Silver Eagle nickel case
I thought I had made a post a couple weeks ago about an experience I had with the Silver Eagle 40 gr. nickel case, but I can't find it. I have never figured out how to search this forum.
Anyway, I generally use the Aguila .22WMR brass case and it shot great in my M22 Zastava. Academy was out of the brass case so I picked up 3 boxes of the nickel case. It was on sale & only a little more than the brass case. I got out to the farm where I shoot when I want to stretch out the distance as well was try a little nasty bird control.
I was about 10 rounds into the box when I had my first experience of a case failure in 50+ years of shooting. There was this boom, the bolt open vigorously and smoke & hot powder burned my cheek. Thank you shooting glasses! I never found the case. I checked the rifle pretty carefully and found nothing wrong with the action, bolt, etc.
So, I started shooting again. About 3 or 4 more rounds later I had a second case rim failure. Smoke and gases but the bolt did not open. Inspection of the case showed a rupture around the rim where the firing pin struck the case. Shot a couple more rounds, had another! Same location, rupture was smaller in length. Shot 2-3 more rounds and had a third! Same place on the rim, rupture was very small, but it was plenty obvious, as were the others when they occurred.
At this point I decided I had better quit while I still had a head. I contacted Aguila about the incident and received an email back from the customer rep asking for details, etc. almost immediately. I explained the incidents similar to the above and sent some photos along with the lot number, where purchased, etc.
The customer rep was apologetic for my incident. A few days later I received another email from her. She was sending me a box for me to send the ruptured cases, the part box and the 2 full boxes back to TXAT for QC testing. In a follow-up email, she said she was sending me an Aguila hat and some other items for my use in the return box. She also said Aguila TXAT would replace my ammo. I kind of tongue in cheek asked her if I could get the brass case instead of nickel.
I guess I will find out.
All in all, Aguila-TXAT could not have been better in the timeliness of responses to my incident or more concerned on rectifying the situation.
BTW, the Aguila 22WMR 40 gr. brass case (which is a couple $s cheaper) gave me 1/2 groups consistently through several boxes, slightly better than the CCI .22 WMR 40 gr. I have pretty well switched over to Aguila 22SESV, 22SEHV and the 22 WMR for all my shooting. The price is right and all my .22s seem very pleased with the change. With the below exception.....
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