[nixdorf]

The brass in the pics below is 5.56x45mm. It is once-fired Lake City, fired through a Smith & Wesson M&P-15.

Every round fired through this rifle leaves either one ding or two on the neck of the ejected brass. Most have two dings; some have one.

The dings seem to be just a bit more than superficial (a glorified scratch). You can see in the second pic that the dings don't go through or mis-form the inside of the cartridge neck. I'm guessing the dings are from hitting the lugs while feeding, but I'm not certain.

Is this safe to reload? I'm probably being overly cautious, but I'm new to reloading and don't want to do anything foolish.

Thanks for your input.

[918v]

Yes.

[Walkalong]

Yep, perfectly fine to load. Could use a little tumbling time. :)

[chris in va]

You should see what my Garand does to brass. What's in your pictures is nothing really.

[jcwit]

Curious here. Just what does your Garand do to brass, mine does nothing, neither does any in our American Legion Posts leave anything, dents ect., on any of the brass. We're talking 16 rifles.

[gamestalker]

Generally speaking, if it will make it through the resizing die, it is OK to load and shoot.

[GLOOB]

Screening your brass for damage is very important. This guy has it about right.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcORkOcGsIM

[medalguy]

Legion rifles are firing blanks, right? No hard ejection to cause the cases to hit the receiver or op rod on ejection and make a little ding on the sides.

[jcwit]

Well they do have to operate with enough force to eject the spent case and reload the next blank case, with force. But if that is the case------Explain mine which fires full military ammo and reloads that come very close to military loads and ballistics.

What say you?

[amlevin]

When I encounter a "dinged case" I only look at it long enough to see if it is a "ding" or a "gouge" that has cut metal. If only a "ding" it goes into the tumbler, then the case feeder for sizing and trimming. Usually can't notice the dings after sizing and certainly after firing.

[gdcpony]

Dings flatten out the next firing. I chuck it if it is creased though.