.357 Federal American Eagle Brass

[The Cold Lake Kid]

I'm showing a newbie how to reload. He saved the brass he shot from .357 Federal American Eagle factory ammo and brought it to me to start learning to reload.
Using my RCBS dies, I showed him how to de-prime/resize the brass etc. but when I was examining the case heads, after they were processed, I notice a lot, not all, had a definite ring about 1/4" up from the bottom of the case head.
It almost looks like a cut or the start of a case head separation on this once fired case.
I ran some of my Winchester and Starline brass through the die to make sure I didn't have a problem with my die and had no similar problems.
Looking for thought and wisdom here.

 

[B]

Were they fired from a lever-action? Only time I see that is when cases are swollen from a generous or tapered chamber.

 

[The Cold Lake Kid]

Matter of fact they were fired from a lever action.
I'll load a few of my Winchester and/or Starline and let him try those.
Thanks B.
Do you think they are still safe to reload and fire?

 

[Lead hammer]

Cut one in half and have a look at it.

 

[B]

Matter of fact they were fired from a lever action.
I'll load a few of my Winchester and/or Starline and let him try those.
Thanks B.
Do you think they are still safe to reload and fire?

I back off my sizing die to the point where the case is resized enough to fit my guns and stop there. They are fine to use but you'll want to limit running them through a lever-action action too much as the cases will eventually fail.

I use my cases run through my R92 for revolver loads afterwards and have no issues. The brass lasts about as long as it normally would with me losing them to split mouths after 6 or so reloads.

 

[fiddler]

Check your case length and your bullet seating die. Odd problems can show up when there is no place for the brass to squeeze. Move your seating die up a full turn in the press, then adjust down the bullet seater slowly to meet your cartridge length

 

[cement head]

I'm showing a newbie how to reload. He saved the brass he shot from .357 Federal American Eagle factory ammo and brought it to me to start learning to reload.
Using my RCBS dies, I showed him how to de-prime/resize the brass etc. but when I was examining the case heads, after they were processed, I notice a lot, not all, had a definite ring about 1/4" up from the bottom of the case head.
It almost looks like a cut or the start of a case head separation on this once fired case.
I ran some of my Winchester and Starline brass through the die to make sure I didn't have a problem with my die and had no similar problems.
Looking for thought and wisdom here.

I've seen that over the years on 357 brass . yes I used RCBS dies . never had any bases separate. everything is crap nowadays so tell him to keep an eyes on things . I was taught to raise the ram till it hits the bottom of the die and then back off the die a quarter of a turn or so . so the shell holder isn't hitting the base of the die. crappy brass I guess . as I said I never had a case head separation with such brass .