[Munch]

What causes these? I picked up a bunch of brass at the range yesterday and several of the 45 cases have these. Looks to me like the extractor is out of alignment or bent. But, I have no idea really. Would these cases be safe to reload? My first thought would be yes, the pressure during the next firing will push the dent out. Then I have the thought, that dent has created a weak spot in the case, and the pressure from the next firing may cause the case to fail.

 

[JLA]

Nah that's ejection dents. prolly fired in an unflared 1911.

They'll be fine to reload and shoot

 

[Alpo]

This is a military speck 1911 slide. See the size of the ejection port?

This is a slide that has had the port lowered and relieved. See the difference?

The original GI gun was made to shoot factory ammo one time and leave the brass on the ground. It did not matter if the brass hit the edge of the port on the way out and got a huge motherin' ding in it. As long as it got out, things were fine.

Then when civilians started reloading it, they found these big dings, and found the cause, so they made the port bigger.

The brass you found was fired in a GI-spec gun. I wouldn't think the dent is enough to hurt it. I have loaded and fired dented brass in my guns with no problems.

 

[Munch]

Thanks JLA and Alpo! Everytime I come here I learn something. They will be loaded up soon!!!

 

[LDBennett]

I have a Colt 1911 in 10mm that I have enlarge the ejection port as shown in the photo. The case dents are smaller but still there. In fact you could probably count the number of times the case has been reloaded by the remnants of the dents after being blow out with shooting. The marking is still there. Most have 10 or more dents (reloaded at least that number of times!).

LDBennett