How do you deal with bent cases?

[T. O'Heir]

Needle nosed pliers fix a lot of stuff. Works on dinged case mouths out of M1 Rifles too. Open enough for the expender button and the die will do the rest.

 

[Nick_C_S]

So I shot my .45 Wednesday and brought home this case:

After a little tweaking with some narrow jawed pliers (not to be confused with needlenose); followed by partial run through the flair die; then through the resize/decap; then a final full flair; this is the result:

Yes, it will live to shoot another day.

 

[44 AMP]

Here's where having a variety of tools comes in handy.

Careful bending with pliers works.
A rod/dowel (first time I ever heard of using a Sharpie), anything you can use to get the case mouth back "close" to round works.

Here's a tip, before running the "straightened" case into the sizer die, run it into the seater die. The seater die body is a little larger than the sizer, and will more easily take a slightly out of round case and bring it back round.

Then the sizer die can do its job, sizing the case.

I have also recovered badly bent cases (.45acp) by using the expander die in .357cal (extremely bent case) or .44cal (less bent case mouth), then using the .45 seater die, and finally the sizer.

bent cases can be saved. Cases where the brass has folded/creased, are pretty much toast.

Hope this helps

 

[9mmSkeeter]

If I feel the sizer is going to bend the case inward, I take a needlenose pliers and bend it out manually myself. Sometimes this works, sometimes it just can't be salvaged. In those instances you just toss it and move on to the next one.

 

[Nick_C_S]

Here's a tip, before running the "straightened" case into the sizer die, run it into the seater die. The seater die body is a little larger than the sizer, and will more easily take a slightly out of round case and bring it back round.

Clever.

I have also recovered badly bent cases (.45acp) by using the expander die in .357cal (extremely bent case) or .44cal (less bent case mouth), then using the .45 seater die, and finally the sizer.

Also clever.

^^ This is why I'm on TFL. Always learning new stuff.

 

[azjohn]

Lee makes an universal expander die that should work.
http://www.titanreloading.com/specialty-reloading-dies/universal-expanding-die

 

[Brotherbadger]

Run them through the die. If they still aren't fixed, then chuck em. However, chances are you won't have to throw many away.