[dm1906]

Surely, CM, you have better things to do than stand out in the heat and shoot where you ain't lookin'. The tea and grandkids sounds like the plan today.

While 9.2 gr LS is a hot load under a 200 gr XTP, it isn't anywhere near a full nuke load, and LS is (normally) a lot more forgiving than that. Did you have the rounds sitting in the sun for a time before shooting? (I've never done with LS this, so I don't know what might happen) Did you try the same load in your OEM barrel? Did you try them in the LW barrel? If you did, what was the result? Any chance of a recoil set-back?

Your KKM barrel shouldn't be bulging those cases like that, for any reason. Do the bulged/split brass fit back in? If they don't, you may have been seeing some (very) early unlocks.