These pictures were posted on another Forum. A novice collector is having a problem with splitting 8mm Lebel brass. He is firing new, good quality Prvi ammo, in a Turkish (Berthier) Forestry carbine.

Any theories on what damaged this arm. The bolt-face is scary and looks welded back together!

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First thought is... Don't Shoot It!  My guess is that the chamber is either in very rough shape or extremely large, and allowing un-natural expansion of the brass to the point that the sidewall splits.  Those split cases appear to be bulging!  The bolt face is pretty ugly, and the chamber (at least in my thinking based on that picture) may have some damage as well. 

I've seen split cases like that in a Russian Nagant, but in that case, it was more likely that the steel case was corroded from poor storage, and it only happened with one batch of Russian ammo (total of two cases).

Agreed.  Do Not Shoot it!  There must have been a lot of old Turkish soldiers, border guards, police, forestry workers, mailmen, telephone linemen, etc., carrying, dragging & dropping their old bolt-action and single shot rifles & carbines across some rough terrain in Turkey.  Be they 1890, 95 or 98 Mausers, the old Martinis or other BP guns, or French, Russian or Greek rifles, all are beat up & battered & generally horrible when they leave Turkish hands.

Bad chamber. Corrosive priming. Poor care. Rarely, if ever cleaned. I have a Turk Forestry carbine that was well cared for, a lot of fun to shoot.

Reportedly, the bore was quite good on this Forestry Carbine.

Some collectors speculated that this example had been made into a DEWAT by welding up the bolt-face and a plug in the chamber.

Later, someone 'reactivated' it!

The owner has 'retired' this Berthier.