Does this brass look unfired to you????????

The color change towards the necks is annealing. Mil-spec production requires that the annealing color change *not* be polished out.

If I was concerned, I would pick the one with the most ring marks towards the base, pull the projectile, remove the powder
and probe above the web interior with an angled pick. That will permit detection of the stretch line which is the signature of the incipient case head separation.

You could also fire the primed case and then vertically section the rear of the case to look for that line too.

http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-734058.html
 
In my experience firing brass irons out any dents in it. I wouldn't look at dents as a sign that it's reloaded brass; I'd look for expansion rings around the web.
 
looks just like the stuff I got..........it's new but it's suffered a hard upbringing............

looks like quality went down when the supply dried up, they are just trying to get this stuff out to us as fast as they can make it, in the end it looks fugly but it still shoots just fine......and the dents disappear..........
 
A couple nice,big,clear pic's of the base would help.
A side shot and the base/primer area,that way we could look for firing/fired mark's.
 
I know that anything 50 won't be economy but AE isn't the top of the line either.

I was going to get some S & B 338LM to use for comparisons with some handloading, after looking at the rounds I told them to keep them and give me the Hornady, there was a visible appearance difference right outa the box similar to yours.
 
Mayhaps the marks on the base is due to being once linked on a belt? I just bought a linked belt of 300rds of WW2 era 30-06 and the marks look the same. Maybe they just unlinked it and sold it in 20 packs
 
I have made very similar marks reloading 300wm as I used too much lube which causes a dent in the shoulder . . . perhaps it was just a QC thing from the factory . . .

hc5h.jpg
 
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The dents look like handling damage and the annealing looks a bit aggressive, but hard to tell.

Check out the 50 BMG thread in the precision rifle forum.....it's the current one with 20+ pages. There is some interesting info regarding this ammo specifically.
 
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