Dents in .45 ACP cases

[WSM MAGNUM]

I know this has been discussed before. But why is it every time I do a search for something, what comes up has nothing to do with what I am looking for?

Anyway, I want to know about what I think is the ejector putting dents in the sides of .45 ACP cases. Some are minor dents and some are pretty deep. Is this a concern when reloading? Will it cause die scratches?
These are one time fired brass, but imagine what these cases might look like after a bunch of firings. They would be so dented up they would not be reloadable. What do you do with yours?

These dents are in the center of the cases.

[rwilson452]

I shoot them unless the case is really distorted. If they have a dent that is really a crease I toss it.

[WSM MAGNUM]

Some case dents look like a serious dent to me. What causes the cases to dent slightly or heavily. I would hate to throw away new brass after only one firing.

[arkie2]

I've noticed exactly the same thing since I started shooting .45 2 years ago and in fact started an identical thread on another forum asking your question. Since then I've reloaded those cases with no problems. Here's the link

http://forum.m1911.org/showthread.ph...ighlight=arkie

[Wild Bill Bucks]

Could it be a burr on the inside of the chamber? They might be getting dented as the shell goes in rather than coming out of the weapon.

[The Tourist]

Many years ago, (the autumn that fire was was invented near our cave), there was an article in a gun rag about bent brass.

In one picture, it showed the author actually "unbending" the brass case with a wooden dowel to the extent that the case now fit into a full length sizing die.

And to be fair, I did that exact procedure dozens of times, perhaps hundreds.

In revolvers it made no difference at all, not one bit. It seems to 'fire form' any vestige out of the ding. In fact, in tumbling the brass with a few drops of polish I could never tell which case was repaired.

In autos (and for me that means .45 ACPs most often), I might see a slight dirty mark or a shadow of a crease, but that soon polished out as well. I never had any more stoppages per 1,000 than I usually did.

Then, I got older. I quit spending a half an hour to find one stick of WWII military brass. If I saw a case was bent, especially if the mouth showed a ding, I simply chucked the case.

Even though I load .45 ACP plinkers on a Dillon SDB, I tumble first and inspect the cases as I slip them into the press. I load slowly actually, and toss out quite a few cases.

"When in doubt, throw it out."

[WSM MAGNUM]

arkie2, I saw the thread you posted. My dents are not at the case mouth. They are in the center of the case.
Wild Bill, I will try to see what part of the gun is striking the brass causing the dents.
Tourist, that would be exspensive to throw out dented cases. In fact that would be throwing away half of them.

[arjay]

The dents are most likely caused by the case hitting the ejection port on the way out.It would take some tweaking of the extractor and/or the ejector to solve it.Try running em through the resizing die,sometimes the dent is small enough that they'll fit anyway.If not use a dowel or whatever to take some of the dent out.

[WSM MAGNUM]

Here are some pictures of the dents. This is not like this on all cases. Some do not have any dents.

[rwilson452]

Iwould shoot 21 and 22 and toss 23

[UniversalFrost]

personally I would toss all of them. I have thrown away better looking brass. I don't want to chance anything when loading and 45 brass is relatively cheap versus your or your guns health.

[TEDDY]

arjay gave the answer.the cases are hitting the slide.the military 1911 was known for that.custom slides have the port lowered.all my 1911 have had this done.shoot the cases, wont hurt them and the 45 has low pressure not like rifle.sooner or latter you will be hunting for any brass you can find.I dont trim measure or other wise diddle with cases and mine are 20 yrs old.and going strong.I was a competition shooter tho not top as my eyes wernt that great but when good shooters tried my guns they could hit as well as with the best gun.

[crowbeaner]

I've seen worse. I don't know what could be causing the dent in the middle. I'd take the wood dowel to them and see if the dent will shoot out on the next firing. Are you using a mild load? Maybe the slide needs to operate a little faster to pop the case out faster to avoid hitting whatever. Check the ejector for little bits of brass left from the contact with the case, and look at the inside of the slide for any brass marks also. It could be contact with the slide; some shooters have the slide ported to avoid any hangups. 45 brass is common but it's not cheap by any means, so I'd try to figure out what is making contact. If you have a bud that shoots try having him watch the ejection to see if he can see what the contact point is. Hope this helps. CB

[Scorch]

Looks like you have a tight extractor that holds onto the brass well, and your gun cycles completely to the rear with the ejector hitting the case hard enough to smack it into the edge of the port.
1- You can either reshape the extractor or have a smith do it.
2- You can try a stiffer recoil spring to slow down the cycling to reduce the force of the ejector hitting the case.
3- You can load mild loads that will not cycle the gun as hard.

Don't worry about the dings in the case. Next time you fire it, the ding will come out.

[The Tourist]

"Tourist, that would be exspensive to throw out dented cases. In fact that would be throwing away half of them."

I'm not talking about a small ding or a trivial flat spot. I'm talking about sharp creases, deformed or ripped cases mouths, etc.

Let's be honest. If you shoot a lot of .45 ACP at busy ranges, sometimes you come home with more brass than you started with. In fact, "range scrounged" brass is so big a portion of my plinkers that I cannot even remember when I bought new cases in that caliber.

When I first got serious about that caliber, I bought a Lee hand trimmer to check case length. (As a young guy, I was a worrier.) I found that I cracked, lost or wore out brass before they needed trimming. But because I also found other people's brass, I now store cases in those big Country Crock butter tubs--and I have more than a life time's supply!

Coupled with loose primer pockets, the few cases I toss aren't worth a safety issue.

[arjay]

WSM,I've had factory ammo with a very similar dent right out of the box.It worked fine and fireformed to the chamber.I would think the load would have a slightly higher pressure due to decreased capacity,but I couldn't see any sign of too much pressure.

[cloudcroft]

If it's a 1911, check out enlarging and/or flaring your ejection port as a likely solution.

-- John D.

[WCW]

I’ve had cases dented this bad on numerous occasions from hitting rocks, edges of concrete pads, and steel pillars on overheads at the range. From your pictures it doesn’t look to me like your brass is severely creased, and I wouldn’t hesitate to reload it. I’m much more concerned if it appears that something has made a sharply pointed inward dent that may weaken the case. Now those cases I toss. Nicks and dings like you have in your cases iron right out on firing, and I’ve never had any case ever crack horizontally along any edge of a ding either. I don’t think 45 ACP brass is anywhere near brittle enough to do that.

[WSM MAGNUM]

I ran all the brass through my carbide die and most of the creasing/dents are smoothed out. They look like they just have a dimple now. I still need to find out what is causing them to be dented that bad. I will check the ejector and ejection port area to see what needs to be corrected.
I do believe that those small creases will be pushed back out when firing. But I think the problem should be corrected so the brass will not become weakened from so many dents all over the case. I did come home with more brass than I took to the range that day. I dumped the trash can over right on the concretre and sifted through all that brass for .45`s.
Thank you everyone for your input.