Once Fired .223 Brass Question

[mnegrete]

I was at the range the other day and came across around 200 rounds of .223 brass. It all had the same head stamp and looked to be in decent shape, so I picked it up, assuming it was once fired.

When I got it home and cleaned it, I noticed all the brass had rings up towards the neck of the body, as well as on the neck. Do any of you have any ideas if this is due to case stretching from an oversized chamber?

[Low-Pressure]

Can you feel the ring when your handling it? Maybe the gun's chamber has a ring in it and its marking the brass that's fired through it.

[bohoki]

man i see why that person doesn't collect his brass i wonder if its a reamed out 222 barrel

[bruceflinch]

Resize it & shoot it once to see if the ring decreases or INCREASES!!!

[kurac]

ouch!, that brass won't last long

[Pryde]

If they are not deep then that ring is caused by using a rotary trimmer like a Giraud or a Possum hollow, you can tell by the presence of the same marks on the shoulder and the square even cut on the neck. The brass shavings get stuck inside the shoulder of the trimmer and leave scratches on the surface of the next round. If that is the case then there is nothing to worry about.

[Beelzy]

The chamber that fired those cases was defective.....discards are what they are.

[popeye4]

If they are not deep then that ring is caused by using a rotary trimmer like a Giraud or a Possum hollow, you can tell by the presence of the same marks on the shoulder and the square even cut on the neck. The brass shavings get stuck inside the shoulder of the trimmer and leave scratches on the surface of the next round. If that is the case then there is nothing to worry about.

Not a Giraud! The case doesn't spin, the cutter head does. If you are allowing the case to spin, you aren't doing it right.

[ireload]

Looks like machining mark from the barrel. Impending seperatio is located at the lower section close to the web of the brass. You should be ok.

My rule of thumb when picking up rifle brass from the range is actually seeing the user pull the rounds from a new box and not a reloader's ammo case so I know it's "once fired" brass and not brass that's maxed out it's case life.

[killshot44]

My rule of thumb when picking up rifle brass from the range is actually seeing the user pull the rounds from a new box and not a reloader's ammo case so I know it's "once fired" brass and not brass that's maxed out it's case life.

Everyone should heed this advice. I pity the fool who scrounges my 9-times fired brass with loose pockets....

[mnegrete]

ireload - good point. I'm usually a stickler when picking up brass at the range. However, when I picked up these, there were so many rounds that it seemed like it wasn't a reloader who was dumping a bunch of old brass. Also the heads on the cases seem to be in pretty good shape, and looked to only have one extractor mark on them. I cut through one of the cases this evening and it doesn't look to me like the case is getting much thinner where the rings were showing up on the outside. Also, it looks like the rings are showing up on the inside of the case mainly in the neck.

[bubbapug1]

that brass looks fine. Check it in a case gage, resize it as needed, and load it.

The lines look like spin marks from a gracy or a badly machined chamber but your wall thicknesses look uniform

[freonr22]

I have done only 4kish on my possum hollow never had those marks

[xrMike]

That brass looks good to me. It hasn't started to thin out above the case head, not even a little bit. And there's no thinning where the marks on the neck and shoulder are either. I'd use it.

[sonnyt650]

When I cut open one of my .308s which had the bright line on it, the thinning was down where that first dark line happens to be in your photo. I think it's because the rest of the case is supported by the chamber so that case growth is backwards towards the bolt face from that point.

That's also a really clean case where my twice+ fired cases look a consistent black on the inside. What's the headstamp? I'll guess that's something to do with annealing for that particular brand.