Steel-cased ammo case separations?

[JoePfeiffer]

My CZ-82 is now at a local gunsmith with a bulged barrel and totally stuck slide. It looks like what happened is one round suffered a case separation that left part of the case in the barrel, and the next bulged the barrel when the bullet hit the stuck case.
No injuries, fortunately, except to the pistol itself.

Anyway, I was shooting LVE steel cased ammo in it, so I I'm wondering:  are these failures more common with steel cased ammo, are did I just get hit with a fluke that would be equally likely with brass cases?

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[JoePfeiffer]

Not exactly what I was asking, but this is a very interesting article comparing steel case vs brass case ammo (well, the fact there were no separations in all the testing is of direct relevance). http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/brass-vs-steel-cased-ammo/

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[SMSgt]

Was it Russian ammo? I steer away from that stuff totally. Plus I reload, so there's no need for me to buy steel-cased ammo unless out of desperation.

[JoePfeiffer]

Was it Russian ammo? I steer away from that stuff totally. Plus I reload, so there's no need for me to buy steel-cased ammo unless out of desperation.

Yes, most of what's gone through that pistol in the time I've had it has been Russian ammo of one sort of another. This is my first noteworthy failure with it, but it's a doozy!

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[armed hiker]

My 2 cz82's have been fed a diet of anything that fits. mostly silver bear but plenty of other steel cased ammo with  no problems.

I would look at it this way, what was the gun designed to shoot? I have not seen any surplus brass cased 9x18 soviet surplus but I would imagine the czechs used it. Steel cased 9x18 is probably what most people use if there were widespread issues I would think it would be all over the net.

[JoePfeiffer]

Update: I've decided I don't know whether the gun is worth my time to try to get apart, but I've reluctantly concluded it's not worth paying for a gunsmith's time. So I've gotten it back; it's sitting on the shelf for the time being. If Numrich ever gets barrels in stock then trying to get it apart to replace the barrel will turn into a project; meanwhile I'm going to get a more modern CCW pistol (current plan after shooting one is a Beretta Nano).

After looking down the barrel some more I'm really doubting the case separation guess. My current guess is a squib got lodged in the barrel (no, I didn't notice anything wrong with it at the time) and the next bullet did the damage. The metal left in the barrel could easily be the jacket from either of the bullets.

I really liked that gun...

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[JoePfeiffer]

Yay!  After several hours with a drill, and several more hours with an adjustable reamer, the slide is now off! I already have the new barrel for it; next steps are to finish disassembling it and then see how to go about rigging up a barrel press (or just take it to a gunsmith: it's now at a point where the labor costs wouldn't exceed the value of the gun. But what's the fun in that?)

[M1A4ME]

Good to hear you got it apart.

I've never had a squib.  Duds, yes, squibs, no.  Unless you were just slow firing at a target, or plinking, it might be pretty difficult to keep from firing that next round. 

I've never bought steel cased ammo to shoot, but I pick up all the steel .45 acp cases I find at the range that are fresh (not rusted) and reload them.  I've been reloading them for 3 or 4 years right along with my brass cases - no issues so far.

[boomboom]

How do headspace it? Or is it like an AR barrel and it comes head spaced?

[JoePfeiffer]

Yes, it comes ready to go (it headspaces on the case mouth).

[gtmule]

Were you able to locate a barrel?  If so, would you mind posting where you found it?

[JoePfeiffer]

Were you able to locate a barrel?  If so, would you mind posting where you found it?

Straight from the source!  Yes, it has polygonal rifling.
http://shop.cz-usa.com/ProductDetail/0330094001_Barrel--Cz83-9mm-Makarov