Case Head Separation?

[canyonman]

I recently bought a T/C Encore Pro Hunter. I purchased this set up for the ability to switch out barrels. So I quickly went out and got a Bergara .243 barrel. I got new brass and bullets and started experimenting with loads. Until one day at the range I had a case head separation. At first I thought it happened because of high pressure. I thought I might have over loaded it. Upon doing research I found case head separations usually happen to really old brass. Brass that's been reloaded to many times and is all stretched out. OK, but the brass that separated on me had only been through the resizing die once! I looked at the rest of my brass and all of it looked like it was ready to crack also, with a shiny ring around the case above the head.
So my question is how did I get case head separation on once reloaded brass? Someone said something about excessive head space in the barrel. What does that mean? Is the barrel bad? Can it be fixed. So far I've gotten good groups with it.
How about my full size die? Could I have set it up incorrectly so that it is stretching the brass too much? I'm fairly new to reloading.
That leads me to the next obvious question. How do I get the top half of the shell out of the chamber. I've tried oversized brushes with no success. It seems to be stuck good.
Any suggestions? I don't know what to do but I want to get back to shooting soon.
Thanks for any help you might throw my way.

 

[RELH]

Since you are a newbie, my reccommendation is going to cost you money to prevent you from possibly doing damage to your new barrel. Take it to a local gunsmith and have him remove the struck portion of the case. The last thing you need to do is scratch up the chamber trying to remove the struck case.
You may want to have the gunsmith to do a chamber cast of the barrel chamber to determine if it is within SAMMI specs and there is no excessive headspace.
My educated guess, I did say educated guess not 100% fact, is that your headspace may be fine and you failed to set up your reloading sizing die correctly. Did you set the die where the bottom of the die touches the shell case holder. If you did, you may have set the shoulder of the fired case to far back. when you do this and fire the case again, the brass will stretch until the case shoulder contacts the barrel chamber shoulder wall. this allows the brass to flow forward and thin out in a area that will seperate in two pieces and you have the problem you now have.
If the barrel chamber was reamed too deep by the factory that will do the same thing as it creates excessive headspace.
You should set your sizing die using a once fired case from the rifle by adjusting it down until it just touches the shoulder of the case at the shoulder-neck junction. You can see this by using a black felt marker to blacken the entire neck of the case. Do this before lubing the case and slowly adjust the die down by following the line it will leave while sizing the neck. when that line just barely touches the shoulder junction, stop there and lock your die with the locking ring before proceeding to resize the other cases. Now your die is adjusted for proper sizing of the case for that rifle and that rifle only.

If you get your sizing die adjusted correctly, you should get 5 or more reloads out of each case before you have to discard it due to neck cracks or loose primer pocket. Light loads will sometimes get you 10 or more reloads of the case. Hot loads have a tendency to inlarge the primer pocket in about 3-5 reloads.

RELH

 

[REDDOG]

compare the fired brass with new rounds to see WTF with the head space, for it to split out on ONE reload IMO unless its just really shitty brass, something is going on. is there a buldge on the fired cases, about where the belt would be on a belted mag?

I would do as RELH said, take it to a smith and bring along an intact case fired from that rifle, he'll sort it out for you.

 

[canyonman]

Thanks guys, for your response. I was able to get the stuck shell out with a screw extractor easy out. I have yet to trouble shoot the resizing die. I'm hoping that is where the problem lies and not with the rifle. There is not a bulge on the shell, more like a shiny ring. I've got some never fired brass that I can shoot and then retry the die.

 

[REDDOG]

Just for an example, this is a once fired round,out of a rifle with headspace issues..If I loaded it back up it would separate for sure.

 

[watts]

Did you have any luck removing your stuck case?
You can try a well nut. A well nut is a nut that is incased in rubber. You will need to find the right size nut. Then from the action slide the nut into place. Now titan your bolt that fits the threads in the well nut this will expand the rubber around the nut but not to tight. Now take your cleaning rod and tap out the stuck case.