Would you reload these?

[sofbak]

Well, I got all the .40 s&w, .45 ACP and long colt cleaned up and ready for reloading, so I moved on to the .30-06 milsurp. I noticed several cases that were nicked on the side close to the rim. Here is a small sampling:

[IMG][/IMG]

These are not just dents, but nicks with a sharp edge around the "crater". The depth is not much, maybe a thou and a half. These in the photo have had the edges smoothed down with croakus cloth.

These were shot from one of my M1's, and would have been reloaded for the same rifles. But given the high pressures in these cases, I am concerned about a pressure failure.

I have plenty so the relative few that have these nicks won't put a dent in my supply of cases. Should I just ditch these to the recycle pile?

TIA

[Fjold]

If they are sharp edged nicks, toss them.

[wtkaiser]

True enough. How would you smooth them and not take away metal (therefore strength)? You couldn't just run them through your sizing die because you'd scratch that up, too. If these are your only casualties, toss 'em.

But what caused it in the first place? Have you got something in your chamber doing this???

[OldShooter32]

Ejection marks...load em again, they won't reduce case strength enough to worry about. Split necks and heads are much worse. Brass cases won't scratch a steel die & the dings will iron out.

[sofbak]

True enough. How would you smooth them and not take away metal (therefore strength)? You couldn't just run them through your sizing die because you'd scratch that up, too. If these are your only casualties, toss 'em.

But what caused it in the first place? Have you got something in your chamber doing this???

Only about 5% have these, so I'm not going to risk them-just recycle.

Turns out one of my M1's (have 35) has either a weak ejector spring under the plunger, or a sticky extractor. The case should be free by the time it gets that far back from the breech.

A fellow garandaholic on jouster found this video on youtube of slow-mo garand operation. Look at about 27 seconds into the video you can see the case striking against an edge on the receiver just in front of the sight base. There is a mild "knife-edge" corner right there where the cutout for the bolt lug travel starts under the sight base.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgldaFmgPZo

The angle of that case striking the receiver is almost identical to the angle of these nicked cases relative to the long axis of the case, and it appears the contact area is about the same distance from the rim as what I have here.

As I take them out one by one for exercise, I'm going to be looking out for the unit with the bad habit and go from there.

thanx to all the help.