Is this 40sw brass safe to reload?

Long time lurker here... I've been reloading since January 2020. 9mm, 45acp, 223rem, 10mm, and just started my first 40sw... on a dillon 550c.

Is this brass safe to reload / shoot? Thoughts? Looks like my subcompact XD40 is putting nasty dings in the brass (these were all from factory Winchester white box). I should have caught it sooner. Loaded some test rounds, decided on a load for w231, loaded up 75 rounds, and after inspecting each I found 34 of them have this ding. For now I've separated them out from the rest of my brass ive been collecting for 40sw. Yes, I should have inspected all of the bras closely, I've got lazy and have been inspecting at the end, as I've come across very few pieces of brass that were bad which I didnt catch with my initial headstamp sorting.

My buddies dad, in his late 60's who has been reloading most of his life, said it's fine and he has reloaded much worse. He said the reason we use brass is because it's so malleable (obviously I know this, but I'm hesitant on this one).

Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

Thanks for the quick replies! For now I'll keep these separated, look into the Lee item listed above, and follow other tips... and perform more R&D

JJFitch said:

That doesn't look like the typical Glock smile, way too far forward.

The recoil spring in in any subcompact is pretty strong. I suspect this is an artifact from the round going from the magazine into the chamber. This transition isn't smooth as some people believe! It's pretty violent.

Are you able to function test loaded rounds safely from the magazine into the chamber and look to see if the same "ding" is present? Be sure the slide is all the way to the rear and let it "fly"!

Now do it slowly to see if the round is catching on the bottom of the chamber as it's making the transition from the magazine.

Smiles,

Click to expand...

Absolutely, I live in a rural area and can point it in a very safe direction. Not like I havent done it indoors

I'll report back shortly.

JJFitch said:

That doesn't look like the typical Glock smile, way too far forward.

The recoil spring in in any subcompact is pretty strong. I suspect this is an artifact from the round going from the magazine into the chamber. This transition isn't smooth as some people believe! It's pretty violent.

Are you able to function test loaded rounds safely from the magazine into the chamber and look to see if the same "ding" is present? Be sure the slide is all the way to the rear and let it "fly"!

Now do it slowly to see if the round is catching on the bottom of the chamber as it's making the transition from the magazine.

Smiles,

Click to expand...

I tested 3x 9 round magazines as instructed, loaded to capacity (I dont usually shoot the extended mags in this firearm) and there arent any dents in the brass.

The only thing I noticed is a slight gash in the projectile, illustrated in the picture (i turned them all the same direction). Now I'm wondering if i need to go a tiny bit smaller on my OAL, or if I've just never noticed this before. As mentioned above, I've only loaded a small number of test rounds for 40 so far.

fxvr5 said:

Are these cases bulged outward or is it just a funny looking scratch?.

How about a couple of close-up pictures of the bulged/marked cases. It will help us.

Click to expand...

How is this pic? Looks like it bulges below the scratch.

I didnt even notice the bulge before... yikes. Yea, that looks bad after looking more closely.

fxvr5 said:

Looks massively bulged. Your pistol either has terrible chamber support for the case or it's unlocking way to early.

Can you take the barrel out and drop a new case in it and see how much is not supported? We're looking for a picture something like this:
https://detroitammoco.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/1817777-1.jpg

Click to expand...

See attached photos. I'd say that's supported?

Let me backup here a bit... It's entirely possible I picked these up at the range, and that they were fired from another firearm. I assumed they were mine, because I've mostly shot winchester, and half of them seem to have the bulge.

I have a large bag of unsorted brass from recent trips, I know the Blazer in there was fired from my 40. Lemme see if I can sort through that to see if any of them have this bulge.

Lol, so... none of the blazer that I shot recently has this. They're all consistant, a slight ding illustrated in the attached picture with a very slight bulge. Nothing like the winchester brass shown above.

I'm guessing I picked this up somewhere.

fxvr5 said:

We only need the view from the bottom, since it's the feed ramp region that is cut out and exposes the largest amount of the case.

Click to expand...

Gotcha

Ugh, pictures didnt attach? Here's for the last two posts...

At this point, I'm chalking this up as brass picked up at the range and not properly inspecting it.

Thank you everyone, for your help. I'm trashing this brass.