Attached is a photo of factory Remington UMC 230gr RN brass ejected from my new Remington R1 Enhanced 1911. Any ideas on what is causing the dents in the cases? They seem to cycle OK, and not all have the dent, maybe 1 out of 3 or 4. I want to reload them, but am concerned about this.

Attached Images

2013-09-24_18-44-05_369.jpg (30.9 KB, 591 views)

Help please, 'eyebrows' after the range on .45 ACP brass?

Those look like dents caused by the brass hitting the ejection port as the empties are being kicked out of the gun.

The sizer will take those out, fuggetaboutem and get em reloaded!

Don't be alarmed with the dimples in your brass....they are getting dinged most likely when they eject( most likely on the rear of the ejection port).....size them, load them and shoot them......when fired the brass will flow into the dimensions of the chamber....be jerked out by the extractor...kicked loose by the ejector and quite possibly dinged again....I have been shooting 1911's for 40 years and have seen brass "dinged" a lot more severely than those you picture....at least the case mouths are not deformed, as some I have had in the past when they got whacked on the ejection port(not relieved) when being ejected....I have 45 acp brass that has been run thru 1911's 15-20 times depending on the loads....and they look it.....but still loaded and functioned....size them - load them and shoot them...

Great, thanks! I just started shooting and loading 45 acp, so glad I'm good to go. Sizing did help, but still noticable - good to know they are still OK to shoot

Re-working the extractor will alleviate those dents most of the time. There should be videos or instructions on what needs to be done.

You should be able to see some brass mark where the cases are hitting.

Thanks, will check.

In all the range brass I've picked up, I haven't seen dents that severe. Safe to reload? Yes. But if it were my gun causing that, I'd feel better having it looked at.

Those are not DENTS but just light love taps...........

The die will take care of them and the brass will look good as new, but by rights they should not have that hard of an ejection mark.
You may want to see what is causing the mark and see if it can be fixed or at least reduced a little.

One of the standard things that was done in the old days on .45s was to lower and flare back the ejection port to avoid the dings you see.
Something any good smith could do with ease. it was usually done as a part of a port and polish job on .45s. lower the ejection port and polish the feed ramp. Most modern .45s come with this work already done today.

If it's hitting on the ejection port, you will definitely see a small brass mark. Usually case dents from the port are higher up the case and on the mouth somewhere. I haven't examined a Remington to see how large the ejection port is or whether they added a so called "improved notch" to prevent that. It can be any combination of/or individual reason of extractor tension, port size, ejector angle & length. In the early days of IPSC the guns often got an enlarged port and an extended ejector for reliability reasons. These often allowed the brass to clear without denting.

Extractor tension should be sufficient to hold a case in a slide without falling out when the slide has the barrel and bushing etc removed. It should not be so tight that it is difficult to push up into the extractor, neither should it be so loose as to let it fall out. Tension on a long Colt type extractor is adjusted by bending the extractor. Also, feeding can be enhanced by very slightly polishing and beveling the very bottom edge of the extractor notch.

Thanks for all the feedback.

I checked my ejection port and do not see any mark, but it's possible I wiped the slide before this advice without realizing it was there. Will check again after my next range outing this weekend.

I also checked the extractor as suggested, and it seems to be OK. Casing slides in easily, but does not fall out.

1911's are, like most semi-auto's a bit rough on brass. but considering everything a case goes through from start to finish, getting a little beat-up is to be expected. Little dings and dents like those are OK , you can reload them with no problem.

Gary

I agree that the dinged brass will reload perfectly well. The real problem is that after your brass takes enough of that abuse, it might have to be retired too soon.

I suggest you call Remington, tell them what's happening and see if they'll fix it. Can't hurt.

__________________
Bob.
SWCA 1821

My RIA 1911 does something similar, dents the brass in the same spot but not nearly as deep. Mine reloaded just fine and the reloads don't do this nearly as often as factory ammo. My suggestion would be to try reloading them, just make sure the brass doesn't have other problems before trying it.