Split Cartridge

[maktayla 50]

I have been hunting / shooting now for over 30 years, mainly air rifle, and rimfire. Even though I have been around shotguns all my life I never really got to shoot one a great deal. It was mostly hunting with my Father, clay pigeon shooting and so on. Anyway, I have only recently owned my own shotgun. Took it out out the other day and loaded it with Winchester 32g No6's. These cartridges were in excellent condition and so are, the barrells of my shotgun. This was the first time I tried these cartridges.

My first shot of the day was at a crow. After taking one shot, I took the cartridge out and it had split almost down the entire length, and you clearly see the the white powdery marks left by the cartridge(gases) when fired. It did not mark the inside of the chamber, but it did worry me. I immediately stopped using the Winchesters and nervously, (after a long think about whether I should continue) switched to Eley Coles (32g No 6'S),. Didn't have an issue with any of these and quite happily carried on all day.

Has this happened to anyone before? Was it possibly just down to a defective cartridge? Should I never use the Winchesters again?

 

Hopefully I'm just worrying too much but, as a sort of newbie to the ownership of a shotgun, I would just like to know if there is anything I should worry about should this occurr again. I know when I switched to the Eleys I didn't have an issue, so that to me points to a defective Winchester cartridge??????

 

Any advice would be great.

 

Oh yes, I did hit the crow

 

 

Thanks

[shotforthepot 4]

I would say it's down to a defective cartridge. I went out to try my Dad's new gun last night and one of his lyvale express didn't fire, the firing pin had struck the top but no bang, he asked me to try it in my gun (which i was skeptical about doing) but the results were the same, so I've emailed Lyvale now as this isn't the first one we've had dud from that box. If I were you I'd keep the Cartridge and email the makers expressing your concern as that could have left your gun with damage. The fact that you hit your target tells me that your barrel should be ok though. If you tell Winchester that you are worried about using the rest of the box because of the faulty cartridge they should at the very least reimburse you for the cartridges.

[remi700 99]

Had those lyalvale supercomps one time. Every second shell wouldn't fire. Pure shite, I brought what was left a them back and got a refund. The boy in the gun shop said that everyone had the same problem with them. He reckoned that they were designed for the olympics in Japan and with the cooler weather the primers wouldn't ignite. That might be shite but thats what he told me.

[shotforthepot 4]

Well the trouble is at £9 odd per box it would cost me £10 in fuel to take them back because we live out in the sticks.lol

[shotforthepot 4]

Here is the reply to my email to lyvale, Needless to say I wasn't impressed by it. Bare in mind that I also tried the Dud cartridge in my gun.

 

Thank you for your email, I firstly must apologise you've had to write to us on a matter of product quality, you are correct in assuming a miss- fire is very rare, a true miss fire is statistically one in a million if someone experiences more than one it usally indicates either the mainspring and/or firing pin need replacing.

 

I'm sure you won't experience any more though if you do please review and ask a gunsmith to look at the spring/firing pins.

 

Thank you for choosing and using Lyalvale Express Cartridges.

 

Kind regards,

 

Marcus

 

Marcus A Iddon

UK Sales Manager

Lyalvale Express Limited

[remi700 99]

In my case it certainly wasn't bad springs or pins. She was hittin them real hard, never had the problem with any other cartridge.

[shotforthepot 4]

Ditto, they're just passing the buck. How can they say a cartridge isn't a dud when two different weapons wouldn't fire it?

 

Shows what they care about their companies reputation doesn't it?

[Continental Shooter 2]

Hi fellas,

 

I reload a lot and in early days that used to happen to me when the load was too heavy and the explosion caused the shell to split.

 

Sometimest this is due to the plastic being a bit thinner in certain places but that's nothing to worry about.

 

It could well be happening again, but it's very rear that happens twice with the same lot. And if you're not sure send the shells up to me and I'll test them for you (no return, though )