ring around the base of case?

[bosco]

I am noticing a shiny ring around the base of my shell casings.it goes about a 1/4" up from the base.Is this something to worry about?Is this a sign of excessive headspace?

 

[hm1996]

Quote:Is this a sign of excessive headspace?
It can be.

The shiny ring can be a warning of impending case head separation which can be caused by pushing the soulder too far back during the resizing operation. The case wall stretches on firing to fill the chamber and since case head cannot stretch, stretching occurs where the case wall joins the case head & brass becomes thinner at that point resulting in the visible ring.

Straighten a paper clip, then bend a 90* hook on the end and use as a "feeler" inside the cases. If you can feel a groove, case could be close to separting.

Regards,
hm

 

[mark shubert]

It could also be normal expansion - depends on the severity. Use the paper clip!
Mark

 

[stanly]

What he said, paper clip. How many times has the brass been reloaded? They do have a limit. It could be caused by just being reloaded too many times, it could be you are over working the case, but either way, I would discard them. Components are cheap compared to having an accident. Better safe than sorry.

 

[Dick Shuford]

I've been reloading since 1964 both pistol and rifle. Two years ago I was loading and testing four different calibers to take prairie dog hunting. I kept pushing some Remington 243 (full sizing) hulls and at 14 reloads one separated. There was no apparent indicator in the firing but it left the front of the hull in the rifle. The ring is probably 0.600 up from the base.

 

[mark shubert]

I've also seen the ring after firing in a chamber that was on the large size. Perfectly normal.
Mark