How do you deal with bent cases?

F

Frankly

New member
Hi folks,

Another newbie question here.

I've been busy decapping my revolver brass and just got a hankerin' to switch over to the semi-auto stuff. This brought back to mind the difference between wheel gun brass that comes out of the gun just like it went in (albeit dirtier) and my 9mm, 40, and 45 brass that never survives a shooting unscathed and then (adding injury to injury) gets walked on by multiple folks before I get down on my tired old knees to gather it up...

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As a newbie to reloading, I am wondering about your experienced opinions on bent cases. Do you toss them? Do you try to reshape them? If so, what are your chosen approaches? At what point is it a lost cause? Your thoughts on this will save me a lot of time and grief, I'm sure.

Thanks in advance,
Frankly
 
Most, if not all, of the cases in the pic can be saved. If you can get them to go through the decap/sizer, you'll pretty much be good to go. After that, flairing should be no problem.

Brass is soft and forgiving.
 
Nick,

That's what I was hoping, but I put one case with a bent mouth through the sizing die to see how it would come out, and it bent the edge over instead of straightening it out. Is there a tool I should be using before they go into the resizing die?
 
Just run 'em up into the die ! 90% of .223 gas gun brass gets a "neck smash" from bouncing off the concrete and same deal I just run them up and they end up good as new !
 
If the mouth of the case was slightly bent inward, chances are it will continue to bend inward some more upon sizing, as yours did, but will not always do that (depending on the amount of inward bend). There is no particular tool designed for first removing the bend. Toss any ruined cases and load as usual.
 
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Only one of the cases in your picture might have problems, but all the others should straighten out in the sizing die. The case that's in the middle, second above the bottom could get crushed if pushed in your sizing die, use a pair of pliers and straighten out the inward curve.
 
Gently force the blunt plastic end of a Sharpie marker end into the case mouth until the rim is "sorta" round again.
(But don't overforce it to where it spreads the mouth past the point were it won't go into the sizing die)
 
If the case was slightly bent inward, chances are it will continue to bend inward some more, as yours did, but will not always do that (depending on the amount of inward bend). There is no particular tool designed for first removing the bend. Toss any ruined cases and load as usual.
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Good post condor bravo.

To add to that, sometimes I'll take a pair of narrow pliers and tweak the mouth in or out as needed, before running through the dies.

Point is, brass cases are pretty durable. And the mouths don't have to be perfect to be able to make good rounds. If you're making top-end power rounds, yes, be more discriminating. But if you're loading everyday range shooters, you'd be surprised what'll work just fine.
 
Frankly,

As you discovered, a bad enough bend on a wide mouth case can cause it to catch on a die mouth and destroy it. The example of the .223 won't apply because the .223 die has an expander that will open the mouth before it gets resized.

Your expander die may be able to iron the dent out for you from the inside if it doesn't catch on a powder-through edge. Like the other Nick, I simply stick the nose of a closed pair of electrician's pliers in and turn them until the worst of the dent is gone. Then you can try the expander or save that until you know it's not going to go straight to the sizer.
 
I agree with a lot of the suggestions even tweaking them a little before sizing but most of the time I just run them through the sizing die...if the come out good that's great...if they don't they go into the brass bucket and sold for scrap
 
A leatherman multitool (the wave) works great. It's needle nose gets thick quickly, making an ideal to straighten cases with a quick spin. I sometimes pinch a case back into round as well if it's too oblong.
 
I have to agree with everyone here, and add that, if it's got a particularly sharp kink, it will sometimes tear a little, crush or fold. Basically, once you run a few of these bent cases, it will become apparent what damage is beyond repair. So unless it's a particularly rare case, it might just behoove you to throw them in the recycle bin.

On another, partly related note: If a pistol case (9mm, .40cal, .45acp) has a dent in the side wall of the case that isn't righted during sizing, should we be concerned about the small change in case volume?
 
I haven't been worried about small indents further down the case wall. As long as the case is structurally sound, I figure as soon as the round goes boom the pressure will easily push out and correct the indent. I am pretty new to reloading, so please someone correct me if I am wrong
 
All great feedback. You fellas are awesome. One other consideration. Would it be a good standard practice to set aside any "special needs" brass and run it through the dies separately, on the short bus, so to speak, at the end of the run?
 
I figure as soon as the round goes boom the pressure will easily push out and correct the indent.
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I was thinking along the same lines and it would be helpful to get confirmation or correction on this point as well. Folks?
 
I toss creased brass and keep the ones that my expander will straighten out. If memory is right my Lyman multi-stage expander makes it an easier job than my Hornady expanders do on really bad cases. I quit collecting range and field brass a long time ago and don't see bad cases like yours very often...not like when I first started reloading.

bc
 
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