Inspect every round you load

Call me crazy but if that chambered without issue I would shoot it. 55,000 psi will take that dent right out of that case.

ETA: my bet is Remington ammo...

Looks awful corroded. I'd Slamfire worse about that than the dent.

Shoot away, like said above I'd be more concerned about corrosion.

Was the ammo labeled “Slightly Used”?

Contact the manufacturer, explain the situation and retain that round and if possible the packing it came from. I was full time range staff for my department (one of the top 10-15 size wise in the nation) and we shot a LOT of ammo, so we saw the occasional bad factory round. It happens. The manufactures are always VERY interested in them, and since we couldn't exactly take a couple of boxes as a replacement due to it being work ammo, they'd send along promo items like hats and pins. I was advised on numerous occasions, that at a minimum as a civilian we'd have been given a replacement box of ammo (and only need to send them the 1 round) and usually some kind of other free stuff.

pkid said:

Most of the apparent corrosion is the poor lighting from my cell phone photo, the orange/red streak is a reflection. The rest of the box looks better, but this one doesn't look too bad in person (other than the dent).

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I understand the orange/red streak but the black spots and neck is not from lighting. Looks like brass I see at the range that has sat on the ground for 6 months.

Looks like something you’d pick up out of the dirt vs something you would get out of a box.

I can’t say I have seen anything that bad get by QC of a manufacturer, I have seen wrong caliber mixed in though. I have seen quite a bit of junk from some remanufacturers.

they probably changed or serviced a die and left a lot of oil in it, and that dent is probably hydrolic. If it will chamber fine thats almost certainly that. If it wont, them maybe it was hit by machinery.

mcb said:

Call me crazy but if that chambered without issue I would shoot it. 55,000 psi will take that dent right out of that case.

ETA: my bet is Remington ammo...

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Agree with this. I've had some dented ammo that smoothed out after firing, reloaded fine after that. One thing I have learned to look for is sharp creases in the brass. Those go into scrap.

Inspection of ammo and gun vital. Sunday I was at a club shoot. Once we got done with the BP shoot others shot their moderns. One person was having issue chambering. No matter what ammo they tried it would only half chamber. Ammo worked fine in another pistol. After about 20 minutes of trying they finally looked at the gun. Lo and behold the last time they had shot it the very last round was a squib. They said they did not notice anything abnormal last time out. I can't buy that. I've been shooting for 52 years and never have I ever not known if my weapon fired properly and I've only had one squib it all that time.
So very lucky it stuck close to the chamber or someone could have been dead or severely injured. I looked them square on and said, so, you did not clean it after last shoot and on top of that you did not inspect it prior to bringing it out. Not very safe. You and the rest of us were put at risk by your safety failure.
They said there were issues with the progressive loader.
So, you don't check total weight when they come out?
No.
Perhaps it's time you did.
They had 5 more squibs out of 26 rounds. I left. There will be a conversation with the club leader. This type of total lack of preshooting safety situation is not acceptable.

skeeterfogger said:

So, you don't check total weight when they come out?

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So you're saying that we should weigh each loaded cartridge that comes off our progressive presses?

If that's the case it's pretty obvious you're not a reloader.

The black marks could have come from the exterior of the case getting wet and not being dried off.

I brought some new Starline brass that had black spots all over them. I contacted Starline who told me the spots were from the brass getting wet and assured me that it was safe to use.

However the dent would cause me to pull the bullet and toss the case into my scrap brass bucket.

Texas10mm said:

So you're saying that we should weigh each loaded cartridge that comes off our progressive presses?

If that's the case it's pretty obvious you're not a reloader.

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One of the reasons I tell everyone that purchases a progressive press to invest in a powder check die or have some means to look into the case and see if it has powder.

But I agree, not a reloader from that statement.

BSA1 said:

The black marks could have come from the exterior of the case getting wet and not being dried off.

I brought some new Starline brass that had black spots all over them. I contacted Starline who told me the spots were from the brass getting wet and assured me that it was safe to use.

However the dent would cause me to pull the bullet and toss the case into my scrap brass bucket.

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I've never bought factory ammo that had brass like that and it would make me wonder about its quality. It looks like brass sitting on the ground at the range for 6 months.

Texas10mm said:

So you're saying that we should weigh each loaded cartridge that comes off our progressive presses?

If that's the case it's pretty obvious you're not a reloader.

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Pretty obvious who just goes with dumb luck.

skeeterfogger said:

Pretty obvious who just goes with dumb luck.

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You're dodging the question and starting with the name calling.

No, I don't weigh and sort every piece of brass. Nor do I do the same with my bullets. That's the ONLY way that weighing every finished cartridge would have any use.

You have to know the tare weight of everything to really know if you're short a powder charge. Variations in brass and bullets in most commonly used handgun rounds are greater than the powder charge weight.

The other day I loaded 400 rounds of 9mm on my Dillon 650. You think I should have weighed and sorted 400+ pieces of brass, then weigh and sort 400+ bullets. Then load the ammo and go back and weigh each round.

Nope. That's not how it works. One can learn how a progressive press works and not have a problem. Blaming the press is a fools errand. That's like blaming the hammer because your shed fell down.

There are tools out there that will notify the user of a progressive press that an out of ordinary powder charge has been dropped.

The Hornady Powder Cop provides a visual alert. The Dillon powder check provides an audible alert and the RCBS Lock Out Die provides a physical alert.

Now, answer the question. Are you a reloader?

I loaded and shot ~40k pistol rounds last year. I didn't have any squibs. All were loaded on a progressive press. I didn't weigh and sort any brass or bullets. Dumb luck or knowing my ass from a hole in the ground?

Texas10mm said:

So you're saying that we should weigh each loaded cartridge that comes off our progressive presses?

If that's the case it's pretty obvious you're not a reloader.

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I did that for a long time. Weighed tens of thousands of rounds that way. Finally convinced myself that, after a few years of operating my progressive, I could trust my loading process sufficiently to not check-weigh every finished cartridge.

But I still do it for major match ammo.

Kind of reminds me of those corn chips/cheese balls/cheese curls/pretzel combos you see in the snack food aisle...like they swept it up off the floor where it laid for years and jest tossed it in with the rest of 'em…..

ATLDave said:

I did that for a long time. Weighed tens of thousands of rounds that way. Finally convinced myself that, after a few years of operating my progressive, I could trust my loading process sufficiently to not check-weigh every finished cartridge.

But I still do it for major match ammo.

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Interesting. I only ever weight check one batch of ammo that had produced a double charge 40S&W (that was exiting) back when I first started loading on a progress. But since I was using range pickup brass I could not reliably distinguish a cartridge with no powder from a cartridge with a double charge of titegroup. I now use a powder check die on the 650 (and a light to visually check too) and I case gauge everything before it goes in boxes/containers but being a brass vulture for most of my pistol brass make doing a weight check less useful at least on pistol ammo. It would probably work on my rifle reloading but I didn't start reloading rifle on a progressive until relatively recently and my pistol process seems to be working.

mcb said:

Interesting. I only ever weight check one batch of ammo that had produced a double charge 40S&W (that was exiting) back when I first started loading on a progress. But since I was using range pickup brass I could not reliably distinguish a cartridge with no powder from a cartridge with a double charge of titegroup. I now use a powder check die on the 650 (and a light to visually check too) and I case gauge everything before it goes in boxes/containers but being a brass vulture for most of my pistol brass make doing a weight check less useful at least on pistol ammo. It would probably work on my rifle reloading but I didn't start reloading rifle on a progressive until relatively recently and my pistol process seems to be working.

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Sure. I'm a brass-heapstamp-sorter. Since I'm loading 9 Grenade these days, I have to sort brass... there are some headstamps that are just not a good idea with 9 major loads.

But I've always sorted by headstamp, in part to enable check-weighing. I also have historically favored projectiles with close weight tolerances. That's one of several reasons I've never enjoyed bare lead/lubed projectiles - their weights are all over the place, if for no other reason that widely varying amounts of lube. I want components that all have small enough variance windows that those stacked windows aren't likely to overshadow a double charge or no charge.

Not seeing the problem, unless this came out of a premium/HD purchase. For bulk/surplus/training ammo, it's fine.

psyopspec said:

Not seeing the problem, unless this came out of a premium/HD purchase. For bulk/surplus/training ammo, it's fine.

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Not sure I would go that far. That is some crappy QC that would let a round with that sever of a dent out. I would still shoot it but I would think twice before I bought another package of that ammo unless there was some evidence of the damage happening in transit.