Ok so not going to name ammunition or rifle as they were not mine and don't want this to be any sort of call out thread.

But I will say factory rifle from reputable company and no identified problems and major factory manufactured ammunition with LC brass.

Shooter was doing a 10 shot drill when he experienced when seemed like a double feed... it appeared to be a FTE and the new round tried to go in through this opening.  
He cleared it and then noticed this.
Second half was found after the photo.

No deformation so it was in battery when fired.
Case rim looked normal and barrel was clear from any obstructions.

Has anyone seen a case tear like this before?

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I've had a case head separation, but it was from brass that had been reloaded several times.

Do you have close up pictures of the case head and the separation area

Yes, I’ve seen quite a few case head separations, even happened to me once or twice. Not that uncommon with reloads, and one of the best reasons to have a forward assist on your rifle. Was this a legitimate factory fresh round with virgin brass, or some kind of reloaded case?.

common, case head separation from old brass or excessive headspace or brass sized too small.  They even make a tool to remove the broken piece. LOL

Weak brass, either poor manufacture, defect, or reloaded too many times.

Yes, I have..............
As the others have pointed out, usually from an overworked (reloaded) piece of brass.  
They clear easily (relatively speaking, as stoppages go), as the shooter found out.  
The next cartridge, after the one that separates, acts as a removal tool and gets it out as you work to remove the second-jammed cartridge.      


No, There is no need at all to use the forward assist.  

Either the second cartridge will catch it and remove it as you remove the cartridge-trying to figure out what is going on.
Or, as the brass cools and contracts, it will fall out.

I've had several cases do that that came from surplus brass fired through an m249 SAW. Brass was harder to resize than normal. I've also seen the occasional case do that multiple times on a SAW with brand new ammo when I was in the army.

I’ve had this happen in the same circumstances. I reported it to the manufacturer and provided the pieces for their QC purposes. The forward part of the case came out with the live round that had rammed it in the ass, simply by clearing the stoppage.

I also had a case failure with M855A1 two weeks ago, but it had quite a bit of obvious corrosion on it.