Dented 5.56 ammo

[iamhistory]

Hello All,

I am posting this thread on an ammo transaction I did last week b/c I'm looking to get your thoughts on an explanation the seller gave me on why my ammo was dented. Here are the details.

I purchased some 5.56 ammo via Auction Arms from an outfit in Texas called "Ammotogo". The ammo was priced well and was advertised as Lake City ammo that had been demilled for a change in primers for civilian sales and was packed loose in 1,000 round cases. Having never tried any of it before, I got some.

The ammo was late coming to me and after asking about the delay I was told they didn't have enough to fill my order, yet when I bid there was supposedly dozens and dozens of cases available. No problem, I waited.

The ammo finally came and I quickly checked it out and shot some. Preliminary informal tests on firing were positive.......it seemed to work well overall. However, I noticed that approximately 7 out of 10 (or maybe higher) casings had either scratches around the neck or dented bodies, or both. Many, many rounds were found with dents in the same exact area of the casing body and not as many rounds were found with neck marks. I wrote the seller an e-mail asking for an explanation and got the following replies via our communications. I am asking you all for some input on this "damaged brass" phenomenon to see if you think their explanation holds water or like me, you think it is a somewhat bizarre and at best very weak excuse. Here is a short version of the e-mail I wrote after receiving my ammo and then below that I will post their replies.
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Hello again ATG,

Just wanted to confirm ammo shipment receipt........................................... ............I do have one question: I noticed that in all 4 cases, the vast majority of rounds have dents in the casings. I would like to know why. Has this brass been previously fired? There are marks on the necks and there are obvious dents in the body of the casings themselves........almost all in the same general area midway on the brass. The marks on the necks are not as consistent as the dents on the bodies.

The rounds look clean overall, primers in good shape, and the sample I fired worked well. Can you please explain the brass question? I suspect newly manufactured or even demilled rounds would not have dented brass in a ratio of approx. 7 out of 10 rounds. I'm somewhat concerned that I paid for advertised new/demilled Lake City 5.56 rounds and these are possibly reloads using previously fired brass.

Please confirm.

Thanks very much.
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I will get j*** to email you back tommorrow on the dents. It is new brass but maybe in the shipping to us adn then to you they get dented up. j*** is out of town until late tonight

thanks - t*****
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I talked to J*** and he said it is great ammo but it is surplus demilled ammo which has been pulled down and the shipping process does not help either. If you have anymore questions let me know

Thanks - T*****
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Now, back to my questions: Have any of you EVER heard of demilled ammo being damaged by going through the demilling process? Or even more strange, ammo that was loosely packed that was so brutalized during shipping that nearly every round ended up with a dent in nearly the exact same area?????? Something sounds wrong to me.

Please confirm. I have a response prepared and depending on what I hear on the boards from anyone with more knowledge than me or experiences in this situation I am writing them back. I've never seen nor heard of such a thing.

Thanks!

[etp777]

Originally belted for the SAW?

[jefferson101]

I don't know about the 5.56 stuff.

But we (my "buying group") have purchased about 6k rounds of the "dented" 7.62x51 from Southern Ammo.

And so far it's all shot like a bandit, with the exception of some of the older Izzy stuff that didn't go off. Some of it split, too, but that's another issue beyond 'dents' entirely.

My only comment on the dents are that once it's been fire formed, it reloads fine.

If they are there after firing, I'd suspect that it's from the ejection cycle of the rifle anyway.



If it was belted originally, they are going to have to get the belt off somehow. Which would account for the neck marks.

I've never seen a dent or ding below the neck survive firing, so far.

And if it was bad enough that I didn't think it would, I probably wouldn't shoot it in the first place.