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Before I do something stoopid I figured I'd ask this esteemed group of folks who have never made a squib load or put a primer in upside down a couple of brass-related questions.

I knew some of my cases had dings and whatnot, but I wanted to see what they looked like cleaned up before I did any posting of questions, so here's what a few of them look like after some quality time in my Bass Pro giftcard funded vibratory tumbler.

Here are two examples of several cases with dings along the side. I assume this is from contact with the slide? Not all of my empties have them, and many of my empties are range pickups, so I haven't been able to isolate these to my gun only (Kimber Custom II). Can these cases be reloaded? Will resizing make any of this worse? Better?


Here are a couple of cases with representatively misshapen case mouths. Is this something that is fixable, or are these scrap? I have a couple other ones (buried in the bucket somewhere) where the rim of the case mouth is slightly bent inward. Are those salvageable?


I suppose the media in the flash hole on the left will come out during decapping?

Thanks for the help!

I would make these decisions after resizing, but I see nothing that would alarm me. The case mouths should come out perfect. The dings might precipitate a future weak spot in the case, but pre-loading inspections should spot any further deterioration before any failure occurs.

I've used a screwdriver or other round tool to straighten out seriously bent case mouths before resizing.

I do my inspections under one of the lighted, table mounted magnifiers.

I'd reload 'em. They don't call me "three-fingered latch-eye" for nothing.

Seriously, IMO, they are okay. The resizing die will rezize the case mouth (imagine that) and perhaps even remove the dings. In any event, the dings will get undinged when you shoot 'em.

Those cases sure are shiney. What is your polishing media?

NO, NO, NO! Don't use them! Send them to me I'll dispose of them properly.

Really, they're fine use them. Sure are nice and shiny.

Thanks, all! I just wanted to check before I got something stuck in a die.

As for the media, I picked up some of the Lyman's TufNut (nut shells with rouge) when I got the tumbler (a Lyman's Turbo Twin), because I was a bit impatient to get started. That's all Bass Pro had on the shelf. My third batch of cases will be done momentarily!

AndyC wrote:

UpTheIrons wrote:...I figured I'd ask this esteemed group of folks who have never made a squib load or put a primer in upside down a couple of brass-related questions

Well, heck - that's me out, then

*GASP* You've loaded a squib, or flipped a primer too??!?!? Heck, there may be hope for me yet!!!

Cases look fine to me. Like everyone else said, I'd resize & bell them, then take a good look at them, but nothing serious to worry about...

When I started loading for pistol & brass was precious I loaded some pretty rough brass. If I did not think they would feed good I put them in a sandwich bag & loaded them first. If it will go into battery it will go bang. A poor reload will extract & eject a lot easier than it will load.

+1 on no worries...load 'em and go. If the sizing die doesn't work out the case mouths, the flaring die will for sure.

Then again, what do I know...I put brass through a Glock multiple times. you'd think I would be dead by now if you read the internet horror stories...

I tried TuffNut once. When I spilled it and left a red rouge stain on the carpet I threw it out. Now I have to reload out in the garage...my wife found the stain and I couldn't lie to her.

CDH wrote:I tried TuffNut once. When I spilled it and left a red rouge stain on the carpet I threw it out. Now I have to reload out in the garage...my wife found the stain and I couldn't lie to her.

I almost had an oops like that. I run the tumbler in the garage, but, as I was sorting some brass last night in front of the idiot box, a case that I hadn't properly emptied after tumbling sprayed it's contents on the carpet. Luckily it was a .38 case, and it wasn't full, so the 'damage' was minimal. Maybe I'll throw down an old towel first next time...

Now, if I wasn't so cheap as to want to avoid haz-mat fees, I'd have some powder coming and I could start fililng some of these cases.

I would resize them and see how they look after that.

Good post! Thanks for asking the question. I've had similar concerns when reloading .223 but couldn't find a reference (with pics) on what is acceptable. I was a bit worried at first for some of the brass that had some good dents. I've gone ahead and reloaded some that looked like these and they resized and shot fine.

Maybe we could post some pictures of brass that is clearly unacceptable (stress cracks, ...).?

I've only reloaded about 1500 rounds so far. I look at each case after I tumble and resize for problems. I've reloaded some brass about 5 times now and haven't seen any cracking. I'm tracking those to see what bad ones should look like.

I am qualified to reply because all I have blown up is a Glock 40 caliber and that does not count....

I will reload and fire almost any 45 acp brass that runs thru the press and holds the bullet in place. However, keep in mind this is a low pressure round. My standards increase as the operating pressure of the caliber increases. By the time I work up to the 44 mag or my 454 I get very picky. All my rifle calibers are what I consider high pressure so I watch those more carefully than the low pressure handgun calibers. No specific standards that I can describe, my acceptance criteria just changes with the pressure class of the brass.

I bought a batch of brass from another member here, and from what I can tell, he got a few in there that weren't his when picking up empties at the range. Included was the one pictured below, which definitely isn't reloadable. I'm not sure what the gun that it came out of did to it, but it appears that it's ripped lengthwise. I hope that fella fixes his gun. Definitely not reloadable.