Burnside Cases

[Kenneth L. Walters]

I've got a 5th model Burnside in excellent condition and a few of the brass cases. My questions are (1) how long do those cases last (2) will those little lips break off and (3) are those little lips all the necessary?

[RaiderANV]

Answers to #1 & 2 all depend on the quality of the brass from which they were turned. I have a batch of 20 I bought back in the early 80's that I know I have 30 shots out of each without a problem and brass is the same as when I bought them. I've also seen a few other folks complain their brass only lasted 10 rounds. I don't know their loads nor method for which they shoot their Burnside. And for #3 that part makes up the gas seal so you'll be wanting that intact.

Someone handed me a 10 red plastic Burnside cases maybe 10 years ago on the firing line and asked me to try them out 10-15 rounds each and let them know how they worked. If it was favorable & I wrote up a lil article on them he'd give me 200 of them. He handed me his business card and off he went. I stuck the card in my pocket and a month later when I'd fired 5 of them 20 times each I was impressed. I went to call him and the best I could figure he'd accidently given me someone else business card for a plumber. The plumber couldn't guess who I was talking. The trail went cold. Maybe someone else reading this may know of the red plastic cases.

[gmkmd]

I also have a handful of the red (actually brownish red) Burnside cases that I got a few years ago at a gun show, but the seller knew not from whence they came. I also have a bunch made from white plastic, but they don't make them anymore. Another few I have are made from drawn brass, rather than turned. But the coolest I've seen were ones made by a skirmisher (tool & die guy), who made them for himself out of drawn aircraft aluminum. He said he'd fired them dozens of times and they were still going strong. I guess that doesn't really answer the three questions here, but illustrates that there has been a lot of experimenting over the years in this area. Unfortunately the only currently available option seems to be the very expensive turned-brass cases.

[Mike w/ 34th]

I've got a 5th model Burnside in excellent condition and a few of the brass cases. My questions are (1) how long do those cases last (2) will those little lips break off and (3) are those little lips all the necessary?

1) I'm up to 10 or 15 firings on most of mine. I've had two split out of 100.
2) They might split but won't break off the brass cases, at least not if you're using roundball.
3) Only if you care about gas seal. :) If they split, you can get your wrist burned. It stings a little if your sleeves are a little short of covering your wrist.

It's possible if you're using a hollow base bullet that it might cause brass stretching at the lip. The plastic cases fail there if they fail anywhere. But the Burnside design is to squeeze the neck of the case between the block and the barrel, so that thick ring on the case is supposed to take up the space where the case is not supported by the chamber. The brass lip should not ever be pressure-bearing.

[Eggman]

I'd only add that it is a good idea to anneal the cases. Torch the head area with propane torch until you get a slight red color, usually takes about 12-14 seconds, then immediately quench in water. This will prolong case life.