undenting cases

[remfan]

hey
 i had heard years ago 2gr bullseye and a load of cream of wheat packed slightly will undent and fireform brass to your chamber and is ok to do    anyone   do it    or try it??
   

[stimpylu32]

Thats the basic concept but , there is a bit more to it , starting with the case size will be the factor on powder charge , big cases will need a bit more powder , while small cases like the 22 Hornet will need less .

Once the powder is in the case , take a small peice of toilet paper to use as an over-powder wad , this keeps the powder from mixing with the COW .

Now fill the case about 1/2 full of COW and lightly tamp it down , then finish filling the case with more COW and re-tamp , at this point you should have the COW about 1/3 of the way down the case neck .

In the space left in the neck , take some Crisco or other cooking type lard and fill to the top of the case neck , this will keep the COW from falling out till you shoot the round .

Depending on the size of the case and what your trying to form you may need to repeat the process , if just pushing out dints once should do the trick , forming wildcat rounds is a whole diffrent matter .

stimpy

[bilmac]

If you are just talking about dents formed by using too much lube, just load them up as usual and shoot them. You probably don't want to use them for anything serious, I guess they could cause trouble, but they never have for me. So how long has it been since you did a little offhand shooting.

[wncchester]

Load and shoot lube-dented cases nomally, doubt you will be able to tell the difference on a target.

[stimpylu32]

Yep , lube dents just pop out as you shoot , not much problem there . If they are larger , like the ones that you get in 223's and 308's that have been shot in full auto rifles , those can be a real problem as they DO reduce case cap , thus changing load and pressure properties .

stimpy 

[GameHauler]

Yep , lube dents just pop out as you shoot , not much problem there . If they are larger , like the ones that you get in 223's and 308's that have been shot in full auto rifles , those can be a real problem as they DO reduce case cap , thus changing load and pressure properties .

stimpy 

So what do you do about them Stimpy?
I have a bunch of 7.62X39 cases dented all to heck.

By the way I just used TP to cap off my COW loads.
Might be a little cleaner than Crisco

[stimpylu32]

Mike

If there dinted to bad to chamber properly I just toss them in the scrap brass bucket , the others I find a cheap plunker bullet for , load at a starting load and let the kids shoot , as most of the time they don't care about group size anyhow . 

It saves me on good bullets and gets the cases fireformed at the same time . 

Richard

[Graybeard]

I take a different approach as I often do. If the dent is bad enough to make the case useless toss it otherwise I just load it and go with it. I've loaded a lot of .223s fired in semiauto and even full auto guns and have yet to see one that was bad enough to affect performance.

You always need barrel fouling shots anyway so if it's that bad save it for that use but I'd just about bet you that if you take a group of five with dented cases and load them exactly the same as those without dents and fire two groups at 100 yards using them you'll not be able to tell the groups apart so long as you do your job right pulling the trigger.

[woodchukhntr]

Yep , lube dents just pop out as you shoot , not much problem there . If they are larger , like the ones that you get in 223's and 308's that have been shot in full auto rifles , those can be a real problem as they DO reduce case cap , thus changing load and pressure properties .

stimpy 

I have never had any problems with dented cases.  The brass is soft enough to instantly conform to the chamber as soon as the pressure starts to build, and  you have a full capacity case so there are no concerns about reduced case capacity unless you cannot put a full load of powder in them.  If that is the case, fireform them first.