I'm trying to get him to join this forum too.

This is the piece of brass from Jim's rifle that was stuck in it a couple of weeks ago when he and Sam came out to sight in. Jim had a 3/4 inch , 100 yard group going until this happened. The cartridge didn't load easy but it didn't load all that hard either. The piece of stuck case came out easily, he used the cleaning brush trick, without any penitrating oil or solvent.

What we realy want to know is what caused the dimples around the shoulder of the case? Jim has since bought his own dies, press, brass, etc. etc. etc. and is being tutored by 2 of the best reloaders in Craig :o

Oh yeah, the day I shot that puny 5pt bull Jim MISSED 4 shots at a cow that I had cow talked to within 10 yards of him. I think she was too close and there was lots of oakbrush branches in the way. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!!! :D

Case failed as I see it . Look at the rest of the brass and see if you see a white ring about were that broken case failed.
You need some new brass.

I once had a buck walk just past me . I had put the rifle down and walked afew feet as Nature called.
First things first, and you cannot run with your pants down .
Another time one walked past as I was watching a chickadee land on the end of my gun barrel.
Happy

But why the dimples around the shoulder?

Well my thought on that is -
When the bottom of the case let go after you fired the round the bullet pushed the top of the broken case backward and the dipples are from the exhaust gasesback over the case. this would be the path of the least resistance.
I have pushed old brass beyond it limitsand ended up just ejecting part of a case .
When you reload your Die does not always resize the very bottom of your case so your working the area just before the base . this over time will weaken the brass . Materal moves forward and you end up with a thin ring . this can sometimes bee seen or of you scrached the inside of the bottom of the case =you might feel it with a wire.
If your using warm loads it might happen after just two loadings.
Now I will only use old brass( more than four time reloaded ) at the range saving the new or once or twice fired case's for hunting.

Well my thought on that is -

Assuming that other case's other wise look fine and the rifle is head spaced properly, and loads are not over charged.
When the bottom of the case let go after you fired the round the bullet pushed the top of the broken case backward and the dipples are from the exhaust gases back over the case. This would be the path of the least resistance.
I have pushed old brass beyond it limits and ended up just ejecting part of a case .
When you reload your Die does not always resize the very bottom of your case so your working the area just before the base . this over time will weaken the brass . Materal moves forward and you end up with a thin ring . this can sometimes be seen or of you scratched the inside of the bottom of the case =you might feel it with a wire.
If your using warm loads it might happen after just two loadings.
Now I will only use old brass( more than four time reloaded ) at the range saving the new or once or twice fired case's for hunting.

Now I also saw a remintom pump that had feeding problems , so the lad thought he would open the base of the chamber a bit and allow the bullet in .
Well after he fired a round the case stuck in the chamber expanding just above the base were the chamber was reamed out . He did not know what was wrong with the gun.
Once I saw a fired case you could see a white ring just above the base. It made a mushroom conforming to the new chamber . The question then did we wanta good parts gun ?
So much for the self taught back yard smith
So I asume your rifle is in good working order .

It's a pretty new Savage and hasn't shown any other signs of pressure anywhere else on any other brass so I'm sure now that it was anlod over worked piece of brass. Hope some of the newbies pick up on this and take care of their brass.

I too follow the new or twice fired brass for loads when it counts and save the "old" brass for the range or working up loads. Especially when it comes to my magnums and the 30-06 A.I.