How to straighten bent case rims?

[David Sinko]

I recently found some .30-06 brass at the range. It was on the ground and I didn't have to do any dumpster diving to get it. All the rims were dinged in that they appear to have been shot out of a Garand. To make matters worse, I have a bunch of cases that I had sized in my Dillon 550B while I was waiting for a part to fix my single stage press. The shell plate of the 550B tends to flex and some of these cases also have bent rims, likely from not having enough lube. I notice that some of these cartridges with damaged rims won't chamber in my Ruger 77 but if I turn them so that the bent portion of the rim is in a different position, they will chamber. So, once these are chambered and fired, will the pressure even out the rim against the bolt face or are these cases permanently damaged? While .30-06 is relatively common, I hate to throw away brass that can be "made good."

Dave Sinko

 

[mtb1bkr]

I don't think shooting them will straighten them out but it's worth a try. If they don't straighten out and you don't want to use them, the brass is recycleable, I wouldn't just throw it away. I have a bucket I keep all of my scrapped brass for later cashing in, hopefully when brass prices are up.

Bill

 

[Hangerbanger]

Good luck with the case rims, but my experience has been that when the rims are bent firing them will not straighten them out. It will misalign the chambered round and give you fliers though if that's a plus. I think you should consider scrapping them out as Bill suggested. I had a bunch of 7.62 NATO brass that had gone through an M-60 mg that had bent rims and I eventually ended up scraping it out.
Barry

 

[rg1]

If they aren't bent too badly, use a smooth file to file the case head flat. Do this before sizing. Usually a few strokes of the file will get rid of the bent area and they are good to go. Now if they are mangled I'd scrap them. Yes Garands are bad about bending the rims a little. I file a lot of case heads flat and smooth out extractor marks in the edge of the rims for my Garands. Check the cases well for signs of stretching or separations. Garands chambers are often headspaced on the plus side of specs. Filing the heads flat won't make the case unsafe.