"Dented" .38 shell

[Taildragger-J3]

I ran this once fired brass through my C&H die and it came out with this dent. I tried to lube it with some RCBS case lube. What do y'all think I did wrong?

 

[ljnowell]

Kinda hard to make out the dent, but i would resize it again, and load it and shoot it, as long as it isnt stretched thin there. It'll fire form right out of there.

 

[medalguy]

Hard to tell, but does the "dent" go all around the case like a ring??? If so it's a cannelure ring used to help seat the factory bullet and keep it from being driven into the case when the pistol is fired. Perfectly normal. Load 'er up and fire when ready.

 

[Sport45]

Unless that was one of the last pieces of .38 brass I had, I'd toss it. Looks like it might be stretched or crumpled.

It looks to me like it crushed a bit the last time a bullet was seated. Possibly came that way from the factory.

 

[Taildragger-J3]

It's not the cannelure. It's only about 1/4 - 1/3 around the shell. None of the rest (~30) that I resized did this. I ran it back through the die & expander and it didn't come out. It's not like this is the only .38 case I have, so throwing it away isn't a big deal. But if it can be used safely . . . That's why I wanted some more experienced opinions than mine.

 

[bullseye308]

Run it through the die again and if there is no crease I'd load it and shoot it. I believe you'll be fine with that one. If you have a crease, I'd trash(recycle) it. 38 brass is too common & cheap.

 

[Sport45]

If you were able to iron that out it would leave the mouth out of square with the case. I wouldn't bother with it.

 

[Walkalong]

It looks like it was run partway into the sizer crooked, pulled back, straightened out, and then run up all the way. Ask me how I know.

It will probably be fine, but liked posted earlier, if I had plenty of .38 Spl brass, I would toss it in the scrap brass bin.

 

[evan price]

Looks to me like it wasn't squarely in the shellplate when you tried to resize it and it popped itself all the way in as the case went into the sizer. Been there, done that. It should fireform OK, but if you have lots of .38 just scrap it, what's a nickle here and there- especially for learning from our mistakes?