Last weekend when I was at the range, I switched from .38s to .357 magnums. After my first 6 shots, I ejected the shells from the revolver wheel, and started to reload. One chamber wouldn't accept a round all the way. I figured it was just fouled, and kept reloading on the five remaining for the rest of the day.

When I went to clean it today, I found a casing "sleeve" in the chamber about half the length of a normal empty case. What would cause a round to break a casing this way? Is it something fairly common that I haven't run into before? Was it potentially dangerous?

I'm not surprised that I didn't notice the ejected casing being deformed/shorter, as I was ejecting directly into a nearby trash can.

Thoughts?

What kind of ammo was it? You had some weak brass, could be bad tolerance control from the manufacturer. Did you notice a difference in the feel when you fired? If not, then overcharging is probably not the culprit.

Probably just weak brass or some other fluke. Anything like this is potentially dangerous, but this sleeve kept you from putting a round in that slot. Was this ammo reloaded or new?
What brand?

I've reloaded thousands of rounds for my .38/.357. both loads, and have never had anything like this happen, and I re-use my brass until it splits.

[quote="Brewman"]Probably just weak brass or some other fluke. Anything like this is potentially dangerous, but this sleeve kept you from putting a round in that slot. Was this ammo reloaded or new?
What brand?/quote]

It was not a reload, it was one of those eeeevil Black Talons. I showed the sleeve to Mark today, and he said he had seen a similar thing happen with a 9mm round once.

Leave it to me to have something odd happen...

This happened to me once with .45ACP round in my 1911. The guy at Bill's who managed to dig it out of the chamber said he hadn't seen it before.