I had occasion, 25-30 years ago to "pull down" a case (1000 rounds) of ca. 1912 UMC 43 Spanish ammunition which had been improperly stored in South America and wouldn't fire. The ammo was Berdan primed and loaded with black powder, and the purpose was to salvage the cases. After pulling the bullets and emptying the powder, I deprimed the cases hydraulicly. Out of the thousand rounds, there were something over 20 cases that the black powder had corroded enough that the pressure escaped through the holes in the case walls, instead of forcing the primers out. There were other cases from that batch that split after reloading with light charges of Unique. If the case survived the first firing, they were OK for reloading again with moderate loads. The holes in the cases and the splits looked very much like the Rook cartridge cases shown above. It was my opinion that the failures were caused by the black powder, but I salvaged it also and it still fired with no apparent problems. BTW, the cases were folded head type, so headspace had to be within specs. to avoid head splits.
Mike
