Brass defect...how many firings will it last? a "case" study

[MThuntr]

I've been shooting my 6mm creedmoor a lot since I put it together. I'm on nearly 500 (5 reloads of brass) rounds since May.


Ive settled in on 108gr ELD-Ms over 42.5gr of RL23 with Peterson brass. Thats approximately 3050fps. All brass is annealed and sized via bushing dies to give .003" of neck tension with a shoulder bump of .002"

I have 1 piece of brass that I spotted on loading 3 that has a manufacturing defect. It's not a split but a fold from forming the brass. Peterson hasn't replied to my question of how it passed inspection.



Would you still shoot it? How many firings will it last?

 

[mevertsen]

Brass is cheap.

Eyes are hard to replace.

Toss it

 

[thomas89]

Yeahhhh chuck it. Not the place I’d be trying to save $.50.

 

[Jnasa]

I think every bag of Einchester 270 brass I bought had one like it in there. I recently got some Nosler brass with a defect. I notified them and sent pictures and lot numbers. They sent replacement.

I personally wouldn’t use.

 

[Sheltowee]

Had nearly the same issue with Nosler brass. They said it was a failure in the laminating process and sent me replacements right away, like @Jnasa. Surprised Peterson isn’t responding.

 

[Tmbrgost]

Not worth the trouble or potential problems. Toss it, learn from it and move on.

When playing with things that go “boom” very close to your face, usually results in your face loosing! Just saying

 

[MThuntr]

Had nearly the same issue with Nosler brass. They said it was a failure in the laminating process and sent me replacements right away, like @Jnasa. Surprised Peterson isn’t responding.

Seems like nosler had some sneak through the past few years. I had some 6.5 PRC brass from Nosler that had some issues with folds/dents. I was refunded by Midwayusa.

As a side note I have shot this brass 1 more time since I discovered the issue but it's waiting on the bench for a response from Peterson. I'm going to press Peterson again. It's been 3 weeks. I don't want them to send me brass just want to know what they think.

 

[antelopedundee]

Was it dark looking like that when it was new?

 

[MThuntr]

Was it dark looking like that when it was new?

I dont think so. I wet tumble so my brass usually quite a bit cleaner. I think thats why I missed it at first. Dirty brass made it easier to see. I thought it was a crack which is why I put a borescope inside and saw the folds.

 

[Bullshot]

Crap happens with manufactured things. It's just a single defective piece of stamped metal. Toss it and move on, you noticed it, so just continue to inspect your brass. I can't believe you willingly shot bad brass though.

 

[Elktrack]

I used to be pretty stingey about brass. Well, pretty much a tight wad really.
That all ended when I had case failure a couple of times and in one instance had to dig the case out of the chamber after the head separated. Wasn’t a horrible thing but it definitely isn’t time well spent. If it’s questionable, toss it

 

[MThuntr]

Update: a Peterson brass tech and I have been conversing about all things reloading and even went off into the weeds about mandrel presses, custom dies, and bullet jump tests. I need to get them info just in case this isn't a one-off for this lot of brass.

I can't believe you willingly shot bad brass though.

Sometimes I gotta do dumb things . Peterson tech wasn't surprised that it held up but was surprised I didn't notice sooner and also said to stop pressing my luck.