Safe to shoot?

When in doubt....throw it out.

Perfectly safe, as noted above.
Years ago I did one run of .223 with too much case lube on several rounds & ended up with a few minor shoulder dents like that.
The only mis-feed I've ever had in my 1984 Colt AR was caused by the worst one, that was my fault because I was just being too lazy to pull the bullet & start over again, and figured I'd just burn it off as it sat. The rest chambered & fired just fine. The pressure blows the dent out till the chamber wall stops it. After you've fired it, you won't be able to tell it was ever there.

As LA says, if it'll chamber, you're fine.
Denis

Are you kidding? When in doubt....throw it out. Half the ammo I reload has dents worse than that from hitting the side of the receiver while being ejected. Apparently sav.250 is not a reloader.

cbrgator, that round is perfectly good. As Larry stated, if it will chamber, it will fire just fine. And that will iron out the slight dent so that it'll be fine to reload many times too.

I'll be a pylon.

Safe to shoot.

I would shoot that in an instant.

BANG.

Unless it's worse than it looks in the picture I too would shoot it. The dent will pop out when you shoot it.

I do the same better be safe then sorry.

Let me add that I've always read and/or been told that dents like that are fine, much bigger ones may be a cause for concern, but that cases with creases need to go in the scrap bin.

ETA: I do shoot cases like that, BTW. No problems.

Fire iron.

Let me add that I've always read and/or been told that dents like that are fine, much bigger ones may be a cause for concern, but that cases with creases need to go in the scrap bin

Click to expand...

That's what I do.

The cartridge is a gas seal. The most safety critical section is the unsupported case head. If the cartridge could be totally surrounded by a leak proof mechanism, there would be no need for a cartridge case. That only works in a few actions. The rest there is a bit of unsupported case head sticking out between the barrel and bolt face.

A leak there often results in catastrophic failure of the mechanism. In older rifles, made from plain carbon steels of the WWI era, when the case head goes the action often breaks. It is obvious the case head failed and gas was released in this small ring mauser.













Cases with brass flaws, body splits that can migrate to the case head, those cases are unsafe to use. There is a small chance that an existing neck crack could propagate all the way down the case if fired, I think the chances very small, but I toss all cases with cracked necks. Cases with body splits should always be tossed. Cases with severe scratches in the case head should be tossed.

Your case had a dent on the shoulder. This is far enough away that it is unlikely to cause a gas leak.

How about chambers with flutes, i.e., HK's?

Dents aren't of concern as long as the round will chamber. Every now and then I used to get lube dents when resizing, and some would be much worse than that pic. you posted.

I shoot worse out of my AR

Um... Could point out the fact that's NOT a WWI rifle, and many of the FR8's were built on K98 and similar actions

ALSO, they were built for the 7.62 CETME round.


That said, I have put, and seen others put rounds that have a significant dents on the shoulder, it shot just fine, some were dented to the bullet ie much worse than the pic.

the weapon was a M4 and yes, this was military...

medalguy said:

Are you kidding? When in doubt....throw it out. Half the ammo I reload has dents worse than that from hitting the side of the receiver while being ejected. Apparently sav.250 is not a reloader.

cbrgator, that round is perfectly good. As Larry stated, if it will chamber, it will fire just fine. And that will iron out the slight dent so that it'll be fine to reload many times too.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the "attack" on my comment. I say "throw it out" and you go crazy. Well sir, I stick by "my" comment. The poster asked for an opinion and I gave one.
Most on here gave their opinion with out blasting some one elses. I guess you missed the "friendly" part of this forum.

Hmmm... I didn't take that as an attack. Just a statement. I probably would have thought the same thing until I began reloading... Plus he put a happy face in there. Lighten up Francis...

I probably would throw it out if it was a 30 cent round. It's your call

I'd say that round is okay to shoot. I've shot rounds dented like that through my AR, but I don't think I'd shoot a round with a dent any deeper than that. If the dent looks a little too deep for your preferences, just throw it out. It's better to be on the safe side and lose 40 cents than have something tragic happen to you or your gun.

I'd shoot that round if it was factory or if I loaded it.

Do you have a cartridge collection, or do you know someone who does, that lacks a .223 Remington. Seems unlikely given its commonness, but if you do, and you're nervous about firing it, that round just filled a hole in some shadow box.

Just for the record, I sent an apology to Sav .250 in case he took my comment as an attack. I didn't mean it that way, and as already noted, I included a smiley face. It wasn't

Really, I think all the brass I shoot in my autoloaders ends up with slight dents either in the neck or case wall at least as bad as the one pictured. I reload all that brass and don't think twice about it. I didn't note whether this is new factory ammo or reloads but I think either way, after it's fired in an AR platform, it'll have a dent then.

To the OP: You will have more like this, that's for sure. Make your own decision.

cbrgator - there is a technique called "fire-forming" that uses the act of firing a bullet in a certain gun to "shape" the brass to that particular gun. Then, instead of "full-length resizing" of that brass when you reload it, you only do the neck.
Unless that "dent" has actually gone all the way through, I would go ahead and fire it then examine the case with a magnifying glass to look for any cracks.
If you are concerned for your safety, put the gun on a rest and lock it down then fire it with a string from several feet away.