.303 British brass dents and wrinkles

[linotype]

I was sorting out some old .303 British cases from a long time ago. Found a few rejects with dents and wrinkles on the shoulders. I'm assuming these were caused by too much lube during resizing, and I must have tossed them aside.
Would these cases be safe to load and fire at normal safe pressure loads? Should I form fire them? Light Loads? Or, scrap them?

Linotype

[Jack Stanley]

I think I'd use moderate to light loads and put them back in service .

Jack

[ukrifleman]

Light loads could be the reason that the shoulders are dimpled. If there is insufficient pressure to expand the case into the chamber and create a gas tight seal, the gasses can vent back and dent the case across the shoulder.
It's your call as to whether you want to re-cycle the cases by fire forming them. It may well be ok to do this but, if it were me, I would re-cycle them as scrap brass.
ukrifleman

[longbow]

Personally I wouldn't worry about it unless there are signs of cracking.

I would either load and shoot moderate cast boolits loads in them or anneal to the shoulder then reload and shoot.

After all, .303 British head spaces on the rim not the shoulder.

My $0.02 worth anyway.

Kent

[303Guy]

I wouldn't worry about it at all. The dents would of alter the case capacity and that may or may not affect accuracy. I would not hesitate to use those cases on full power loads.

http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo327/303Guy/MVC-553F.jpg

[jonk]

Shoot them. I can't count the number of dents, dimples, and wrinkles I've shot out. Worst thing that happens is you get a cracked neck, but unless the brass is old brittle or resized a great number of times, you won't even do that. If it were an issue, how would fireforming to re-do to another caliber work?

[1Shirt]

If no neck splits, I would shoot them, then probably anneal/trim and neck size. I only full length size any rimmed case (including 30-30) when they start to extract hard. That is usuallly about 5-8 loadings at moderate vols.
1Shirt!

[linotype]

Thanks for the good advice all around.
I'm sure these were dented and wrinkled from too much lube. As I remember, I was prepping a new RCBS case lube pad at the time. Must have been too generous with the case lube.
Linotype

[farmallcrew]

Another one here, shoot them. Some dents can bE pushed out with the pressure.

[MtGun44]

Shot dented cases with no problems.

Bill