Damaged Brass??

T

Trapper Luke

New member
How much damage does a piece of brass have to have before you scrap it? Any little blemish, dent, etc and its gone or what? I ask this because I was reloading some 204 bullets and didnt notice till after I got the bullet seated there was a dent bout the size of a pin head in the shoulder. I have a bullet puller if needed but if I shoot this bullet is there a chance its gonna hurt me or my $1400 gun?
 
Won't hurt at all. It's typically caused by residual lube in the chamber.

When the primer pockets get stretched too much to firmly hold primers, the neck starts splitting, or the heads start seperating, it's time to scrap them. Until then you're generally good to go.
 
Yep small dents I don't worry about as they will be gone as soon as you fire the round! I have .223 brass shot out of my AR that is on the 10th reload! I started reloading in Feb of this year and have only had to toss 5 cases. 2 of them were bad out of a brand new bag of win brass, 2 more had hot loads and left extraction marks so they were tossed, and I just got a stuck case in my die so it will be tossed.
 
small dents won't hurt at all, I used to make my 6mmAI cases out of 30'06 brass, neck them down and then fire form them to the chamber, so a little dent will just blow out to the chamber, next time use a little less lube, which is what probably caused the dent.
 
Trapper,
Like the others have said, I wouldn't be too concerned about small dings and dents, so long as the casing goes into the chamber alright and the bolt isn't hard to close. In fact, try to make a habit of inspecting your brass if you are loading and shooting a bolt gun. I pulled a cleaver stunt several months ago when first starting to load for my new 6mmbr. A friend instructed me to load the bullet .002 into the lands which meant the bullet wasn't pressed into the casing very far. After I fired a few rounds, I wanted to eject a casing that I hadn't fired yet, but had closed the bolt on. Guess what happened when I opened the chamber. The casing came out alright, the bullet stayed in the lands and my gunpowder went all over the place inside the chamber. After getting most of the gunpowder out of the chamber (so I thought) I put in another casing, closed the bolt and fired off the round. When I ejected the casing, it had a neat little dent around the shoulder area of the casing. Thats when I looked into the chamber and saw a piece of gunpowder grain stuck to the wall of the chamber. That created that pretty little dent I just mentioned. SO a word to the wise, periodically check your fired casings and if you have dents, look into the chamber and check for crap or unburned gunpowder that may have gotten down in there. Sounds crazy and I know excessive lube does it also, but I thought I'd give you a scenario most never think about...crap in the mouth of the chamber of your weapon that dents your brass.
 
Good tip Shynloco. I have never tried loaded anything that far out, and in fact my .243 R25 works best with 58g v max and .070" jump. Back on topic..I have seen that dimple on brass before too, I`m still not sure what caused it in my case (no pun intended). I believe from a little lube build up and die not venting,so now I take them apart and clean regularly.
 
Any dents or nicks get tossed. Any erosion or unevenness in the case throat get tossed, primers seem to seat to easy, case gets tossed. Pretty picky about the condition of the final brass.
 
That dimple is caused by too much lube in the sizer die. Use some brake cleaner to clean the inside of your die and all will be forgiven.
 
Originally Posted By: dog1whckrAny dents or nicks get tossed. Any erosion or unevenness in the case throat get tossed, primers seem to seat to easy, case gets tossed. Pretty picky about the condition of the final brass.

Either you shoot Lapua brass or have to buy 1000 commercial cases to end up with 100 with those perimeters.
laugh.gif
 
458WIN, Yeah, there are times I toss a little brass out.

Picky because I learned the hard way not to trust ANY suspicious brass.

Using Winchester and Remington.
 
I`m curious what brand of die you are using? Do all dies have a vent hole? This small dent happened again to me last night while resizing some .308 brass so I took the die (Lee die with quick change collet) out of the collet and and backed the locking nut off past that small hole and found a piece of debris (sm. metal chip?) almost completely plugging the hole. This hole is a vent I would assume?? removed the obstruction and no more dents (dimples)
 
HOOKED Sounds like you resolved your problem. The vent hole allows excess oil to be vented out the side to prevent damage to the case neck. Would be interesting to know what you actually found in that vent hole and whether it had migrated there or had been there from day one.

I'm not sure all dies have that vent. I see it on my RCBS 7MM RM die, 22-250 Hornady die, but not on my RCBS 30-30 die, nor my RCBS 7X57 die. Interesting........
 
dog1whckr, I have Lee 7x57 and 30-30 dies and both of them have the vent hole. It is interesting, I`m wondering if the longer length cartriges can have the expander ball lower so they can vent out the primer pocket if the die mfgr. chooses? Or if it has something to do with the diameter of the rod in the die?
Anyone else know why? please enlighten me
(edit)I think my obstruction was a small metal chip that was there from the beginning, I have not had them very long.
 
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This thread is a good one!, and timely.

I just cleaned some once fired Laupa brass for my 243 and am a little concerned. 2 casings had to be immediately trashed because they wouldn't fit into the press (shell holder). I got the thing in there to load originally, so do I have the first signs of a pressure problem maybe?

Then, I noticed a few where using my RCBS hand priming tool, the primers gave like next to no resistance going in. But there are no real noticeable differences, just looking at the cases after priming all in a row. Am I setting myself up though? If a primer is too loose, will it take itself out for the next go around (without taking me out). This is once fired new and pretty high quality brass. I shot other Federal and Hornady cases a half dozen times and never saw anything like this. Primers are CCI BR2's though now, where I had been using Rem 9 1/2's.
 
Originally Posted By: sbrandenThis thread is a good one!, and timely.

I just cleaned some once fired Laupa brass for my 243 and am a little concerned. 2 casings had to be immediately trashed because they wouldn't fit into the press (shell holder). I got the thing in there to load originally, so do I have the first signs of a pressure problem maybe?

Then, I noticed a few where using my RCBS hand priming tool, the primers gave like next to no resistance going in. But there are no real noticeable differences, just looking at the cases after priming all in a row. Am I setting myself up though? If a primer is too loose, will it take itself out for the next go around (without taking me out). This is once fired new and pretty high quality brass. I shot other Federal and Hornady cases a half dozen times and never saw anything like this. Primers are CCI BR2's though now, where I had been using Rem 9 1/2's.

Doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
High loading pressures do expand primer pockets, a sure sign of high pressure loads. To expand the shell head so it won't fit in the shell holder is pretty much impossible without blowing something up first.

Jack
 
On the two that wouldn't fit the shell holder any more (that I tossed), they each had a splotch... a slight buildup of brass, on the rim where the case would come into contact with the bolt face. They were almost identical in that way, so I figured it was probably just something with the manufacturing process at first. But where these were all able to be loaded initially, I'm not sure I buy that theory any more. Is it safe to say that if a primer was seated with no resistance... was able to be plugged in to a primer pocket OK, and where it isn't showing daylight around the edge on one side or looking like it is so loose it will fall out on me, should I be OK to fire these?

In general, I don't worry about nicks or discoloration or anything like that with my brass. I do make sure that none of my lengths are exceeding the recommended maximums, or minimums either one for that matter. (I've had plenty of factory ammo brass that was below minimum.) I also will toss if there are any problems or tightness in closing the bolt, where I only ever neck size my brass and eventually the shoulders I guess need to be bumped back. But I've never felt primers go in as easy as a couple of these last ones did so I just wanted to throw this out there for those who have had more experience with loose primer pockets.
 
My Redding dies were putting small dents in my 243AI cases. Took them apart and cleaned-problem gone. Fired the cases and the dents were gone.
 


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