TLA Winchester 94AE and Blazer .38 ammo

[Mojave Desert]

I've been reading the Tactical Lever Action posts for a while so I decided to take my Winchester 94AE .357 out to the range today.  I grabbed a box of CCI Blazer 158gr Lead .38's.  Here's what I found out about my gun/ammo pairing today:

*The aluminum cased Blazer's rim has sharp edges, and would catch on the internal feed mechanism.  It still functions as a single shot(in a Martini-Henry type of way) by direct chamber loading.  I was later able to put one round on the follower by opening the action, then one directly into the chamber(reminds me of the Benelli shotgun) for a two shot repeater!  Yay!  I guess the Blazers were designed with just revolvers in mind.   ...must remember...use real brass with Winchester.....

*After firing one round, I smelled more smoke than usual.  I opened the action and inspected the case.  It was smokey with a longitudinal case split.  The rifle was fine.  This happened with just one round out of 50.  All other cases seemed ok with no bulges.  Perhaps I just found a bad case.  Lucky I wasn't firing any high pressure round.

Anyone else have similar experiences with lever actions and Blazer ammo?

[Hazcat]

Same withe the CCI Blazer 44 specials and a 44 lever (PUMA).  They will not feed.

[tombogan03884]

 I've never shot a pistol caliber lever rifle, but in revolvers every now and then I have gotten a split case useing aluminum cases. ase walls are fairly thin, and Aluminum is fairly soft, any kind of flaw in the metal gives you a higher chance of a split case than with brass, But aluminum is less expensive to work and generally non reloadable so while you pay less per box when you are done you have to buy another box, there by increasing their sales.

[gunman1911]

Ask yourself this if the case splits where does the pressure go? And how does it effect other things? This is somthing CCI needs to address. When I buy ammo I expect it to feed and operate with no problems.