Colt MK VI 70 Series Dented Cases

My powder funnel (Dillon 550) will normally take out a fair sized ding, although some of those look much worse. My standard load (4.6/B'eye/230) gives a nice 'softball' load, a bit shy of full hardball ballistics. Use it in a bunch of 1911s, and I don't recall even the Black Army (1911 e-port) mangling brass much.
There's a whole lot of variables; for the OP, what percentage of your brass is getting seriously dinged?
Moon
 
Not relevant to the OP's problem, but what is a Mark VI (6)? I remember there being a Mark IV (4), but never quite understood the numbering as I don't remember being any Marks I, II, or III before the Mark IV (4).

I've had several 1911s, but never had the older-school small ejection port. But even with my larger ejection ports, as mentioned in Post 20, when I do begin getting dented brass, it's typically due to my recoil spring becoming weak/shorter and it needing to be changed. I'll typically get no more than 2500 to 3500 rounds before I need to change out my recoil spring.

I don't reload and don't know what or how various different loadings of .45ACP ammo would behave.
Tuning/choosing ammo, ejectors, recoil springs, and ejection ports just to save spent brass seems too much to do in my mind.
 
L-2 said:
Tuning/choosing ammo, ejectors, recoil springs, and ejection ports just to save spent brass seems too much to do in my mind.
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That’s a secondary benefit with primary being reliability, recoil control, and longevity of the pistol. Dents come out in the sizing die either way, but brass to the face is no fun.
 
Does the gun jam?

If the gun functions normally, I would not go monkeying around with it over dinged brass. Who cares.
 
halfmoonclip said:
There's a whole lot of variables; for the OP, what percentage of your brass is getting seriously dinged?
Moon
Click to expand...
Stated in the OP , about a 3rd of it .
Balrog said:
Does the gun jam?

If the gun functions normally, I would not go monkeying around with it over dinged brass. Who cares.
Click to expand...
Stated in the OP , the pistol had no malfunctions . As a reloader I care .
 
Okay, rick, let me rephrase; how much is dented so badly that your powder funnel/expander plug won't take it out?
I'm a reloader, too, but have such an abundance of brass (been doing this for over 40 years) that I'm more cavalier about losing a little. Even give beautiful, once fired, SPP casings the toss.
Moon
 
L-2 said:
Not relevant to the OP's problem, but what is a Mark VI (6)? I remember there being a Mark IV (4), but never quite understood the numbering as I don't remember being any Marks I, II, or III before the Mark IV (4).
Click to expand...
My dyslexia must have been acting up , it’s a MK IV Series 70 .
 
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halfmoonclip said:
Okay, rick, let me rephrase; how much is dented so badly that your powder funnel/expander plug won't take it out?
I'm a reloader, too, but have such an abundance of brass (been doing this for over 40 years) that I'm more cavalier about losing a little. Even give beautiful, once fired, SPP casings the toss.
Moon
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Most all of the cases that have dents in them look to dented , but I didn’t try them . Maybe 1 case looked like I could resize it without using needle nose pliers first . I will add that I was working up a load for it , so I only fired 27 rounds and had 5 cases that I couldn’t find .
 
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red rick said:
Stated in the OP , about a 3rd of it .

Stated in the OP , the pistol had no malfunctions . As a reloader I care .
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I reload also, and dinged brass like that is not a problem. I think you are worrying something cosmetic that is of no consequence. I would not try to fix it.
 
Ive reloaded a ton of brass over the years that looked like that and worse. You lose most if not all of the dent when you size, and the expander takes care of anything else.

I wouldn't recommend using pliers of any type to try and fix things. Youll only make things worse.
 
Howland937 said:
Less than 20% is better than I'm doing most times. I haven't lost enough brass to cover the cost of a concrete pad yet...
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I imagine those that I couldn’t find don’t have a dent in them because they got ejected so far and didn’t hit anything coming out . I expect my pistol needs the ejector tuned because it is ejecting cases all over the place . I had one case land to the left side and a few that never cleared the shooting table and one land on top of my head . It also has a terrible trigger for a 1911 . I’ve had , Kimber , Dan Wesson , Springfield and Ruger , this has the worst trigger of any of those by a long shot .
 
red rick said:
working up a load
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Check what your recoil spring looks like, compared to a new one from Midwayusa.

The new Colt 16 pound spring is a lot longer then what was in my Colt GC 45 for years.

The W244 powder loads are marking up my brass, compared to my lower velocity Bullseye loads @ 3.8 gr , compared to 244 at 4.8 gr 200 gr lswc. Not as bad as your brass.

20240406_174250.jpg
 
trackskippy said:
Ive reloaded a ton of brass over the years that looked like that and worse. You lose most if not all of the dent when you size, and the expander takes care of anything else.

I wouldn't recommend using pliers of any type to try and fix things. Youll only make things worse.
Click to expand...
The pliers pushed the dent right out . I didn’t bend it out , I inserted the needle nose in the case and pushed the dent out .
 
If it’s that big of a problem, just trade the pistol in on another that has a lowered ejection port.
 
swoter said:
If it’s that big of a problem, just trade the pistol in on another that has a lowered ejection port.
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I am thinking about selling it , but I wouldn’t trade it , especially at a gun store . The only thing is , Virginia made it hard for a private party to sell and buy a used firearm . Private party sales have to go through a FFL like buying a new firearm .
 
Is it really that big a deal? Most states require that of a handgun anymore anyway.

Ive always done best with selling on consignment. The dealer does all the work and takes a fee. You collect the check.
 
red rick said:
. I had one case land to the left side and a few that never cleared the shooting table and one land on top of my head
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The Sig 1911 I carry every day does that. I don't get bent cases, but it'll occasionally spit one in my face, off the top of my head, in a shirt pocket...left, right, in front, behind. But they're never very far away and the gun always works, so I haven't messed with it.

Another SIG 1911 launches them about 15', 4:00, all within 3 feet of one another. I don't mess with it either.
 
trackskippy said:
Is it really that big a deal? Most states require that of a handgun anymore anyway.

Ive always done best with selling on consignment. The dealer does all the work and takes a fee. You collect the check.
Click to expand...
It makes me not want to buy from a private seller , especially if I have to travel over 30 minutes to meet them and I have had the background check not go through on the same day once . So yes it can be a pain and more trouble than I want to deal with .
 
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