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Reloading deformed cases?
- Thread starter mapsjanhere
- Start date
Those are all salvagable. Just use some lube in the neck and the expander ball of your die, or a tapered punch to bring them back round. Then they should load like normal.
They may not last as long as they would fired from a gun that didn't dent them up, but they might. Necks are pretty soft (or should be). You might consider annealing the necks after a few loadings, and certainly if any of the cases shows cracking.
My experience with other calibers is that as long as the brass isn't dented so badly that it creases, it can be rounded back out and will reload ok.
They may not last as long as they would fired from a gun that didn't dent them up, but they might. Necks are pretty soft (or should be). You might consider annealing the necks after a few loadings, and certainly if any of the cases shows cracking.
My experience with other calibers is that as long as the brass isn't dented so badly that it creases, it can be rounded back out and will reload ok.
Just stand them up in a pie plate with water in the bottom. Use a propane torch and heat the neck portion only until it glows dull red. Let them cool naturally and it should soften up the brass and make it malleable. I anneal my brass every 4 loadings just to keep them from splitting.
mapsjanhere
New member
Thanks for the reassurances, it's my first semi-auto rifle, and I wasn't sure if this is normal.
44AMP said
Can you anneal nickel plated cases. That's the only 308 I have right now. Or should I splurge and buy some of the 1.00/case new 308 cases at Cabela's?They may not last as long as they would fired from a gun that didn't dent them up, but they might. Necks are pretty soft (or should be). You might consider annealing the necks after a few loadings, and certainly if any of the cases shows cracking.
flutedchamber
New member
Years ago I made a double ended tapered punch for such problems. One end takes care of 17 to about 35 caliber, the other end takes care of anything above 35 caliber up to 50 BMG. Only takes a few seconds to remove most if not all of the ding.
A couple of comments:
I use a brass taper tool I made on the lathe to straighten dented case mouths.
There is a lot more to annealing brass than heating the case to "dull red". There is actually a very narrow temperature range that is used to anneal brass cartridge cases. Get the temperature too low and the brass does not anneal at all. Get it too high and the crystalline structure changes and the brass looses malleability and actually can be dangerous. The paint on temperature paints should be use to get to the correct temperature range. Before heating cases to "dull red" in an attempt to anneal them a prudent reloader makes a study of the actual technique. The Internet has many articles on how to anneal cartridge cases correctly and safely.
Finally, I too have seen beat up brass from my military type centerfire semi-autos that throw brass all over the place. In a tactical situation it is good that the gun gets the empty brass out and away but the brass gets beat up hitting the ground (more so than hitting the ejection port on the way out of the receiver, in my experience). I bought one of the universal table top brass catchers and low and behold, the brass no longer gets beat up so bad if the netting catches it. I tried one of the gun mounted brass catchers but they are a pain to use. This universal brass catcher flat works! And for many different guns.
http://www.ctkprecision.com/brasscatcher.aspx
LDBennett
I use a brass taper tool I made on the lathe to straighten dented case mouths.
There is a lot more to annealing brass than heating the case to "dull red". There is actually a very narrow temperature range that is used to anneal brass cartridge cases. Get the temperature too low and the brass does not anneal at all. Get it too high and the crystalline structure changes and the brass looses malleability and actually can be dangerous. The paint on temperature paints should be use to get to the correct temperature range. Before heating cases to "dull red" in an attempt to anneal them a prudent reloader makes a study of the actual technique. The Internet has many articles on how to anneal cartridge cases correctly and safely.
Finally, I too have seen beat up brass from my military type centerfire semi-autos that throw brass all over the place. In a tactical situation it is good that the gun gets the empty brass out and away but the brass gets beat up hitting the ground (more so than hitting the ejection port on the way out of the receiver, in my experience). I bought one of the universal table top brass catchers and low and behold, the brass no longer gets beat up so bad if the netting catches it. I tried one of the gun mounted brass catchers but they are a pain to use. This universal brass catcher flat works! And for many different guns.
http://www.ctkprecision.com/brasscatcher.aspx
LDBennett
chris in va
New member
Looks like what my Garand does to the brass. I just resize/decap as usual, works fine.
FrankenMauser
New member
Those would be salvageable under most conditions, but adding the nickel-plated variable means you'll probably have a few more cracks than you might otherwise encounter. The plating may flake off a bit, too. It's ugly, but shouldn't effect performance.