Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Lightly dented new brass. Anything to be concerned with?

I just opened a pack of new hornady 300 win mag brass and it looks like a few of the cases have very light dents with a scratch in them. I am guessing that these are from shipping or someone shaking the box and the cases banging together. Almost looks like the dents were from the case neck of one piece of brass hitting the sidewall of another piece of brass. Again these are light dents with a what seems like a scratch where the case neck hit them. I don't know if I would go so far as to call it a crease. There is a definite line in the dent but I think that is from the impact of the other case necks. These dents are so minor I am having a heck of a time trying to get a picture of them. Is this something I need to be concerned with or will these just iron out after I shoot them? Any concerns about the scratching/crease? I never saw this before in my young reloading career so I want to be safe rather than sorry.

Thanks,
Nomad.

The ding is by my finger nail.

Full length resize new cases, the dent is of no consequent. As long as it will reasonably chamber a dent doesn't effect anything.

I have been neck sizing and all of the brass chambers without issue. Is there any reason to FL resize over neck sizing new brass?

Only if you want the chance of setting the shoulder back. Muddy

If you set-up your FL die correctly (smoke the shoulder of the first case and adjust the die till the shoulder just makes contact) setting back the shoulder enough to cause any problems should not occur. I am surprised Hornady Q.C. did not catch that, hard telling when the ding occured it is of no consequence though.

There were a few with similar dings in the bag. My guess is it happened after it left the factory in shipping or on the shelf. Who know how it was handled post leaving the factory. But since it is of no consequence, then I will carry on. As usual a big thank you to everyone for the prompt and knowledgeable assistance.

Small dings on the case body shouldn't cause trouble and will usually iron right out when 60K psi hits them. I noticed you said you're neck sizing. What type of neck size die are you using?



A note on belted brass, chambers, and FL (full length) sizing dies:

New belted brass is usually quite short in head to shoulder distance compared to its size after a firing. So if you use a FL die to true up the case necks of new brass you're unlikely to mess up the brass via shoulder setback. When working with new brass it's not a bad idea to push the necks over the expander ball to true them up a bit, even if you don't push the cases far enough into the die for the die body to touch them.

After you fire this new brass, I recommend against following the default die set up instructions included with FL size dies. Adjusting the die in the default manner usually results in more shoulder setback than necessary, particularly with belted cases.

It can be a cut and try process the first time when you're learning how the die you have works with brass from your chamber, but you'll want to adjust your FL sizing die to squeeze the brass just enough to provide for smooth chambering.

If that is the first time you encountered dings and dents in new brass, you are a lucky fellow! I have seen some downright atrocious brass spill out of new bags. Dents such as these wouldn't even warrant a second look from me.

+10

I've had to use tapered punches and the like to iron out case mouths enough to pass them over an expander ball and through the die to render them usable for a first firing.

I am using the lee collet neck sizer. When running the brass over the expander ball I could feel that some necks were considerably tighter than others.

Well this is the second box of 50 that I have gotten into. The other 50 and this one were purchased at the same time and are going to be use together since both boxes have matching lot numbers. All the other brass I have used came from factory ammo that was shot before being reloaded. Honestly I do not reload that much since I only reload for my hunting rifles a 30-06 and 300 mag. I wish I could shoot more but life has a funny way of keeping you busy sometimes.

The Lee collet sizer is usually a good way to go for neck sizing. I use them a bunch.

Sometimes they need a little tune up, but the design is sound.

I really like neck sizing because no lubing necessary. Just for future reference what type of tune up do they need so I can be on the lookout?

The top of the collet is tapered and gets pressed into the underside of the "collet closer" piece. The closer and collet can often use some polishing of this contact area.

The edges of the split collet fingers can be rather sharp, or will sometimes have a burr or two. Polishing/deburring these areas eliminates marking up the brass.

Ahhh that makes sense. Thanks

Your brass looks great compared to a bag of Winchester 300WSM brass I picked up a couple years back. I just neck sized and ran with them.



CR