I'm purchasing reloading equipment this weekend and plan on loading ammo for my .223 and 40. I've been saving my brass and noticed quite a few of my .223 cases have a very small dent. I wanted to know if it's safe to reload these cases or should I discard them. I'm not 100% sure, but it appears that the dents may be caused by the brass deflector. Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Really depends on where the dent is. I mean if its around the opening when you re-size it that will be fixed. If its in the neck of the brass , it many not harm the reloading but it may not feed very well in your gun. I had a BAR that bent the opening everytime I shot it , when I re-sized it was fixed. Othere than that I always toss any brass with dents just to be on the safe side.

Like TxShooter said, it depends on where the dent is. I've seen dents in the body of cases, where full length resizing would take them out. Bent case mouths are fairly normal, and shouldn't be a problem at all.

I'd try resizing a few, and see how that works. It would kinda defeat a few of the purposes of reloading if you had to buy new brass for every firing.

Let us know how it works.


Jay

If the dent is slight and the shell will still chamber....then work up a light load with them and fire them at the range. They will reform to the shape of your chamber. I do this with some of the powders/bullets I didn't like the performance of. Most pistol cases are full sized at reloading and would remove the dents.