Hey everyone. Im new to the forum and figured to get right to it with a question for you all haha. First off, Glad to be here! Been lurking around for sometime and finaly joined. I'v been shooting my whole life but am fairly new to owning guns myself, so i have a whole lot more to learn. Soo With that, I was out shooting my SA M1a today and collected my brass for reloading in the future (was just talked into reloading so I'm going to do all the reasearch before attampting it). After looking at the brass closer at home i noticed about 50% of them had a dent on the neck. The gun cycle's fine through all 15 rounds. I just got it a few weeks ago so i'v only shot about 150 rounds through it. Any idea what could cause this? Or how to fix it?

 

I'v heard from a few people to shoot about 200-300 rounds through it and it might work itself out. Not sure if that makes sense to me with out at at least changing ammo or a gas setting or something. I'v also been told to send it back the SA. What do you guys think?

 

Oh yea and i'v been shooting Remington 150gr fmj .308

Autoloading rifles often bang up brass pretty well. I shoot non-reladable brass and steel cased ammo through my M1A. While it is an accurate gun, it does not compare to my Savage bolt action. As far as brass mangling, my M1A is pretty low on the scale. My PTR (HK91 clone) chews the hell out of brass. AKs make the brass unusable.

Hello and welcome to the Forums!

Thanks for the welcome. Took the best pic's i could get. Both are from the SA M1A. One bent and the other not.

 

 

I don't think that is actually too bad a dent. maybe it looks worse in person or from a side angle.

I figured that. it doesn't seem to be to bad i just wanted to make sure i wouldn't have problems in the future.

That's easily straightened out when it's run through a resizing die.

I have 2 SA M1a's, they are notorious for beating up brass, goes with the territory of a semi auto. Ive had casings look much worse than the pic you posted, I run em through a resizing die and theyre good to go.

 

Your rifle doesnt need to be shipped back to SA, and its not something that will work itself out after 200 rounds. You may also consider some surplus ammo thats available online, the German DAG is very good stuff, cheaper but pretty accurate. Downside is its Berdan primed and not reloadable.

Dented brass from semi-auto's (and the M1A) is to be expected as others have noted. Those dents are fine. As your rifle breaks-in, this may change after a few hundred rounds. Different power loads sometimes are better or worse at creating this condition. If you want, close the gas valve and cycle the rifle manually for each shot. Beats chasing brass too.

Thanks for all the advise everyone, Good to know the rifle's ok and i can still use the brass for reloading. Now I just to have to wait for my tax return to get all my reloading gear.

Mine does the same exact thing. It is a cantact dent. I think the brass flips around and whacks the receiver on the way out. After a few thousand rounds mine still does it. They resize and reload fine though.

Ken